Page 28 of Ambition

“But are youhiskeeper, Isadora?”

I think of the pitchfork. The way it felt, a cry leaving my lips as I rammed it into the man’s torso when he finally turned to check on me. When he dropped his stupid fucking phone. He didn’t think I’d fight back. He thought I would sit pretty and wait. But he said the wrong thing.

He threatened Von.

No one threatens Von.

Before I can say a word, explain this to his father, Mads tilts his head, indicating the doorway. “The assignment is yours. Everything will continue as planned.” He pauses, as if considering. Then he says simply, “That is all.”

VON

“What did he say?” I stand on the balcony, looking out over the eastern edge of Alexandria. Forest and rolling hills surrounding a concrete jungle far enough away we don’t have to hear the sirens rolling through the downtown district in the dead of night. My parents have a place there, in the heart of the city, and I remember distinctly how horrible the sleep is when you’re used to a blanket of natural silence.

Karia is quiet on the line, and I rest my forearms on the metal railings of the balcony, glancing up at the sky and squinting. Dark and dreary, but my eyes are sensitive. Isadora makes fun of me for it, but she also keeps a spare pair of Tom Ford sunglasses in her Jeep for me so it’s a fair trade.

Thunder rumbles over Alexandria, wind whipping cold across my bare chest. I haven’t changed since Isadora sauntered out with Karia and Cosmo. Tentatively, I lift my fingers to my mouth, running them over my bottom lip and biting back a groan.

They smell like Isa. Theytastelike her, too.

“I don’t know,” Karia finally says over the speaker of her phone inside her car. She’s already dropped Isa off at Nox to pick up her Jeep and Cosmo back at a house he shares with people shadier than he is.

“What?” I ask, straightening from the balcony railing and slipping my hand into my pocket as I keep the other cupping my phone. “What do you mean youdon’tknow?”

“I didn’t go in.” Karia sounds sterner, somehow. Like she’s found her fucking nerve. I care for her, considering she was always around when we were growing up. Her and a handful of others, children of Writhe. But she is more docile than Isadora, less stubborn, not so thirsty to prove herself. She’ll probably be set up in an arranged marriage because of her temperament, as a pawn to raise Writhe higher. Sometimes I think joining with her would be easy for me; our attitudes suit one another.

But then I think of Isadora, and that idea is shredded to pieces inside my head. Not to mention the fact I don’t mind that Karia fucks around with Cosmo, and if that fucker ever laid a finger on Isadora, I would ensure his death looked like an accident.

“Don’t make me ask any more follow-up questions. What do you mean, Karia?”

She’s quiet, the sound of her tires on the road a soft whirring over the line. Then she says, “Isadora knows what she’s doing, Von. Whatever spying you wanted me to do, it’s not like Mads would let me listen in anyway. So I don’t know anything about that, and all I do know is she came out smiling.”

I grip my phone tight in my hand, listening in disbelief. Karia has always favored me over Isadora because we’ve fucked around more than a few times, despite this thing she has with Cosmo. But it’s like I can hear Isa in my head, telling me sex doesn’t mean shit. Something I apparently haven’t grasped.

“You know nothing?” I make myself ask anyway. When Isa went to get changed before she left with Karia, I spoke to the latter, telling her to keep an eye on what Isa and Dad would discuss. She nodded, promised she would.

“No, Von. Look, whatever it is…” She trails off. “I think you should just let her do her job.”

I lift my middle finger even though only the darkening skies of Alexandria can see it. Then I end the fucking call and decide I’ll have to do this the hard way.

* * *

I grabher when she walks in.

It’s dark in our condo, rain is coming down in sheets against the windows, and she wasn’t expecting this. We used to do surprise drills often; her to me, me to her. Especially in those first few months we started living together, the memory of the warehouse still heavy over us both.

But it’s been a long time since this.

I had a dinner of beer, and I spent the day pacing, wondering where the fuck she went but refusing to text her or call. And now she’s here, it’s nightfall, and she’s got lingerie bags swinging from her arms.

Well, she did.

They slide to the marble floor of the foyer, and she doesn’t even shriek or gasp or scream as I hook my forearm around her neck and tug her into me.

She stills, actually, but only for a moment.

Then she kicks me in the fucking knee cap, and I grunt, loosening my grip on her hip and her neck.

She takes the opportunity to twist out of my hold and she isn’t content to walk away. In her sweats and her cropped shirt, flashes of brown skin revealing the lines of her obliques, she looks ready to spar, hair pulled back out of her face. She darts for me immediately, shoving me with both hands so I crash against the black door, the ornate silver knob digging into my spine.

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