Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“Doesn’t that... bother you?” I asked, voice soft.
“Nothing and nowhere is ever so dark that you can’t find the light.” His smile punched me in the gut. “If I hadn’t been thrown off that bridge, I wouldn’t have landed on you—an extraordinarily beautiful and observant woman who just gave us another place to start. We have to find that valet.”
“Doesn’t the restaurant have cameras? If someone lured him away to plant the bomb, or if he did it himself, we can settle it in the time it takes to hit rewind.”
Sunny was shaking his head before I finished the sentence. “No cameras in or around La Belle’s. Liam has another business running out of that restaurant. It’s not the kind you want on tape.”
“Of course,” I said, accepting that with an ease that twinged my moral conscience. How quickly did it happen? Falling into their world. “If that’s the case, are we thinking the bomber got lucky, or that he knew there were no cameras to give him away?”
That smile leeched away. “No one is that lucky. Two attempts on our lives that damn well nearly succeeded. Both at the right times and in the right place. But how did he know Liam would be at La Belle’s?”
I couldn’t help myself. I shifted toward the kitchen, where Sienna gabbed away over a bowl of beaten eggs with Ms. Fuller and the cook—among the two who knew where we’d be last night.
“I’m not blind.” The serious tone drew me back. “And it’s not sentiment,” Sunny said, “but I’m not ready to go there yet, Angel.”
“What other explanation could there be?”
Sunny held my gaze steadily. “What would it take for you to believe Sienna wanted you dead?”
My muscles tightened. “She’d have to plunge the knife in my chest herself,” I replied after a long silence, “and I still wouldn’t believe it.”
He nodded like that was the right answer. “They’re family. Families betray each other—”
A memory ripped through my mind, too fast for me to hold on to, and I didn’t try.
“—but if I’m going to believe Fuller tried to blow up the little girl she’s taken care of since she was a baby, or that Thatcher tried to kill the guy who used to ride his shoulders during the Founder’s Day parade, they better have the knife in their hand.”
“I understand.” I smoothed the wrinkle between his brow. Sunny wasn’t made for that look. My Trouble was meant to smile. “I do. That may be the simplest explanation, but that doesn’t make it right. And there is another explanation, that the valet was tipped to give the bomber a heads-up the next time the boss rolled up with his Royce.”
“Now that is both simple and much more likely.” Sunny shoved out of his chair. “Liam’s got to know. This dude will be picked up within the hour.”
I guided the tatted avenger back into his seat. “I will tell Liam. I’m going up there anyway to see Tricky. Relax and listen to your doctor. I didn’t trade a favor with River for you to rip open your sutures and pass out on the bathroom floor.”
“River?” Sunny repeated, pulling me up short. “As in River Delaney?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“Not many Rivers running around.” A smirk I didn’t understand curled his lips. “The Rat King himself. Let me guess, he hooked you up with the doctor that saved me.”
“He did actually.”
“And what did Delaney ask for in return?” I hesitated, and Sunny’s smile widened. “Let me guess again... me.”
I didn’t confirm or deny. Why when Sunny didn’t need my yes.
“He knew you,” I said, “and you clearly know him. How?”
“Oh, everyone in the underground knows the Rat King,” Sunny breezed. “The real surprise is that you know him too. But then, eight months on the street, naturally he sniffed you out.”
“I hope that’s not a comment on my smell.” The crack was my go-to in the face of confusion. These two didn’t just know of each other. I sniffed something out: history.
“You were in his crew,” Sunny stated, not asked. “No wonder you’re so comfortable with morally gray men.”
“You have that backward. I left his crew when I found out just how gray those morals were. River is a friend, and I appreciate everything he’s done for me, but the guy can doublespeak you into believing he slipped out of English. I respect that he does what he has to do for his crew to survive, but honesty is everything to me. I need to know your promises are binding and your word is truth. So, I’m going to ask you, Sunny”—I gripped his chair arms, leaning in nice and close—“what’s the story between you two?”
Sunny popped a kiss on my nose too quick for me to shoot away squawking—though I did, flushing down to my toes. The jerk used his freedom to roll away.