Page 45 of Lock Up the Darkness

“You read people well like I do and now you’ve had this face-to-face with me, you can clearly see that I’m being truthful, that this isn’t a ruse or some ploy on my part to deceive you.”

“I believe you, yeah.”

“And I believe you may be the key to achieving what’s been out of my reach for far too long.”

“Carson Monroe’s downfall.”

I nodded.

She shoved her hand through her white-blonde hair, still all in disarray, with that just-fucked quality that I had to pretend wasn’t doing things to me.

She cursed under her breath, then shifted on her stool, urgency emanating from her as she said, “If you make me regret what I’m about to tell you, I won’t stop coming, I won’t show mercy, I’ll make it my fucking mission to decimate you and everything you love.”

Fuck me. My cock hardened at her vicious words, the conviction emanating from them infusing every part of me.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

She drew closer, so close that I could feel her breath across my cheek.

Her next words were barely above a whisper, but their content… fuck, their content was like a scream.

“I’m here for Revenant.”

11

~Aurora~

He actually looked shocked.

It was all over his face and in the tension that had just gripped his body.

For the Chameleon, the guy who never showed his hand, or his true reactions and emotions, that was a hell of a thing, and it said a lot.

He knew.

He’d been involved somehow.

How and to what degree would determine my response and next course of action.

And whether he survived it.

Whether any of them would.

Or whether I’d burn it all down and watch as they turned to ash as a result.

Asher stubbed out his smoke, then pushed off his stool and started pacing up and down the kitchen island before me.

It was such a startling revelation that he was struggling to collect his thoughts, to determine how to approach it all.

He came to a sudden jolt of a stop, then eyed me. “How do you know that name?”

“How do you?” I countered. Because it was damn clear that he was familiar with it, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

His eyes narrowed. “Who have you spoken that name to?”

“Nobody. Just you.”

“You’re certain?”

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