Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 101427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
This space had been all heat and noise hours ago; now it was mostly shadows, broken by the glow of the model’s city lights.
I knew by morning all the Scales’ wives, girlfriends, and lovers would have heard about my Tiger and how the Dragon had taken an ear for her.
Some would call it devotion, others weakness; all of them would agree it was the kind of love that no one was prepared to witness.
The younger ones would probably exaggerate until it sounded like my Tiger had ordered the execution and I’d been glad to obey. But most of all. . .every retelling would make the ear bigger, the blood redder, the screams louder, my knife more brutal, and my Tiger fiercer.
Wives would pass it like tea—the Dragon bled the floor for his Heart. Even the quiet, older men would talk because fear loosened tongues faster than whiskey.
Word would travel fast on this island; by tomorrow, every porch would know the Dragon took an ear for his Heart. Respect would meet her at every doorway—eyes down, voices soft, no one daring to pry. Wives and mothers would bow lower, aunties would pour the first cup for her, and cousins would swallow their questions before they reached their teeth.
And when many spoke to her, they would have to struggle with not guarding their ears.
I grinned at the thought of my Tiger walking around this island tomorrow with every doorway bowing to her.
But then the smile faded as my mind shifted to the war ahead.
Are we ready?
My father, the Fox was good at war. He had stacked victories the way other men stacked coins, careful and cold. And he never cared about the price of winning, just that he did.
This would be my first true war. It would mean everything—my country, my brother, my future with my Tiger.
I could not lose.
I thought of the same men that would be gossiping this evening and fear began to creep under my ribs.
Many might die.
Not just Scales.
It could be Fangs.
It could be Claws.
It could even be my Roar.
A band cinched across my chest, quiet and mean, one notch tighter with every name I might have to bury. My breaths came out short. I rolled my shoulders like I could shrug the pressure off my lungs. It stayed.
Today the war room had been packed. In the days to come, there might be tons of empty chairs and villas full of mourning families.
I swallowed hard.
It can’t be too many casualties on my side. It can’t. . .I just have to figure out where he and my brother, Akiro are hiding. If I can kill them. . .there may not need to be a huge battle.
Once I got to the exit, the pressure within my chest was now this unmovable thing. This dark passenger that would never leave me.
Reo appeared to my left. Silent, as always. His expression unreadable but eyes alert.
I thought of how my Tiger had whispered to him before departing, and how whatever she had said, triggered him to put Scales in action.
We left the room.
I looked at him. “What did my Tiger whisper to you?”
“Two things.”
I eyed him.
Reo’s expression barely shifted. “She thinks one of the new guards at the door is suspicious.”
I stopped and fully turned to him. “Who?”
“Oguri.”
The name hit me like a quiet bullet.
Two hours before the bombs went off, two different people had attempted to message the Fox from burner phones. One had been made in this hallway. Another was on the eastern side of the island.
Thankfully, my hackers had intercepted both and cut the lines before the messages went through.
And then the signals were gone.
Phones powered down.
Both vanished like they had never existed.
Phantom signals from ghost hands.
We’d been trying to trace the Fox’s remaining two spies ever since.
That was why I hadn’t gone to sleep last night. I was too anxious to close my eyes.
I studied my Roar. “Could Oguri be the one that made the phone call from this hallway?”
Reo gave a single nod. “For me, he was in the top three on the list. Had the time to make the call. He even took a quick smoke break. Afterwards, he slowly walked back to his post at the door. But for his journey. . .the last time. . .he did something different. . .he had walked within the shadows of the hallways hitting some of the cameras’ blind spots.”
I will fucking kill him.
“Why does my Tiger think he’s suspicious?” I narrowed my eyes. “Did he say something to her?”
“No. He looked at her. Twice.”
“That’s it?”
“She said it was the way he did it.” Reo shrugged. “She believed he was hiding something so. . .I had some Scales grab him.”
“Just based off of that?”
“I trust your Tiger a lot more than most, and the fact that we both found him suspicious was enough for me to put him in your special torture cell below the house.”