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)
Kierse shot Graves a panicked look before hurrying down the stairs and yanking the door open. Nate stood on the stoop in all his glory, real fear on his face.
Graves had followed, looking furious. Nate couldn’t set one foot inside the house because of the wards, but he wasn’t stupid enough to try anyway.
“Hello, O’Connor,” Graves said smoothly.
Nate nodded at him. “Don’t mind my intrusion.”
“Oh, I don’t mind at all,” Graves said in a manner that made it certain he did quite mind Nate being at his door. “Our bargain has already been broken.” He was still staring at Nate as if just the wrath in his expression could make the wolf disappear. “So go.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“You know that I do.”
She snarled back at him, “I know you fucking don’t!”
Kierse glanced between the two men. She could hardly process that it was all crumbling down around her right now. Right when Ethan was dying. When no one knew what was going on with him. She had to be there.
Mission or no. Betrayal or no.
She couldn’t stay when part of her heart was dying across the city.
“We’ll talk about this when I get back,” she told him fiercely as she crossed the threshold to where Nate was standing.
Graves took a step away. “We both know you’re not coming back.”
Then he closed the door in her face.
“Fuck!” she cried.
It couldn’t all be over. There was too much at stake for both of them for it to be over.
“Kierse,” Nate said urgently behind her. He sounded ready to haul her down the stairs and into the idling car.
In the end, he didn’t have to. She would choose Gen and Ethan every time. She would have to fix this thing with Graves after.
She turned on her heel and left his house, broken bargain and all.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Kierse vaulted into Nate’s car as he skidded around the corner and dropped into the driver’s seat. He put his foot to the pedal and revved the engine.
“Didn’t mean to blow your cover,” Nate said.
“I don’t want to talk about it. All I care about is Ethan right now,” she said as she watched the city zip by in the night. “I can deal with Graves later.”
“All right,” he said.
“Tell me what the fuck happened. Ethan was in the club? What the fuck was Ethan doing in the club?”
“Look, he started learning to bartend with Cara,” Nate said, running a hand over his curls.
“Excuse me?” she asked lethally low.
“He wanted to,” Nate said. “I told him it would be fine to learn from her but not to be officially on the floor. It’s hard being locked in your room, Kierse.”
“His life was in danger! He’s been drugged!”
“I know. Fuck, I know. The place should have been safe. There are plenty of drugs that run through there, but basically none of it works on my wolves like it does on humans. And three of them are just as bad off, including Cara,” he said. “So I take it fucking seriously, and I’m fucking sorry.”
“Sorry?” she snapped. “You were supposed to keep them safe.”
“They were safe,” he insisted. “But fuck, they still have to live. Gen has been working with Maura, training to be a nurse. She fits right in.”
“Has she been going out with Maura?”
“No, no, just after her shifts and stuff. She’s safe. I swear.”
“If Ethan dies, Nate, so help me God.”
He blanched and nodded. “I know.”
Kierse couldn’t relax on the entire drive to Five Points. She closed her eyes to calm her racing heart. Freaking out would only make things worse. She needed to be levelheaded. There had to be a solution.
Nate jerked the car into a garage a block from Five Points, and together they hustled through Dreadlord territory. After staying up for nearly twenty-four hours, Kierse was bone weary, but she had to keep going. Nate directed her to a back door where Finn stood guarding the entrance.
“Boss,” the man said with a nod and a sad smile when he saw her. “Kierse.”
“Hey, Finn.”
Finn reached for the door, yanking it open for them.
“Update?” Nate barked. Ronan fell into step beside them as they headed up the stairs.
“Cara, Elijah, and Haylee are all fighting whatever is in their system, but they’re reacting worse than what drugs normally do to us wolves.” Ronan chanced a dark-eyed glance Kierse’s way. “Ethan hasn’t progressed further, but he hasn’t gotten any better, either. We moved them all to the conference room when Mateo shifted.”
Nate’s eyebrows rose. “He shifted?”
“Involuntarily.”
Nate ground his teeth together. “Fuck. And the substance?”
“We interrogated the bartenders, the doormen, and the regulars who were there when it happened, but no one noticed anything out of the ordinary.”
Nate nodded. “Good. Return to your position.”
Ronan tipped his head at Nate, then Kierse, before disappearing back into the shadows.
Nate pulled Kierse up another flight of stairs and then thrust open the door to the conference room. She burst inside with Nate on her heels. The room would have been crowded without two full-grown wolves lying on the table. Cara was the last wolf to remain in human form. Her pallid skin was bleached white, and she was shaking as if fighting the shift.