Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
I sighed and drank from my water glass since my scotch was already in my stomach.
Bastien stared at the side of my face and waited for me to acknowledge him.
I didn’t.
“All jokes aside…” He raised his hand slightly, a form of surrender. “Who’s Aliénor?”
So, Carvel did tell him everything. “It’s a long fucking story, and this isn’t the place.”
“You’d rather chat with the Senate about the new pension plan?” he asked incredulously. “That’s why we’re all here.”
I’d raised the tariffs on all the gangs, and most of them accepted it without complaint—at least to my face. In the next few months, we’d have enough to cover this additional cost since people were living longer than they ever had before. An additional ten years of life for each citizen had already strained the treasury. President Martin wanted to celebrate his achievement of avoiding the age extension for the plan.
It wasn’t really his achievement, but mine.
“She had some bounty hunters on her ass. Needed a place to stay, so I gave her a guest room. Then I forged a deal with the Oath to drop their contract and let her go. That’s it.”
“How did you meet?”
“She jumped into my car when she was being chased down. I got her out of there.”
“And you did all of this out of the goodness of your heart?”
I didn’t acknowledge the question. Didn’t give him details.
He studied the side of my face. His eyes were like bullets in my flesh.
But I wouldn’t give him anything.
“Interesting,” he said. “You tell me everything.”
“I don’t tell you everything.”
“Well, I sure know a lot about Diana. About those two what’s-their-names at the hotel after the wedding. Know a lot about Clement’s wife—”
“What do you want from me?” I turned to look at him, eyes furious.
He met my look, a small smile on his face. “I just find it interesting that the first time you come to one of these things alone is after you meet Aliénor. And the fact that you won’t tell me anything about her. Won’t tell me the nature of your relationship.”
I hated that he called her by her name. Like she was a part of our lives. Part of me.
“It’s not a bad thing.”
“You’re pulling teeth to get answers.”
“And you still won’t tell me.” He nodded. “Sounds like you respect this woman.”
I looked away and found something else to look at.
“And you don’t respect anyone.”
12
ALIÉNOR
I tried to give Luca back the money he loaned me, but he wouldn’t take it. I was secretly relieved because I had to start my life over, and it was nice to have a cushion to get back on my feet. I was able to get a decent apartment and buy some furniture, so I had a bed to sleep in and a table at which to eat my meals.
It’d been a week since I’d left Luca’s home, and while I was excited to start over without someone trying to kill me all the time, I did miss that place. Missed the meals delivered to my room. The turn-down service. The safety of those walls.
But I missed him too.
Missed the conversations we had with just our stares. The innate comfort his presence brought me. His calm and quiet confidence. The fact that he was clearly the most dangerous man I’d ever encountered and he made me feel safer than I’d ever been in my entire life.
And I wouldn’t lie, I missed that dick too.
I used to try to stick to waitressing types of jobs, something that made it easier to lie low and stay out of the spotlight. But now that I could do anything I wanted, I started to shoot higher. Apply for other jobs, a receptionist in an art gallery, an intern with a high-end fashion company, an assistant for a photographer, things I was personally interested in. I considered studying for a real estate license in the hope I could sell some of these multimillion-dollar properties. The sky was the limit now.
Would I actually get these jobs? Probably not. Probably wouldn’t even get an interview. But Septime would welcome me with open arms the second I called, so I had a backup if I needed it.
Getting a job and putting my life back together weren’t the only things on my mind.
I wanted revenge.
Revenge against the motherfucking asshole who killed my entire family and then chased me down like a rat living in the sewer. My life had already been destroyed and unbearable, but he’d insisted on pursuing me anyway, making me live in a state of terror every minute of the day, making me wake up from panic attacks caused by nightmares.
I could move on with my life and try to be happy.
But I didn’t believe I could ever let this go.
Never.
I got a few interviews, one with the fashion company, probably because it was an unpaid internship and no one else could afford to do free work in Paris. The other was the photographer’s assistant. He was well-known in the city for his work with models and relationships with magazines, but he also occasionally did special events for the elites of society, like weddings and dinner parties.