Page 107 of Merciless Queen

“Speaking of Vanessa—” My sister’s gaze softens, her hand gripping the table’s edge as she leans closer. “How is she?”

“Wouldn’t know.”

I wish I did.

I also wish those feelings would go away, soshecan stop infecting my mind.

Serafina nods, the skin between her brows dipping before she drops her head, her curtain of hair falling on either side of her face and blocking her from me as she returns back to her phone.

“Nice job on switching the topic. Name or his number, Sera.”

Without looking up, she scowls but rapidly recites a set of digits. “If you didn’t catch all that, I’m not repeating it.” Which is probably her hope, but unfortunately for her, I’m mentally repeating them as I type them into my phone for later.

For now, I probe a bit more. “Where’d you meet this guy?”

She stills, studying my face. “The more information I give you, the easier it’ll be for you to find him.”

While that may be true, it only helps me narrow my search. “Call it a big brother’s curiosity.”

She sucks on her teeth, casting another eye roll. “I’m sure. Met him during a campus tour of the university.”

“So he’s a student.”

“Duh.”

If he’s already enrolled, it means he’s older than her, and I don’t like that. “Age?”

“I’m done with this conversation. You can stop treating me like I’m your staff.”

“If you were staff, I’d fire you for hiding information.”

“Hiding information,” she repeats in a mocking tone, bringing one knee over her other as she twists her body to the side. “Whatever, Z. You used to be a lot more fun.”

Serafina stands abruptly and starts toward my car parked across the street, so I follow her up, tossing some cash on the table for the waitress. Once we’re settled inside and I’m pulling away from the curb, she actually grants me an ounce of attention that I didn’t have to demand.

“Can I make you a deal?”

After making deals and bets with Vanessa, I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime. With a wary side-eye glance, I reply, “Depends what it is.”

“If I tell you anything you want to know about him, could I have Vanessa’s number?”

The impact of her question goes through my body, until my foot slams on the brake pad a bit jerkier than I meant to. I should have guessed this would come up eventually.

“Why do you want it?” I know why. Because she feels she has some right to being in contact with Vanessa. Despite the legal document tying her to me, I want them apart so Serafina doesn’t get hurt when she inevitably seeks a relationship that Vanessa has no interest in maintaining. One Volkov banishing my sister was enough to ensure I keep her protected from heartache.

“You know why.” She draws her knees up to her chest and bows her body in on itself, angling into the door so her back is toward me. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”

It takes a car behind me honking to remember where I am, and to stop staring at the reflection of her desolate expression in the side window.

I’mmid-text to Nero and Elio, sending them the number Serafina’s been chatting with so they can try tracking its owner, when Nero pushes into my office, striding across the room.

“Z, problem. You gotta see this.”

He tosses his phone onto my desk. The screen shows an email addressed from my wife. Intrigued on why she’d be reaching out to Nero over me, I slowly read the message, digesting every word before clicking on the image attachment.

Her email isn’t about us, her, or me. It’s about the person linked to us. The one she knows I’d kill or die for.

By the time I’m handing the phone back to its owner, my rage is a bristling beast, my sanity one strand away from snapping, and my urge to kill more vicious than ever.

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