Page 128 of Underground Prince

“How did you know it was MDMA?” I asked, so calmly.

“Huh?”

“How did you know?”

Kai’s face registered shock, a jump of eyebrows, a twitch of his upper lip, but the silence in between my questions told me he was thinking hard—considering how to approach a mistake I so narrowly caught him in.

He dismissed me with a hand. “I know the family. Trace’s goings-on have been in my personal planner for years—”

“No,” I cut in, still so placid.

“Excuse me?”

“This is the Saxons’ first shipment of MDMA. They’ve dabbled in heroin, but their prime product is coke, though it’s lowering in popularity. So now they’re shifting.” I lifted my eyes to his. “Rada mentioned it yesterday, this being the family’s first try at Ecstasy. So I repeat, how did you know?”

Bang. Kai, letting me leave the gala with two henchman, concern clearly on his face but staying locked in his seat as I disappeared into the crowd.

Bang. Kai, never allowing me to touch him for too long.

I was off the couch and tearing at his shirt before he’d registered I’d left my seat. “What—”

But he’d reacted, breaking my hold with an elbow to the crook of my arm and at the same time palming my shoulder with his other hand, his leg coming at my knees and sending me crashing to the ground.

“How did you know it was MDMA?” I screeched at him while on my back, the impact rattling my bones. “How did you know?”

He towered over me, breathing heavy, his expression wrenched with unknown conflict. But he didn’t have to say anything. A telltale wire dangled out from the bottom of his shirt.

“I can’t be right,” I whispered, rising up and backing away.

“Scarlet…”

“How could you?” My voice tightened, became unrecognizable. “How dare you?”

His face fell into settled lines, though it wasn’t the Kai I recognized. A disguise had slipped off, and in its place surfaced the true man. “You need to sit down.”

“Is that even your name? Kai?” I managed to crack out. With each question, I took a tentative back-step to the door.

“No.” His answer was so quick, so brief, yet it sent fissures into my mind. Made me crazy.

“You—you—” Finally, I found the right words to say. “Fuck you.”

Spiraling out of control, out of this place, I sprinted for the door, expecting him to drag me back, but I felt nothing behind me as I found the knob. I dared a quick glance back at him, standing in the middle of the room.

“Fuck y—” I was already screaming at the person barricading me, not giving two shits who it was or what he wanted to do to me. Betrayal sang in my soul, iced my veins and hardened my blood. I’d tear his eyes out, bite off his tongue, to get to Theo first.

“Scarlet—calm down—I said, calm—”

I didn’t recognize the voice, but not because I was listening to it. I couldn’t hear over my own screams, my guttural cries and tears, ripping at every piece of clothing I could claw, punching and kicking and shouting.

Vaguely, Kai-not-Kai’s voice broke through, saying, “She’s not a threat, she’s not—”

I slammed against the wall, my chin knocking hard against the plaster, the impact ringing through my teeth. My arms tangled behind me, tendons seeming to rip from my shoulders as a voice spoke at my ear.

“So lovely to finally meet you, Miss Rhodes. I’m A.U.S.A. Nate Westcott, and this is Agent Anton Vance. Mind if we chat a while?”

27

DIVINE OPPORTUNITY

---