Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
“So you’re in need of a job,” Lukyan’s voice cut through my thoughts.
I ground my teeth together. “I have enough money to fund a hundred lifetimes.” Which was true. Stone had paid me well, and I’d amassed plenty of funds before my tenure with him. I‘d learned how to play the stock market. Money was security. I could buy anything I wanted. Except I didn’t want a fucking thing beyond my woman, safe and warm and happy.
Lukyan smiled at me, white teeth shining in the moonlight. “I’m not talking about money. You’re not going to retire and take up chess in the park. You can’t. I speak from experience.”
I’d thought about this, realizing that no matter how fundamentally Piper had changed me, she couldn’t erase the past or change my nature. I’d always thirst for death, something to keep the beasts at bay.
“I won’t answer to anyone,” I snarled, comprehending what he was hinting at. He was offering me a fucking job. As if I’d bow down to him.
“I’m not asking you to,” he replied, his tone telling me he was still amused. “I’m looking for a partner.”
This surprised me. Lukyan and I had never enjoyed a cordial relationship. Actually, I’d been halfway certain he would kill me one day. He was the only one even remotely capable of that. Yet there he was, offering to be fucking partners.
“I’m a married man now, to an extraordinary woman who can hold her own in our world.” His normally lifeless tone gained a richness that I didn’t miss when talking about his wife. “I am unable to change myself for her, but I’ve found I’d like to … adjust my business. I’d like to send those to the grave who deserve it but go untouched in our world.”
My surprise was bone deep, but I didn’t show it. “You want to police the underworld?” I bit back a laugh, only because he was deadly fucking serious. That and I didn’t laugh.
“Police?” He shook his head. “No judges, no jury. Just executioners.”
“And we’ll make this a business how?” I asked, unable to not be intrigued.
He smiled, knowing he’d caught me. He’d fucking caught me. “Killing is always a business. We’ll meet about the details at a later date.” He buttoned his suit. “But you’re agreeable. This partnership means we make a gentleman’s agreement not to kill each other.”
“We’re not gentlemen,” I reminded him.
“That we’re not.”
Regardless, he extended his hand.
And regardless, I shook it.
Piper
We hadn’t decided on where we would live long term. We were going through too many changes already, especially once Knox’s paintings had been picked up by an incredibly prestigious gallery. Only on the provision that he remains anonymous, not in any way tied to any of the publicity surrounding the sale or promotion.
He said it was because of his enemies, which I was sure was partly true. But I knew it was also because he’d never be fully ready to come out of the shadows, even if he was baring pieces of his soul to the sunlight.
These stipulations along with the exquisite surrealism of the paintings were what made them blow up more, selling for six figures.
I’d known they were stunning, that they spoke to me on a cellular level, that they were magic, but I thought it was because I was unequivocally in love with the painter.
Knox hadn’t even blinked at the money or the popularity, so I often questioned whether it had been the right decision to take them to a gallery and force him into a different life.
Not that he was entirely in a different life. He didn’t give me a lot of details—he still wasn’t a man of many words—but I knew that Knox had engaged in some kind of partnership with Lukyan.
He’d mentioned it in clipped tones, then I’d spoken to Elizabeth on the phone—we did that sometimes—and she’d given me a little more detail. But not much. I was on the outside. Because I wasn’t one of them. That knowledge chafed at me, even as I tried to shrug it off.
I knew they weren’t starting a bourbon company together. I knew that Knox left some nights, and when he came home, his energy was both heavier and lighter at the same time. He wasn’t done killing. I didn’t know if he’d ever be done. He couldn’t be repaired just with my love and a paintbrush and an easel. Not that I thought he needed repairing. He had stopped cutting himself, though, which I took as a large victory.
No, I didn’t think he’d ever leave the shadows completely, but he still stood in the sunlight with me.
And I was finding I liked to exist in the shadows too.
We married in the cabin.
The guest list was short. Daisy and Joey—who were somehow still together. Joey who shot uneasy glances in Knox’s direction as if he was waiting for him to shoot him between the eyes at any moment.