Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
They both shook their heads. Nate cracked the door back open and led them up a staircase into living quarters.
“This going to be all right?” Nate asked, gesturing to a set of rooms.
“That would be perfect,” Kierse said. “I know you want to know more, but I need to talk to them first. Can we talk after Maura gets back?”
Nate nodded to the door. “If you’re not bleeding out, I think it can wait a few minutes. Looks like they need you.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s been a long night. And could you do me a favor and reach out to Corey in the Roulettes? He’s Ethan’s boyfriend. He’s going to be freaking out.”
“Of course.” Before she could walk into the room, he said, “Hey, it’s really good to see you again.”
Something panged in her chest. The reason that she’d stopped coming by. The heart that had broken in her chest when everything had fallen apart with her girlfriend and even Nate hadn’t been able to fix the problem. She’d stopped going to anyone for help after that. Stopped seeing anyone who reminded her of the old days. Only her family could even get away with mentioning what had happened . . . could even say Torra’s name.
“You too, Nate.”
Then she stepped into the room to figure this all out.
Ethan had his long legs spread out across the bed on the far side of the room. Gen had taken a seat beside him, staring down at her hands. Kierse knew exactly how they were both feeling. They had been driven from their home. Their world narrowed to this blank room and an uncertain future.
A twinge of guilt hit her. This was all her fault. She closed her eyes around the pain of that thought. No, this had started because of Graves. She placed the blame at his feet.
“How are your ribs?” Gen asked, glancing up at the sound of Kierse’s boots.
Kierse pushed her jacket back and looked at the gash. “It’s shallow. Maura will wrap it.”
“I wish I had my herbs. I could at least dull the sting.”
Even though Gen read futures in her tarot cards, her real gifts were more medicinal. She had a knack for the perfect hangover cure, collected herbs that Ethan had a green thumb for growing to help with Kierse’s many scrapes and bruises, and had even worked out a form of birth control. Since modern medicine was so expensive, Gen’s skills were unreasonably valuable.
“It’ll be fine,” Kierse said as she sank onto the bed opposite her friends. “It’s been a long night, but we need to talk about what happened.”
“Which part?” Ethan asked. “The almost-getting-murdered part or the audacity they had to attack the brothel?”
“The job,” she said. “The job and the magic.”
“You can’t still be considering this?” Ethan demanded. “He just almost got you killed.”
“Look, I’m not jumping up and down that entangling myself with this guy has these results. I knew as soon as I saw him that he could kill me on the spot and that there’s only one reason he needs me alive. I can use that.”
“And that’s because he wants you to steal something for him?” Gen asked. “Why you?”
Kierse glanced down at her fingers. This was the unreal part. Him having magic was bizarre enough. “Because he thinks I have magic, too.”
Gen and Ethan were silent a beat too long. She glanced up to gauge their reactions. Ethan seemed incredulous, but Gen looked interested.
“What makes him think that?”
“Because his house wasn’t barred by modern security systems like the regular billionaire pricks I steal from. He had a ward system. That’s what he called it. He used magic to protect the house, and I walked right through the wards. He tested me while I was there, and it’s true. I can break them.”
Ethan gaped. “Magic? Seriously? But I thought the whole point was monsters not magic.”
“I said that, too,” Kierse acknowledged. “But I can’t deny what I saw, either.”
“So you’re the only one who can do this job,” Gen intuited.
Ethan whistled. “That means you could charge anything.”
“I don’t think he cares about the money, and I intend to collect so that we can have a safe place when this is all over,” she told them, brushing a hand back through her dark hair. “But he’s also the only one who can give me more information about if I actually have magic.”
“So what are you going to do?” Ethan asked.
“What I do best,” she said, throwing on a smile of overconfidence. “Swindle information and money out of unsuspecting assholes.”
Gen sighed. “I hope it’s that easy, Kierse.”
“When have I ever been wrong before?” she asked with bravado for her friends’ sakes. Gen and Ethan needed to believe in her skills as much as Kierse did. They needed the reassurance that she would get out of all of this alive. After tonight, Kierse needed that, too.