Page 41 of Reckless Wolf

“What?” I choked, whirling around, looking for the source of the blaze. We had proper precautions in place—alarms, extinguishers, sprinklers, and more.

As I thought it, a rain of water sprayed down from the ceiling, over my head.

“Atlas! You need to get out of here!” Petyr cried, rushing toward me as mass panic broke out.

Bodies began to move in every direction, and the smell of fire reached my nostrils.

“What the hell is going on?” I growled, moving toward the chaos.

The guard grabbed my arm, shaking his head.

“I think it was a bomb,” he insisted firmly. “You need to go and take everyone with you before more people get hurt.”

Dread flooded my soul.

“Morepeople?” I echoed, wondering how many had fallen already.

He nodded somberly. “Please. Let me do my job. You need to do yours now and lead.”

Without a choice in the matter, I backed away, the screams of terror flooding my ears as I ushered my terrified guests out of the casino, confusion overwhelming me.

A bomb. In my casino.

This was all because of what I’d done with Bianca. It was the only explanation, I was sure. How could I have been so damn careless?

It was too late now for regret. Now I had to clean up the mess that I had made.

Chapter18

Bianca

Iwatched my sister improve day by day. The morning after I quit working for Atlas, she sat up for more than an hour in bed and took a few steps with my assistance around the room. The second day, she was strong enough to let me take her outside.

“You have to be able to reach the gate and climb it,” I whispered to her as we walked arm-in-arm. “I have a little money. We can run.”

She stared at me with my identical eyes and shook her head.

“I can’t,” she breathed. “Not yet.”

I hated what I was putting on her, but I couldn’t stop pressuring her.

“The wedding is coming up, Dahlia. We can’t put this off much longer.”

My sister stopped walking and threw up her hands.

“What do you want me to do?” she hissed back, her dark irises flashing. “Even if I make it over the gate, somehow undetected, I won’t get ten feet without dropping. Are you going to carry me?”

I bit down on my lip and glanced toward Jesse’s guards. For once, they seemed to be watching me closely, and my stomach lurched.

Had they caught me sneaking around? Or am I just being paranoid?I wondered.

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves.

“I just need you to focus really hard on getting better,” I pleaded. “Eat, stay hydrated, do whatever those idiot fae tell you to do. Whatever it takes, we need to be on the move before Jesse can officially claim us.”

Dahlia stifled a sigh.

“You think I want to be married to him?”

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