Page 26 of Savage Rule

8

GUNN

Irub the bandage on my wrist subconsciously. It’s become a habit of mine these past two days. Something I do whenever that she-devil enters my mind, which seems to be all day, every damned day.

Yesterday I put in a call to Kyle. He’s a hacker Luca and I have used on several occasions because of how good he is. When all of the Ferryman shit began, he’s the one that helped us dig up information on Gideon Black.

Now, I want him to help me find out who his sidekick is.

“This is just between you and me,” I told him. “Luca doesn’t need to know.”

“I don’t think he’ll be happy about that.”

“Can you keep this between us or not?”

He hesitated before speaking. “I’ve dug into Gideon’s past before and haven’t come across anything on this Scarlet woman.”

“That’s because you haven’t looked.”

“Fine. Give me a few days,” he said and hung up.

A few days? It’s barely been one and I’m growing more impatient by the second.

“Gunn? I didn’t know you were here.” I look up from my wrist just as Carina enters the dining room.

Offering my most charming grin, I say, “I came for some of Nan’s breakfast.”

She smiles as she glances at the full plate in front of me. “Did you just arrive?”

“A few minutes ago.” I grab my fork and stab eggs and potatoes and shove them in my mouth. The truth is, I’ve been at Briar House a while, but my thoughts have been somewhere else completely.

“Well, we missed seeing you. I expected you’d be by yesterday.” She goes to the long buffet table set up by her and Luca’s housekeeper, Nancy.

“The trip wore me out.” Lame excuse, but it’s the quickest lie I can come up with.

Taking the seat beside me, she points to my wrist. “Luca told me you had a run in with Scarlet.”

That’s an understatement.

“I was careless.”

Carina gives me a soft smile as she reaches over and squeezes my arm. “Don’t beat yourself up. You’re lucky she let you live. You wonder why that is?”

“I can’t begin to fathom how that woman operates,” I admit. If it rings true, it’s because it is. Scarlet confuses the shit out of me.

“Mmm.” Carina takes a dainty bite of her eggs as she contemplates the riddle that is Scarlet. “You two have some strange thing between you. We can all sense it. Maybe that’s what stopped her.”

I’m not sure how to reply to that, so instead I shove more food into my mouth.

Carina studies me. “I know what Luca has ordered. I know he wants you to force Sofia’s location out of Scarlet before you killher.” Her fingernails dig into the white table cloth. “But that’s not what I want.”

“It’s not?” I take a big gulp of juice.

“Clearly something about you made Scarlet hesitate. You can get the closest to her. I want you to take advantage of that, find her and bring her to me alive.” Her brown eyes suddenly fill with pain, then just as fast, they go stone cold. “I will get that information from her andIwill be the one that kills her. Is that understood?”

I nod. Sometimes I forget how scary Carina can be. How determined she is to get her own revenge. Her twin sister’s blood is all over Scarlet’s hands, along with who knows how many others.

Guilt suddenly fills my gut like a pound of coal and I can hardly swallow down the egg in my mouth.

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