Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138169 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138169 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
7
DARK DAYS COMING (TALIA)
Iam a secret agent.
I am a smart, sexy secret agent who is totally ready for this.
I am a smart, sexy secret agent who is so totally ready to blindside Xavier Arrendell. Dazzle him. Completely bamboozle him.
I am—
I’m staring at myself in the mirror with my hair a frizzy mess around my face, my skirt seam ripped up one side, and my pantyhose completely ruined.
I’m supposed to meet Xavier to tell him we’ll take the job, discuss details, and finalize the contract proposal in forty-five minutes.
And I look like I just tumbled out of an industrial dryer.
I’ve been a mess since last night.
Too many things whirling through my head.
Memories of the feral way Micah moved in the dark, like a snow leopard prowling through the trees, pure animal.
The shock at seeing Chief Bowden in the woods, helping the Jacobins hide their dirty laundry. Impossibly more sinister than the man who used to play Santa Claus for the kids a few Christmases ago.
It’s changed everything, knowing that our seedy little underbelly involves more than bad whiskey that could fry your gut bacteria.
Then there’s the skepticism at myself. I just took Micah’s word for everything, his explanations about what I saw.
And the uneasy feeling that it really is believable.
Because there’s something off about Xavier.
There’s something off about Redhaven, too, and everyone who’s lived here for more than a few years knows it. They’ve learned to live with it the way people near a factory learn to live with industrial smells and noise.
You know it’s always there, but eventually you get desensitized. You stop asking questions if it doesn’t affect you directly. You shrug when you read articles about groundwater getting tainted with cancer-causing chemicals.
Maybe we should wake up.
Maybe we should start asking more questions around here.
My only question now, though, is how I’m going to make myself presentable enough to get away with this fraud.
Originally, I had this idea of going in all sleek and sexy, rocking the femme fatale look. Xavier did look at me with—you know, the way men do—so I thought maybe if I made myself pretty it’d be easier to distract him and get him to slip up.
I’m bad at this, okay?
Right now, I’m less worried about making myself pretty and more concerned with looking human and professional.
I barely slept a wink last night.
That’s why I wound up steaming my hair into a coppery-red Brillo cloud. Trying to tame it with a flat-iron just heat-crackled it into something that looks like the fiber stuffing inside a duvet, and then I went and made it worse by going out in the early morning dew to fetch the repaired truck from Mort’s garage. With all this fumbling around, now my whole outfit sucks.
Yeah, I’m so not ready for this.
Not sure I’ll ever be.
I sink down on my bed with a groan, fumbling for my phone and staring down at Micah’s contact. He’s listed under V for Vampire Man.
Seriously, I don’t want to disappoint him.
But I’m clearly not cut out for this, and if I screw up, there’s no denying the risks.
I could get him hurt or worse, if Xavier and the Jacobins figure out Micah’s watching them so closely.
Hey, I send. I think I’m getting cold feet. I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me?
I’m not expecting a quick answer.
He’s probably on his way to work or there already—if he’s not still out walking Rolf. So I’m surprised when my phone buzzes in my hand.
I yelp and almost drop it before I clutch it to my chest.
Calm down, girl.
Micah: Are you all right?
Just that.
No demand for explanations, no condemnation, no scorn. Just a simple question, and it’s a question a lot of people wouldn’t ask when they’d be razor-focused on their own selfish goals.
I tease my lower lip with my teeth as I text back.
No, I answer. My nerves are shot. I’m such a mess I can’t get out the door. I look like a circus clown someone tossed in the dryer for three hours. I’m scared, Micah. So scared I’ll screw this up and Xavier will figure it out, and then he’ll come after you.
There’s a long silence before my phone pings again.
Micah: That’s why you’re nervous? You’re worried about me?
Yes! I answer hesitantly. Please don’t hate me?
It’s true.
So maybe I’m a little worried about what Xavier could do to me or my grandfather, but it’s my job to take care of myself. Of us.
I’d panic, sure, but I could figure out what to do if it was just me and Grandpa at stake. But knowing there’s so much more riding on this…
No, I won’t stand it if my clumsiness gets Micah hurt when all he wants is justice for his brother, for so many victims.
I don’t know the whole story there.
Still, the look on his face spoke volumes last night, when he told me his brother was dead.