Page 15 of Hell Hath No Fury

Lilith looks at me in surprise. “Oh, is he with Matt and Tony?”

“No,” I respond. “They decided earlier that in any situation where someone had to leave the party, Kaian would tail Tony and Matt. Because you can’t be too safe in this situation.”

Agatha releases a long breath, her body relaxing slightly. “Well, that makes me feel better.”

Then Lilith turns to me and asks, “What the fuck happened to Darius?”

I groan and roll my eyes again. “The fucker took off on me, like usual.”

“That sounds like Darius,” Agatha retorts.

Lilith starts shutting the electronics down, and Agatha makes her way up to the front of the van, dropping into the driver’s seat. Lilith turns to me, motions to the front, and says, “You may as well sit up there. I got some stuff I want to go over before we get back to Declan’s place.”

I don’t argue with her; I just strap myself into the passenger seat and pray for my own life as Agatha does her bestBaby Driverimpression on the freeway.

Camilla and the rest of the gang show up not long after we’ve gotten ourselves fed and situated in Declan’s living room, and then we all sit there, feeling somewhat pleased with the progress we’ve made in such a short amount of time.

Luck would have it, Antoinette’s residence isn’t too far from Declan’s estate. Not being a believer in coincidences or luck, for that matter, this revelation has cold unease running down my spine.

“There’s no way this isn’t all one big, giant fucking trap,” Camilla says pleasantly, given the fact she’s telling us that we’re all a bunch of gullible idiots.

Matt shrugs then replies, “Doesn’t matter if it is. All we can do is prepare for all contingencies and do our best to stay one step ahead of a still faceless enemy.”

“So, business as usual,” Lilith mutters.

Camilla sighs, shifting closer to Kaian and resting her head on his shoulder. “I did determine that this Dmitri hasn’t been intown. But there’s a whole bunch of thugs in that house. It was a miracle I managed to put the bugs where I wanted them.”

“You promised me you’d at least attempt to be careful,” Kaian grumbles.

She laughs, craning her head back to look at him as she says, “I was fucking careful, dickhead. I just prefer to go into those types of situations with somebody else’s face.”

He glares at her but says nothing. After a long pause, Matt says, “Good work on the alarm system. That place has been professionally rigged, so there are at least two sets of varying alarms. One for internal and one for external.”

“Why would they need an internal alarm? Do they have the police in the house?”

“No,” I answer. “The internal alarm is likely for when they have an emergency inside the house that they’d rather take care of on their own. You know, for those goings-on that they wouldn’t want proper authorities to be privy to.”

Everyone falls quiet, and then suddenly Agatha says, “Antonio?” I look over at her with raised brows before she continues, “Did you happen to hear what Darius said to Antoinette at the party tonight?”

I smile, another sigh falling from my lips as I respond, “Yes. I heard what he said to her.” Everyone stares at me, and then Agatha waves her hand around impatiently until finally, I add, “Wake up, baby girl.”

Camilla laughs and then says, “Well, no wonder she was fucking confused.”

“Yeah,” Agatha retorts. “I did explain to her that Darius is a fucking weirdo, and since that’s not a lie, I don’t feel bad about it.”

“And then the fucker just disappears.”

Everyone has a quiet laugh, and the room falls silent again, all of us lost in our own thoughts. I know how difficult it mustbe for everyone to leave Antoinette in a foreign place. I know it’s difficult enough for me, and I haven’t had nearly the type of relationship these people have.

Matt gets to his feet, shoving the top of his laptop with a dull snap. “I hooked up their alarm system to Declan’s, so if anything weird happens there, we’re gonna know immediately.”

Lilith grimaces, also getting to her feet, with everyone quickly following suit. “You guys know the drill. Sleep when you can, eat when you can because we never know when all hell is going to break loose.”

Everyone nods because every last one of us knows what she’s talking about.

Fuck-around time is almost upon us.

9

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