Page 10 of Second Shooter

The conversation switched, and they chatted as if the previous warning hadn’t occurred.

The wedding was the talk of the evening, and Cori was pressing for images, but Win just looked at her. “You know I am not going to show you images before the couple has seen them.”

Cori smiled. “Yeah, but the ones in the tabloids aren’t any good.”

Win blinked. “Tabloids?”

“Yeah. They must have been quite a distance away. The lens is horrible. No drone images either.” Cori opened her laptop and showed the gallery of blurry images taken of the bride and her legion.

“Oh, the outdoor shoot. Right.”

The image of a blurry Win with Alexi standing next to her, heads together, was suggestive of more contact, and Cori asked, “Who’s this?”

“Alexi. He’s a bound beta to an alpha and omega. He is also the best photographer in the city, so we were swapping images.”

Cori snorted. “Sure. Sure.”

Win nudged her with her arm, and they continued looking through the fuzzy images with the hilarious taglines.

No one was paying attention to her in the images. It was obvious that she was the photographer.

She looked at Cori and took out her phone, sending her three hundred dollars for the trip. “I know I am a worry wart, but I don’t want you to be scared; I want you to be aware. There is a weird feeling in the air when they arrive. The hair on your arm will stand up, and the back of your neck will feel it. Your hair will prickle up, and your eyes will feel electric. I don’t know how else to describe it, but if you feel any combination of those and aren’t licking a battery at the time, call me. I will hide until I know they are there. You won’t be embarrassed. I promise.”

Cori swallowed. “You don’t embarrass me. The girls on my team think you are amazing and imposing, and it makes me feel smaller.”

“Aw, honey. I became amazing and imposing because I wouldn’t let those bastards win. I have practiced and worked out, and if I see them again, I am not going to be seventeen and petrified. They are going to meet an angry woman in her thirties, and I am a crazy fucking bitch.”

“Win!” Mom shouted.

“Pardon. I am a rabid, copulating female dog?” Win looked at her sister. “Pay attention. Language matters.”

Cori giggled, her golden hair sliding over her shoulder, and it mixed with Win’s dyed dark locks.

Dyeing the hair was what they learned first. They kept their hair their birth colour because no one noticed. The eyes were explained away by saying that they were red because of an infection and expressed natural-coloured contacts started the next day.

Mags had gone for her natural red, Cori was blonde, and Win was brunette. They probably all looked like their mothers, but they had all been given up in different cities across the continent and brought here where it was safe. They each arrived seven years apart, and their parents had tucked them in and made sure that Win didn’t feel ignored when the new ones arrived.

She had held Maggie when she was four days old and Cori when she was three. No one wanted to hold onto the bastards of the Elite and definitely not the females.

She looked at their parents, talking to Thomas and Maggie about the new house that they were building. Thomas was good. He was a nice, steady beta and exactly what Maggie always wanted, which is why she married him.

Win hoped that being married to a beta was enough of a cover for Maggie. From what she had heard, it wasn’t, so Win was hoping that her sister and brother-in-law were smart enough to call if they needed her.

She had all of her family set up, and if they called, she would be there. She wasn’t sure what she would do, but she was going to be there... and the Elite were going to pay.

Chapter Three

Win had her GPS turned up, and it helped her find the driveway to the winery. She had finished the image drive over the last few days and had plenty of images for the couple. Unlike other photographers, she let her raws go and didn’t watermark everything. She wasn’t advertising her skills; she just liked to do it and paid accordingly.

She pulled into the driveway and went to the building that matched the picture Agatha had sent. Win slowed and parked in the visitor area near the shop part of the winery. She grabbed her camera bag with the drives and got out of her car.

The money had cleared her account that morning.

A woman came out of the shop area and grinned. “You must be Win.”

Win looked at a woman who was at least half-Asian and nearly six feet tall.

“I saw you at the wedding. I am Lyric. Lykon’s sister.” She extended her hand, and Win shook it.

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