Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“I’m better,” West stated so that Kairo knew it was safe for him to talk again.
“Sorry we couldn’t get you away sooner.”
“Don’t,” he snapped. He drew in another breath, his eyes closed. “I’m fine. This is fine. This place…this job…it’s not what I expected.”
“Tell me about it. What’s wrong with Gaoxing?”
“Nothing.”
There was a long pause. West peeked at the phone to make sure the call hadn’t dropped when Kairo responded, “I don’t understand. There’s got to be something wrong with it.”
“No, there isn’t. This place…it’s like Izzie fucking designed it. Or Disney. I don’t know. Everything about it is perfect. The streets are clean. Everyone has jobs. Excellent healthcare. Everywhere you look, it’s gorgeous. And the people! Everyone is nice! They’re smiling and helpful. It’s peaceful. It’s the most peaceful place I’ve ever been in my life with other people around and…and…if it was real, I swear I would never leave.”
“But because it’s too perfect, you’re convinced it’s not real?”
“Yes!” West opened his eyes to find his hands clenched and trembling in front of him. He forced himself to take a couple of deep breaths before he could open his fingers and lower them to his knees. “I feel like I’m in an episode of The Twilight Zone and everyone is a robot or a giant lizard in a human mask. Yes, I know how stupid I sound, but this is a weird gut feeling I have that not everything is as perfect as it seems.”
“You don’t sound stupid,” Kairo reassured him. “You sound like your instincts are screaming at you, but it’s hard to believe them when your eyes are telling you something different. Besides, every perfect Disney setting has a villain lurking in the background. Who’s the villain in Gaoxing?”
“I have zero clue.” With his elbow resting on his knee, West dropped his head into his left palm. “I’ve talked to people, K. Lots of people.”
“Whoa,” Kairo whispered. “You talked to people?”
“Fuck off,” he growled, but he could feel the hint of a smile pulling at one side of his mouth. It always helped to talk to Kairo or Charlie when he was feeling off-kilter. Ed was good for day-to-day chats and keeping things on an even keel, but even he was too soft and cuddly at times. Kairo and Charlie were more of the hard-line, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is type that helped him get his head screwed on straight.
With a small eye roll, he continued, “They love the royal family. Seriously, love them. There have been a few small grumbles, but nothing major. Certainly nothing to warrant a contract.”
“What about the brother? There’s another prince, right?”
“Mn,” West grunted. “There’s a younger brother. No one has had anything negative to say about him.”
“But that doesn’t mean he’s not plotting something against his older brother in order to get the throne,” Kairo tossed out.
“Or that he’s an idiot and attempting to save his kingdom from his evil older brother in the worst way possible.”
Even saying those words left a foul taste in his mouth. An image of Jin Long Wei smiling so warmly at him in the tea shop sprang into his mind, and he couldn’t shove it away. He’d stared into those soft eyes and didn’t ever want to look away.
Hell, for the first time in his life, he’d run into someone he wanted to keep talking to. He hadn’t wanted Jin to walk out that shop door. And when he did, West had willed him to glance back at him one last time as if to reassure him that all of this was real. It wasn’t a dream. He wasn’t a dream.
“Have you done any digging into either of the heirs?”
“I met him. Today.” The words got stuck in his throat for a moment.
“What? How? Which one?”
West shoved a hand through his hair, pushing it from his face as he leaned toward the phone. The panic was rising in his chest again, but he didn’t care. “The older one—Crown Prince Jin Long Wei. It was by luck. I stopped in a tea shop this morning searching for tea and gossip. He just walked in.” He snatched up the phone and held it next to his mouth. “Without security. Alone, K. The fucking crown prince of Gaoxing and next in line for the throne walked into this shop alone.”
“I…I got nothing, man. That’s just weird.”
Lowering the phone to the floor, West rested his head on his empty hand. “Everyone loves him. I could see it. Apparently, he stops in that shop once a week. He chats up these old ladies who play mah-jongg there, and the shopkeeper had his green tea waiting for him when he arrived. I told him I’m a reporter, and he agreed to let me interview him tomorrow.”
“Okay. That’s good. With that one-on-one time, you might pick him apart. See what your instincts say about him. Figure out if it’s all an act.”