AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That was more than a kiss. And for your sake, it better stay that way.”
Before he could get in another retort, I left the room and didn’t stop until I was in my bedroom. Rhys was right about a lot of things. I wanted her and was afraid to cross The Founders. But if anyone should have been worried about pissing off Fitzy, it should have been Rhys.
His family needed the lifeline. What game was he playing? And what did it have to do with Grace?
ChapterFourteen
COLE
Five days into Rhys’s stay, we were summoned by Luca Salvatore to a meeting with The Devil’s Knights—a quick five-minute update on Drake’s progress with the Il Circo auction site. Alex was still on it. There was recent activity from The Lucaya Group on the Dark Web, and no trace of Grace’s biological father anywhere.
Viktor Romanov had popped up on our radar at the start of the summer. He was putting out feelers, trying to find Katarina Adams Romanov, but he was looking for the wrong person.
Katarina was dead.
For now, Grace was safe.
On our way through the catacombs, Rhys said, “I want the code to Grace’s bedroom door.”
“No,” I snapped. “She doesn’t need you spying on her.”
“It’s also my job to protect her. I can’t effectively do that if you won’t give me the code.”
“Since when do you care about her safety?” I snarled at him as we made a beeline toward the secret entrance to the library. “You’ve done nothing but put her at risk.”
“I’m just being friendly. Get off my ass, Marshall.”
We climbed the stairs and entered the library through the hidden door. I hit the lever and sealed it behind us. Rhys helped me put the books in the correct place, and I savedThe Count of Monte Cristofor last. In one of the homes Rhys’s parents sold, they would have had a library just like this one. We all had escape routes for emergencies.
I didn’t speak to Rhys, power-walking through the house until I was in front of Grace’s door. “Are you watching? Because this is the only time I will show you,” I said before entering the numbers into the keypad on her door.
Rhys took this as an invitation to open her door and pop his head inside. I grabbed him by the shirt collar, and he shoved me. The room was dark, save for the light coming in through the glass panels on the patio doors.
I followed him into the room and whispered, “Don’t wake her.”
Some nights, Grace had nightmares about her past. She never spoke to me about them, but I’d heard her call out for her father. A few times for her mother, who died in front of her.
Rhys lifted a notepad from Grace’s nightstand, scanned it briefly, and showed it to me. “What’s this?”
Fuck.
The list.
Kiss a boy
Get asked out on a date
Lose my virginity
Fall in love
“Nothing,” I lied and ripped it from his hand, setting it on the table before I pulled him out of the bedroom, closing the door behind me.
“Was that a bucket list?” Rhys asked once we were alone in the hallway. “Because it looked like one to me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Forget you saw it.”
“Kiss a boy,” he said, scratching the corner of his jaw. “I was her first kiss?”
