Page 56 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

“Hello there. Excellent job with the little one. I can’t blame her for wanting to get away from that mother of hers. If I was saddled with someone like that in my family, I would have slit their throat long ago.”

What the absolute fuck?

“She is a very polite child,” I answered robotically, not sure what else I could really say. Suddenly, I felt very much like prey caught in the gaze of a predator. It was a decidedly unpleasant feeling.

“I’m sure she was,” Chadwicke said, strolling closer, with his hands in the pockets of his stupidly expensive pants.

My gaze flicked to the other man, but he hung back, gazing at the horizon as if he were pointedly ignoring what was happening.

That wasnota good sign.

“Enough about little girls. What I’m interested in is your story.”

“My story?”

“Of course.” He aimed his smarmy smile at me, and it made my skin crawl. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. You a new hire?”

There was no way an evil man like Chadwicke knew the faces of all of his staff. I refused to believe that. “I am,” I said quickly. “Been here for about a week.”

“A week, huh? That’s not very long. Usually, my head of staff is much more on top of telling me about all the pretty girls who join our happy little family here.”

Oh, God, so many red flags. Shit, I really was in a bad situation. I needed to navigate my way out of it quickly, otherwise I would have inadvertently ruined all our plans just by existing.

Part of me didn’t want to believe that he was being creepy toward me, because I wasn’t the type of woman who usually had to worry about random men making advances on me, let alone relatively attractive ones. I was too tall, too muscled, too pudgy, and a bit too plain.

Too poor.

Someone could scrape by with one or a couple of those traits, but I had all of them. And guys like the monster in front of me didn’t see below the surface. So, maybe he was just teasing me. I’d let him humiliate me so he’d move on. Then Leo could assassinate him. It was hard to take anything he said all that personally when I knew his life was about to end.

If I didn’t fuck things up, that was.

“I think everyone has been a bit busy preparing for the celebration.”

“It is quite a shindig, isn’t it? A reward for all of my loyal supporters and allies, despite all the forces that have tried to bring me down.”

By forces, did he mean justice and karma?

I didn’t say that out loud, though. Chadwicke took a couple more steps toward me. “Is that why you tricked your way in here? You wanted to see what such a glamorous event was like?”

Oh, no, oh, no, no,no, nonono!Had he somehow figured this out already? How? We’d been so careful. And how was he so calm about it?

“I, uh?—”

“Ah, ah, ah, enough of that.” Suddenly his finger was on my lips, and he was still smiling at me with that creepy, empty smile. “I don’t mind that you tried to sneak a peek. Although I have to admit, you would have gotten a much better view if you just asked me directly, my little…” He paused, looking me up and down. “Succubus, is it?”

“Succubus?” I repeated like he had grown a second head. He might as well.

He took his finger away and chuckled at me. God, he was still uncomfortably close. “No need to take offense, love. Whatever glamour you have on is very effective. I can barely sense any magic on you.” Another eye shuttled up and down me, making me feel naked even though I was quite clothed in my nondescript uniform. “Is it a mind-walker, then?”

I had no idea what he was saying, but I knew that he was trying to guess what kind of magical creature I was. He definitely wouldn’t believe me if I told him I was not a magical creature.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Come now, no need to play obtuse. I don’t mind that you’re here. Actually, I’m sure one of my staff can get you something nice to wear if you’d like to join the festivities.”

What the…? Rich people werewild.Or maybe it was just warlocks. But it was hard to believe he would stumble across some sort of magical entity he believed broke into his compound and be so cool with the situation. Unless he was just so sure someone like me couldn’t be a danger to someone like him? That was really the only thing that made sense.

“N-no, I’d rather stay here in the garden.”

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