Page 56 of Reign By Wrath

Inside, the mansion was twice as impressive. It had nothing on the Burkhardt mansion and the nauseating boasts of wealth everywhere you looked. On the contrary, there was something warm and homey about the shiny juniper pine walls and cool stone beneath my feet. It felt like a place for a family.

A father and daughter.

My back pressed tighter to the wall. Points for me that I wasn’t shaking the whole house with how hard my rib cage was rattling. A shadow moved in the light. Everleigh was still in the kitchen. Cheek touching the wall, I glanced around—

“Luna Sinclair.”

My heart jumped out of my throat.

Cato grabbed me from behind and spun. No way she was catching us without a weapon while she stood in a room full of knives!

“A know-nothing little weakling who was smart enough to fuck powerful guys. She’s not a threat by herself. She’s just very irritating bait.”

We jerked to a halt.What?

“Wilder O’Rourke isn’t a threat anymore. If he could’ve dug up dirt on me, I wouldn’t have had to give up my side project by myself. Wolf will make sure the paranoid freak can’t find another way to get at me.”

Chancing it, I crept back and glanced around the wall. Everleigh moved around the kitchen, making a late-night snack while she talked to herself.

No— While she took voice notes on her phone.

“She got Alistair Burkhardt here, but now he’s holed up in Burkhardt Manor and knows that I’m coming for him. I’ve already been taken off their allowed-visitors list.”

She dropped the frying pan on the stove a little too hard. “As long as Sinclair is running around, I can still use her to draw him out. But as long assheis surrounded by those fools, she’s impossible to get to. Leon Dumont won’t be taken off guard twice.”

Cato and I exchanged a silent look. We weren’t the only ones plotting that night.

“Wolf can take care of his brother. Cato Dumont is nothing more than a rabid dog. I’ll throw something shiny and he’ll chase after it.”

Cato grinned. Dear Thor, it looked like he loved that description.

“Rafael Dumont, Lucien Calais, and Victor Wilson... they’re a problem.”

Everleigh gave me her back and faced the stove. I stuck my head out farther, getting a lay of the land.

We were in the center of the mansion. Kitchen, living room, dining area, massive stone fireplace, and another sitting area. On the other side of her and the kitchen was the entrance to the east wing of the mansion.

“Note,” she said. “Look through the T.O.D. members for people who have the balls to go up against Calais. Actually, look for ten. If it comes to a fight, I’ll make sure he doesn’t walk away from it.”

My nails pierced my palm. Once a coldhearted bitch, always a soul-sucking, motherfucking, coldhearted bitch.

“Note,” she continued. “Victor Wilson has to go. Question is how. Too many people like Victor. He’s nice to the Dregs and doesn’t use his power over the Royals. No one will want to hurt him for any price. Him, I might have to take care of myself.”

Cato tugged my arm, making me turn around. He gestured with his chin.

His unspoken suggestion was right. Instead of standing around listening to her make plans that wouldnevercome true, we should use this opportunity to search for the laptop.

I backed away, letting her disturbingly sweet voice fade.

“Split up.”

I nodded. This mansion was just too big for us to go through every room together. Cato and I traveled to the very end of the house. I went left, he went right. We worked our way down our sides of the hall, and we did it fast.

There was no reason to spend much time. Most of the rooms had nothing in them at all.

It occurred to me that this was Everton’s hideout, then it was Everleigh’s. There was no one to put a show on for. No one to invite over to sleep, eat, or play in all these rooms. It was just them. Alone. The only one either of them had was each other.

In another universe, I’d feel so sorry for Everleigh, in the universe where she wasn’t the reincarnated spawn of Satan.

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