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Chapter 17
Audry
Ipulled at my skirt as I waited at the table. Kai was running late, and the large open room of the hotel restaurant had my heart racing.
Waiters incessantly came over to ask if I needed anything. They were constantly refilling my water that was still full from when they came over just two minutes earlier. I should be used to it as the boss’s daughter. I was someone to fear and someone to impress for them.
Only, I was anything but used to it. I hated their stares as I sat there waiting for this ridiculous meeting. Kai explained that Liam, one of his brothers who helped me, had concerns. He thought of me as only trouble. How that was my problem, I still wasn’t certain.
Wasn’t that what I was? Trouble, the thought cut into my mind. I didn’t want to lose Kai. He’d been my rock the past few days, and the way he talked about me meeting Liam sounded like a test—a way to keep him around. This meeting was the only way to keep the normalcy I felt when Kai was around.
But nothing was normal. I should have been sitting in this restaurant without a care in the world, Sofya at my side. Instead,Sofya was miles away, refused to answer my messages, and I was waiting for a man and his brother to meet me.
A man I met after?—
I stopped the thought before it could go anywhere. It had been a week now, and the bruises were healing well. The darkness still haunted me, my ghost flickering into existence every so often. I still had the impending doom looming over me, but wasn’t that normal after killing a man?
I killed a man.
This was my punishment for the sin I committed. Someone would be after me, and karma would catch up—it was inevitable.
I shifted in my seat, trying to keep myself glued to it. But as another waiter came over to ask me if I needed anything, it took everything in me to stay where I was. I wanted to be anywhere but here. At this point, I debated going back to my apartment—alone and facing the inevitable presence of my ghost.
The idea of running away faded as I saw Kai approach his brother in tow. Kai was all I cared about. With him, at least for a moment, the thunderstorm flooding my existence froze.
“Hey.” Kai waved awkwardly. “I’m not sure if you remember Liam.”
Liam extended his hand to me. His piercing green eyes caught me off guard. His grip was strong, a tactic used to intimidate. But I had dealt with worse, more politically attuned men in my life.
I smiled widely, licking the bottoms of my teeth as I perused my gaze across his strong form. His jaw was shadowed by small lines of scruff, his knuckles were bruised, and his shirt stretched across his body. I cocked my head for a moment. The spider tattoo on his arm was shockingly similar to the one on Kai’s chest.
“Pleasure,” I muttered before untangling my grip from his.
“Something like that,” Liam mumbled.
I suffocated an annoyed scoff as I wiped my hand on my skirt.
The three of us sat down, Liam leaning back in the chair. He wanted to appear uninspired and bored. But I saw a small glint of amazement as he glanced around the hotel restaurant.
Liam must have never been to the hotel before. Which most likely meant he didn’t know how it was architected or why.
My great-grandfather started the hotel during prohibition. The entire place was built with secret passages and rooms that didn’t allow sound to travel, including the restaurant. I glanced at the table nearby, their conversation nothing more than gibberish. It wasn’t till my grandfather that the hotel made it big.
“So, this is your family’s place?” he asked.
I shot a glare at Kai. “Well, yeah. But that little tidbit is kept under wraps. My father doesn’t want his kids in the press or the rumor mill circulating on who will take over hisvastkingdom.”
Liam narrowed his stare, leaning forward. The corner of his lips turned ever so slightly. “So, who takes over the kingdom, then?” He lowered his voice. “Off the record, of course.” He winked.
I pressed my lips tighter together, matching his energy. I leaned forward, keeping his stare. I wouldn’t be intimidated by him—or any man. If Liam wanted to play games, then consider the game started.
“Me,ifI stay out of trouble.”
“Doesn’t seem like that is one of your talents,” he said. Those green eyes had seen things. I was staring into the eyes of another murderer. There was a certain darkness that came along with taking a life. A cloud created a heavy weight on his shoulders, along with the apathy that followed it. I saw it in Liam and underneath Kai’s marshmallow exterior.
How else would they have been so calm after I killed a man? How else would they have known what to do? And how else was I not currently in cuffs being wheeled away to prison?
“Doesn’t seem like it’s one of yours, either.” I smiled, unaffected by his attempt at a jab. One thing my parents did well was teaching me how to verbally spar. Lessons in how to conceal your true meaning behind a smile and a backhanded compliment were paramount.
