Page 10 of Gemini Kings
“Oh, I bet,” I say sweetly. “Thought you saw a ghost?”
“Yeah, pretty much. You fucking disappeared in Singapore. Where the hell have you been all these weeks?” His words come easy, they always have, but unease lurks in his tone as he takes in my Catwoman getup. He’s checking to see how I’m armed, if I’m carrying my stiletto. (I’m not, don’t need it, never need a knife these days to cause carnage.)
His gaze flickers to the chute behind me, which is him checking to see if I’ve got backup.
Yeah. I fucking do.
But he can’t see that.
“Wondering if I’m alone?” I ignore his question and shimmy a slow step forward, which makes him ooze a slow step back, angling so he doesn’t get trapped between me and the bookcase. “Alone like I was in Singapore?”
His brows pinch together and he pushes out a breath. “You’re thinking I set you up. Of course you are. Baby, that wasCleo. She set us both up.”
Oh, I wouldn’t doubt it. There’s a reason my former bestie’s on the wind and not answering any of the pings I’ve sent through our usual channels to feel her out.
But just because she’s probably guilty doesnotmean Xiao’s probably innocent.
“Nice try,bello.” I slink toward him. He tries to sidle around me, but I keep between him and the door. “Yeah, it coulda been the two of you together on the take. But, see, hereyouare all alone, with your hand in my dad’s cookie jar. You’re either about to get paid off or bumped off.”
“For fuck’s sake, you think I’d be here if I had any other choice? Here where you could find me like you just did?” Xiao slicks a hand over his trendy hair, lamplight flashing on his dive watch. “I’m telling you, it was Cleo who fucked us both over.”
“Why would she do that?” I ask. Because I honestly need to know, and I just can’t figure it out. “You know she doesn’t need the money. For her, it was never about the money.”
“The fuck if I know.” His smooth con man voice turns sharp enough to draw blood. “She’s into some weird shit, deep into it, sometimes I’m not even sure she’s fucking human, all right?”
Desperation gives him a dangerous edge, and I know he’s packing heat and can’t be trusted. But something in his voice gives me pause. He’s not a warlock or anything, he’s solidly part of the 99.9 percent of the human race that doesn’t even know there are arcane races rubbing shoulders with the mortals. Xiao doesn’t even know the witching world’s a thing.
My own witchcraft’s so unreliable and, until recently, so untrained I could never read his mind.
And it’s frustrating as fuck to realize I still can’t.
Comeon, Gemini superpowers. I mean, I hope they give mesomethingtonight besides a fried phone.
But Cleo’s always been weird, Xiao’s telling the truth about that much. And one thing I learned from Cleo while the three of us shared aménageis you can fuck someone for months and think maybe you even love them, yet never really feel close to them.
Shit.
It still effing hurts that theybothbetrayed me.
But Lucius was pretty clear that he paid them both.
Yeah, you got that right. Xiao betrayed me twice. He took money from Lucius to disappear and leave me high and dry the night my warlocks kidnapped me,andmoney from my dad to tell the Gemini wet boys where to find me.
A muffled shout seeps through the door behind me and gets my head back in the game. That’s the voice of authority back there, like the cops or the fire crew. My dad won’t be far behind, unless Vasili’s stopped listening to his elusive better angels (which are always the underdogs, given my snake’s vicious streak) and solved our Mick Gemini problem his own way.
Like, you know, permanently.
Which means I need to finish up fast with Fuck Boy here and get the hell out.
So I put our past behind me and make my voice hard as bedrock. “Too bad for you Cleo’s not here to take the fall. Which means I’m gonna have to take it out on your ass. Sorry not sorry, you feel me?”
I close on him in a rush.
Alarm fires in his face.
He dives straight for the little 2.7-millimeter Hummingbird he carries strapped to his ankle under his pants.
Even in mid-attack, hurt and fury flood through me and make my skin crackle. So much for being innocent. I’m a temporary inconvenience my supposedly innocent ex is about to eliminate permanently.
