Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“You guys worry too much.” She put steel in her eyes. They’d be expecting her stubbornness. “He’s hardly magical. Level one. And I’ve made it so he won’t want to do away with me.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Trust me, I’ve got this.”
Thane stared at her incredulously before looking at Zorn. “Really, bro? You’re going to stay silent about this? I know you like her to deal with her own mistakes, but this is going too far. Not only is it utterly messed up getting with a guy like that, but it is incredibly dangerous for her.”
Daisy turned her head toward Zorn slowly, fighting a smile. How did no one see the sheer fireworks of mirth going off in Zorn’s eyes? He was so very obviously having fun with them, the same as her.
“Yeah, Zorn. Are you going to stay silent about this?” she asked in a hostile tone. It was how she usually fought him on decisions she didn’t much like.
A tiny smile threatened his lips. “She’s an adult, and this is her personal life. She needs to make decisions on her own.”
Thane’s mouth dropped open, and Dylan’s eyebrows drew together.
Bria started laughing before singing, “I know something you don’t know…” Unlike the others, she could read Zorn. She was in on the joke. “Look, I agree.” She burped, then groaned. “Garlic might be good for the heart, but it is not good for the aftertaste.”
“Gross,” Daisy muttered, and took a sip of her drink.
“Yeah,” Bria replied. “Tell me something I don’t know, right? Anyway, look, Daisy can take that guy. It’ll be fine. She’s an adult. All that stuff.”
Dylan scratched his head. “Be that as it may, I really think you need to give Lexi a heads-up. This is potentially dangerous, and she should know about it.”
Daisy frowned at him in surprise. “Mordie didn’t rat me out?”
“Mordecai told me,” Zorn said. “I explained to these guys why I was waiting up. They insisted on waiting up as well.”
“And for good reason,” Thane murmured.
“I just wanted to keep drinking because sometimes it is a pleasant fog, isn’t it?” Bria said.
“Oh. Then why is everyone here?” Daisy asked.
“Henry and Amber made headway on Rutherford’s computer,” Zorn answered, the twinkle in his eyes subsiding. “We’re going to go over it tomorrow and make some decisions.”
A chill ran through her, then excitement. Decisions meant they had something. It meant she might get a crack at that fae, like she hoped. They’d just have to navigate the treacherous waters of dealing with one of his kind.
“Back to the issue at hand,” Dylan said, his tone reasonable. “I really think Lexi needs to know what’s going on. I mean…I get wanting to engage in dangerous behavior, and even wanting to…get intimate with someone that…hates your kind…” He struggled for words.
“He doesn’t get it.” Bria shook her head sagely with a crooked grin. “He doesn’t get it at all.”
Daisy waved it away. She had other things to think about. “I only kissed him. It’s over.”
“It’s over?” A small crease formed between Zorn’s brow. His gaze swept her person again. “Did you kill him?”
He thought he’d missed the signs. She laughed. “Not yet. I was just getting the lay of the land. That’s all. I’ll finish it when I have a moment.”
Thane and Dylan let out a relieved sigh.
“Thank fuck,” Thane said. “I really didn’t want to tattle.”
Daisy finished her drink in one shot and stood. Butterflies filled her stomach at the implications of that computer. Of what they might’ve found. “Thanks for waiting up. And for worrying about me. No thanks for thinking I am that horribly stupid and self-loathing. I thought you knew me better.”
Now the guys were working their mouths, not sure what to say.
Daisy excused herself to her room. Once there, she glanced at the area near her window. Small pieces of duct tape made a semicircle against the wall. Outside and to the right, kept in a satchel and nailed to the wall by the roof, hung the knife the fae had given her.
When she’d gotten it, she’d tested the proximity within which he could hear her. Once she had the distance, she set to work putting the weapon in a place where she could get to it in a hurry, but that was far enough away to allow her some privacy.
Now, as she thought about the new things she’d learned and ways she could trap him, she definitely did not want him hearing her thoughts…and knowing what was coming. She hoped to fuck this would be the end of it.
11
Early the next morning, Daisy awoke to thundering footsteps echoing down the hall. Blinking open heavy lids, she noticed the surveillance screens lining her desktop across the room all blazed with activity. They’d caught something in the yard.
She burst out of bed and quickly threw on her sweats. Her door swung open and a harried Mordecai half filled the open space. “Hurry. Something is happening!”