Page 138 of Dash

“Stay away from me.” I cased him with the Colt in my hands. “If you come any closer, I’ll kill you.”

“You could, I suppose.” He pinched his lips together before he spoke again. “But then you’d never know.”

“Know what?”

“How long I’ve been pulling the strings.” He taunted me with his smirk. “How many more secrets I’ve been keeping from the likes of you and your father.”

“Secrets?”

“Yes, secrets that change everything.” He gestured for me to come out into the open. “Interested?”

Keeping my gun on him and my finger ready to pull, Imoved forward and straightened on my feet. “What do you mean byeverything?”

“Information that will change the narrative.” He backstepped, but kept his aim on me.

“Bullshit.” I spat, my back straight and my arms shaking beneath the weight of the gun. “Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie.”

“Now, Thena, don’t make me angry.” His eyes darkened. “I don’t want to kill you yet.”

“You spent a lot of time trying to do that,” I pointed out. “Why change your mind now?”

He tilted his head and kept silent. The feral expression on his face said everything.

“Dash didn’t sign your papers.” I wasn’t as stupid as he thought. “Now you need me, at least for a little while longer.”

“For being a woman, you can be clever.” He narrowed his eyes on me. “You’ll transfer the Astor assets to me. I have it from reliable sources that Dashiell left everything to you.”

“You’re a fucking criminal,” I spat. “Why do you even care if the transfer is legit?”

“The disinformation wars are won faster when based on legally established precedents,” he said. “I’m flexible, but my associates prefer legitimacy whenever possible.”

“You mean Li?”

He frowned at that. “Don’t say that name aloud.”

“Why? Is he listening in?” When my uncle didn’t reply, I smirked. “So, itisLi.”

“You need to be a good, obedient little princess.” He inched around me, looking for an angle to disarm me. “If you do what I say, I may allow you to live under my protection.”

I parallelled his moves, tracking him with my weapon. I’m not sure which of his words struck me harder, “good,” “obedient,” or the overused “princess,” which I had heard waytoo many times today, but something triggered a complete and utter fear-wipe in me. If any of what he’d said was true, if my friends were gone, if my sisters had been killed and Dash was dead, what else did I have to fear?

“You want my signature?” I stepped forward, forcing him to stumble backward a couple of steps before I braced my feet apart. “I’ll give it to you.”

I pulled the trigger.

***

Dash

The sound of several shots fired had me frantically climbing up the rungs. My leg dragged, my body ached, and my wounds burned, but using my upper body strength, I climbed faster. Bozeman, King, and Guzman were on my tail. As soon as I got to the top of the tower, I scampered over the battlements and jumped down onto Thena and I’s secret spot.

When we hadn’t found Thena in the gardens, I’d suspected she’d come here. We spotted her tracks and followed them to the back of the house. Along the way, we’d found other footprints and traces of blood.

That’s when I knew that Arthur was in pursuit.

The shots propelled my heart to my throat. This day had taught me a new level of terror. The fear of losing Thena forced me to understand the anxieties that had tormented her when Nix died.

I landed on one leg, with my Glock in hand, and witnessed an astonishing sight. Thena stood like an avenging goddess, pointing her gun down at Arthur, who sprawled at her feet. She looked pale, but her eyes gleamed like steel. Her expression seemed remote, blank, as if she no longer walked among mortals. Her mouth was a straight, cruel line. A red stain expanded on her left shoulder, a crimson flower blooming on white silk.

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