“It’s gone missing,” Graydon admitted.
“How the hell did that happen?”
“I’m already looking into it.”
Kira almost pitied the poor fools whose actions had just put Graydon on their tail.He wouldn’t rest until he uncovered their guilt.Once that happened, they would be in for a world of hurt.
“I hate being stuck in here while everyone is out there working to fix this,” Kira said, a little depressed as she took in her accommodations for the next who knew how long.
Even though it had made sense from a diplomatic standpoint to allow herself to be taken hostage, that knowledge did nothing for the itch under her skin that demanded action.Kira had never been a passive observer.That itch insisted she could be doing more.If only she hadn’t been sidelined.
“Actually—I may have pulled a few strings.”
Shocked, Kira searched Graydon’s face, sure she hadn’t heard that right.“What does that mean?”
“No one told me that incarceration affected one’s hearing,” Pallas drawled, appearing on the cell’s threshold.“You’re not dumb, little sister.Present circumstances notwithstanding.”The craziest of her siblings leaned a forearm against the door frame and shook his head in mock disappointment.“Really—how could you let them take you prisoner?I expected better of you”
“Pallas,” Kira managed through numb lips, sounding every bit as dumb as he’d accused her of being as she took in his presence.
Her brother looked like he’d just come off a three-week bender.Dark circles under eyes that were a lot more world weary than the last time she’d seen him.The dangerous edge that had shadowed every interaction was even sharper than before.He looked like life had chewed him up and spat him back out.
Physically, he was the same as always.His head shaved on both sides.His hair longer on top.He had a trim beard shadowing his jaw and metal glinted from his eyebrow and the rim of one ear.The other ear was missing a sizable chunk out of the top.Like something or someone had taken a massive bite out of it.
Knowing him, that was likely the case.
“Why are you here?”Kira asked, still reeling from the unexpectedness of his presence.
“To save you.Why else?”Alexander eyed the cell with distaste before focusing on Kira.“Hello, little sister.Miss us?”
“No.”
In fact, she wished they’d stayed far, far away.In her experience, nothing ever good came from the forty-three’s involvement.
Alexander adjusted his glasses, pushing them further up his nose.“Don’t sound so grateful.”
“Eat sand and fuck off,” Kira snarled.
If they thought she was naive enough to think they were actually here to save her ass, they had another thing coming.
The forty-three only did what benefited them.They were here because they had an agenda.She was just their excuse.
“Let’s hear it.What do you want?”Kira asked, studying Alexander closely.
Pallas might try to decapitate or otherwise end her existence but Alexander was the one she really had to watch out for.He was the snake in the grass.Lying in wait, hidden and unseen, until he’d already buried his fangs in your thigh.
She’d ended up on the wrong side of his schemes too many times to ever take his presence in stride.
“So suspicious,” Alexander murmured, the faintest glint in his eye that said he found her reaction amusing.“Someone might think you don’t trust me.”
That was because she didn’t.
For as long as Kira had known him, Alexander had gone out of his way to appear nondescript.He wore clothes that disguised his long, muscular body and hid behind glasses that he didn’t need.He’d adopted the mild mannered persona of a scholar, content to drift in the background making his plans and manipulating others.Despite being as much a fighter as Kira.
They’d always gotten along like oil and water.He was the disapproving, judgmental big brother and she was the reckless, rebellious little sister.
“I’m still waiting for an answer as to why you’re here,” Kira said.
Last she’d heard, Alexander was still acting the part of assistant to one of the Haldeel royals.
