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“Sure.” She rolled her eyes, glancing out the window. “Been to Budapest before?”
A knot formed in my throat. “A time or two.”
“I’ve never been this far east.” She tapped her perfectly manicured nails against her lip, a deep red jeweled ring on her finger with an insignia I couldn’t make out, contrasting the dirt and soot staining her hands and face. She was fae, American, upper class, but had a very subtle, almost Irish melody to her words sometimes, which confused me every time I thought I heard it. She also had this air of being young, naive, and pampered, but at the same time, very worldly and extremely confident in her skin, no matter what filthy, torn clothes she was wearing.
I suspected that her stunning looks and the money she possessed had people bowing to her. And she annoyed the fuck out of me all the more for that. I couldn’t wait to get her on a train going back to Vienna. Off my hands.
“It looks like the pictures I’ve seen of it in the past.” Her voice rose with astonishment. “Not at all what my moth—what I heard it was like before. I’ve heard President Killian is working hard to restore it.”
“He is.” My answer came automatically, and I cleared my throat, motioning outside. “As you can see.”
Killian and Brexley worked their asses off to get this city functioning again. Not that I helped in any way. I was the drunkard getting kicked out of brothels and pubs while my friends rebuilt, planned, and started anew.
My gaze went to where I knew Kitty’s reconstructed brothel was. The area would never be fully cleaned up. There was too much money in sex, alcohol, and gambling.
It took us years to become friends, to get over the past and speak again, and I only screwed our relationship up once more.
The train came around, pulling into the grand train station.
“Come on.” I stood up, flicking my chin for her to follow. Yanking up my hood, I peered out the door before exiting the train, my eyes sharp as I strolled down the platform, her heeled boots struggling to keep up with my strides.
“So where are we going, anyway?”
“I am heading to Bucharest. You are getting on the next train heading west.”
“Bucharest?” Her eyes widened. “Why are you going there? Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Yes. That’s why you aren’t going,” I said gruffly, searching the time board and pointing up to it. “There. Next train back to Vienna.”
“No.” She crossed her arms, moving away from me. “I told you it’s not safe for me to go back there.”
“Why?” I faced her, taking up the ground she put between us. I used my height to loom over her. “Tell me.”
Mouth pinching tighter, she glared back at me, not answering.
“Then I can’t help you.” I gestured to the platform her train was departing from in only minutes. “Time to return home,kislány.”Little girl. “Call your parents and friends to help you.”
Raising her head up higher, she tucked her arms in tighter, burrowing into her stubbornness.
“No, seggfej.”Asshole. She gritted back fluently in Hungarian, shocking me.
“Teringettét!” Dammit!I hissed out. “Why won’t you do what I ask?” I rubbed my knuckles along my scruff in irritation, wanting to strangle her. “You’renotcoming with me, and that’s final. You. Are. Going. Home.”
“No. I’m. Not.” She continued to watch me as if I were the one acting like a child. Moving into her, I leaned close, my voice going low.
“Where I am going isverydangerous. Deadly, even. It is no place for a young college girl who hasn’t even cut her eyeteeth yet.”
Her lids narrowed, a growling sound vibrating in her throat. “You knownothingabout me.”
“And Idon’twant to.” I lashed back, needing her to get out of my hair. “Now get on the damn train.” When she didn’t move, I cuffed her shoulder, yanking her to the platform.
“Hey,” she yelped, trying to get out of my hold.
After a handful of steps, my feet came to a stop, my body going still as my gaze landed on a man strolling in our direction, heading toward a cargo train.
Holy. Fuck.
Scorpion.
