“I know you’re a Spade brother...” She swallows. “Your parents are dead...you killed your father.” Her eyes search mine, but I doubt she’s seeing me.
The Spade brother isn’t a secret to her. She knows that because she’s been seeing me at Carnage. My mom being dead isn’t a stretch. My father being dead? She can know that becauseagain, Saint, Kash, and I run Carnage. But how he died? “Why would I kill him?”
“Because you love her.”
Her answer makes me frown, throwing me off. “Who do I love?”
“Ashtyn.”
I’ve only ever said that out loud to one person. It was recently, but I know she hasn’t told anyone. “Who told you that?” I inquire.
“My mother and her friend.”
This is what I wanted to know. Now we’re getting somewhere. “Been talking to your mother about me?” I know who her parents are.
She goes to roll her heavy eyes, but her whole head makes a circle. “She only knows that I have sessions with you—that you’re my assignment.”
Well, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I try to think what else I can ask while I have the upper hand. A thought comes to mind. I gather her hair and push her head forward. “Where did you get this?” I ask, running my fingers over the Lords brand on her upper back. I had seen it the first night I was in her house when I placed the tracker in her neck. I figured she was someone’s chosen and they branded her.
“The Lords gave it to me,” she mumbles.
With my hand still in her hair, I yank her head back and look down at her. “Why would they brand you?”
“Initiation. I either had to cut a woman’s off or give myself the same one. I removed hers, and they ended up giving me one to match.”
A brand for a brand.
What the fuck? She’s already had an initiation? This doesn’t make sense. Women don’t get initiated unless they are to be wed to a Lord and I’ve never heard of one having an assignment.
“What happened to her?”
“They made me kill her,” she whispers.
None of this makes sense. I bet it wasn’t about Charlotte being initiated but more about the woman she was supposed to kill. No one else wanted that responsibility, so they put it on Charlotte. But that doesn’t answer the branding question. Why was the woman branded in the first place? I mean, I know Lords who brand their chosens and Ladies. It’s all about claiming their property. But why did they want hers removed or Charlotte to brand herself?
Fuck, I’m getting a headache. This is giving me more questions than answers. “How did you kill her?”
“I shot her,” she says softly. “And every time I close my eyes, I see her.” She blinks, her heavy eyes looking up at mine through her fake lashes.
“You did what you had to do,” I tell her, seeing the uncertainty in her eyes. Her decision haunts her.
She swallows and whispers, “Is that what you tell yourself?”
“I don’t have any regrets,” I say truthfully. It’s kill or be killed in our world.
Releasing Charlotte’s hair, I move to stand in front of the chair. “The bruises…when you showed up at my house with bruises, you told me they were from rough sex. Who gave them to you?”
“I was arrested. He was rough…”
“What the fuck were you arrested for?” I demand.
She tries to shrug. “Not sure. He never said.”
I’ll have someone look into that for me. I reach out and cup her face. “Am I the only guy who’s ever fucked you?”
Her pretty eyes look up at me. They’re heavier than they were. I’m losing her. “Yes,” she answers in her soft voice.
Goddamn.
