Page 196 of The Forbidden Note

He laughs softly.

The gremlin.

My phone rings and I latch onto the opportunity to put some space between us.

Walking a few steps with the phone, I call over my shoulder, “Dutch, talk some sense into your brother please.”

“Impossible,” Dutch answers.

“You think he’d be this way if any one of us could tell him what to do?” Sol grumbles.

Finn just shakes his head.

I turn away from them and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

Mom’s voice blasts my ears. “Grey, how soon can you shower and put on a nice dress?”

For a moment, her words scramble in my brain and make zero sense to me. “Why do I need to put on a dress?”

At the word ‘dress’, Zane stands to attention. His eyes drag over me and I can feel it like a hand skating up my spine.

“I got in contact with a nice young man who made a very good impression last week when we met. He’s available to meet you for lunch.”

“So soon?” I croak. Sending a guilty look over my shoulder, I mumble, “Mom, wejusthad a conversation about that. Besides, I’m busy today.”

Her voice snaps with heat. “If you miss this date, you can forget about our deal.”

I chew on my bottom lip. It feels like I’m stuck in an hour glass and the sand is quickly filling to the top with no reprieve in sight. If I don’t find a way to break free, I’ll be buried.

“Are you going or not?”

I hesitate. Mom is high on emotions right now. I can’t afford for our relationship to fracture any more than it already has. Not just for the sake of my deal with The Kings, but for my family.

“Okay,” I mumble. “I’ll get ready for the date.”

Mom heaves a sigh of relief. “Perfect.”

CHAPTERFORTY-EIGHT

GREY

It feels like there’s a cosmic push to keep me away from investigating Sloane’s case.

First, I had to press pause when Zane got hurt and his brothers were three seconds away from committing murder.

And now, instead of driving to The King’s mansion where I can safely sort through the files we stole, I’m heading to a downtown bistro in my nicest blouse and jeans to meet some random guy mom picked out for me.

My phone buzzes.

It’s one of the administrators in the Redwood Prep group chat.

Has anyone seen Miss Jamieson today?

No.

Isn’t she supposed to be here?

Someone give her a call.

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