Page 24 of Lethal King

“What a coincidence, I was about to say the same about you.”

“How convenient.”

As if by instinct, we both start to circle each other. Each step is a careful ballet. One wrong move and it could be our last.

“You wanted me to overhear you on the radio,” I quickly realize.

“No. I didn’t,” Rian furiously admits. “But it only took a minute to realize that you must be listening in.”

“You sure are perceptive.”

“You sure are in a load of shit.”

My hackles rise even higher. He’s not wrong.

How am I going to get out of this one?

Shit. My only option is to bluff.

“I’m pretty sure that smell is just coming from you.”

Rian doesn’t take the bait. Those ocean blue eyes stay fixed on me. They’re filled with hate.

I return the favor.

“You’re surrounded. We have thermal cameras here too, you know,” he says, tapping at his temple. My glasses suddenly feel clunky. I take them off and throw them aside. “From what we can see, it’s just you and your brother. That was a foolish move. You should have brought back up. What happened to that army you stole from Gabriel?”

The mention of my brother’s name is nearly enough to set me off. But instead of giving into the hate and the grief, I force myself to latch onto something else. Something far more helpful.

Hope.

Rian just fucked up. He let his position slip. I already knew about his thermal cameras. What he clearly doesn’t know is that I’ve already hacked into them.

Okay, maybe I’m not so fucked, after all.

It would only take a single command for my program to initiate the virus I’ve already installed in his software. I wouldn’t even have to press down on my earpiece, and a hundred red-hot ghosts would appear on every Kilpatrick thermal camera. They’d think I brought an army with me.

Fuck. For someone so brilliant, Rian Kilpatrick sure seems clumsy today.

“We didn’t need an army,” I say, suddenly remembering something else, too. “Not with how quickly you’re running this empire into the ground. Two people are all we need to get what we want.”

Slowly, I start to lead us both towards the shelf where I know my hologram disc has been stashed.

“And what do you want? To steal my crown? Is that all?”

“Isn’t it enough?” I stall.

All I have to do is get close enough.

“I’ll still become king.”

“In name, sure. But what about in truth? Who would respect a king whose crown was stolen before he could put it on his head?”

“I’m not going to have to worry about that,” Rian sneers. “And neither will—”

“Wait,” I interrupt. Pretending to hear something, I look towards the door. Once again, Rian doesn’t take the bait. But he doesn’t have to. His silence is enough. “A ghost?” I tease.

This time, I can’t help my smirk.