And I was already thinking about how to dig it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
acelynn
The clockin Kaius’s office was mocking me with every tick. I had been waiting for him for over an hour. Nolan hadn’t elaborated on where Kaius had gone, just said he was out. He had explained he could get Kaius the package if I didn’t want to wait, but I wanted to face the man who had sent me on this errand. Wanted to ask him what the hell was his problem.
I paced another lap around the office space, the thin carpet doing nothing to soften the impatient snap of my boots against the floor. The lamp on his desk threw long shadows across the walls, stretching and shrinking the more restless I got.
The box sat in the center of his desk like it owned the room. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t think there was anything sinister hidden beneath its lid. But I had seen the caps of Muze piled up in there.
Once I realized what it was, the drive home from the Excalibur felt like hours. Pierce had pressed the box into myhand as if he were handing me a birthday present. So nonchalant that it felt like it was second nature to him. I wasn’t about to show up to the King of Lovelen empty-handed.
But now, staring at it in his territory, in his office, I wasn’t sure if that was the smart choice.
What was even worse was that my mind kept flashing back to the alley behind the club, to the hiss of Astoria’s voice when she realized I’d been watching her. That conversation had been intense, and even though I couldn’t make out her words, her tone had been sharp and low. She didn’t back down to the man when he argued against her, holding all the qualities a girl raised in the club life should be. Steady and vicious. That was until she saw me. Then her anger had turned to a new target.
The way she had threatened to show Kaius the Polaroid, as if the image was a blade and she was more than happy to twist it—my stomach was still knotted from the altercation. She didn’t even have to tell me what the consequences would be if she went through with her threat. I knew it would be bad enough to plant at least a seed of doubt in Kaius’s mind, even if I was able to explain my way out of it. Just that doubt would destroy whatever fragile space I had carved out here.
The sound of the bar’s entrance opening yanked me back into the room. Footsteps, heavy and deliberate, traveled quickly through the hall. When Kaius finally stepped into the office, the atmosphere shifted. It was always like that with him. He didn’t just enter a room. Heclaimedit. He wore a long dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up, letting the ink covering his arms stand out. His eyes swept over me before landing on the desk.
“You’ve been waiting.” His voice was low and unreadable.
I nodded toward the box. “You want to explain to me why Pierce handed me that to deliver at the club instead of what you told me I would be getting?”
“Pierce gave that to you?” Kaius’s gaze flickered to it, then back to me, eyes harder now.
“Yes,” I hissed, taking one step toward him. “He said that it was what you asked for.”
Kaius paused. The silence was sharp. He tilted his head slightly. “I didn’t tell him to send anything back with you other than the liquor and paperwork. Which I had assumed was done since Josie is stocking the bar with it now.”
“I didn’t bring anything other than that back.”
He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. “Explains why she is in such a piss-ass mood.”
I frowned at him. “Then why?—”
“You ask too many questions, kitten. And in my line of work, questions get you killed.” Kaius stepped closer.
I gulped, my back hitting the edge of the desk before I realized I had moved. The air felt heavier now, every inch of him towering over me in a deliberate, consuming way.
“You walked into my world, Acelynn, and things have started moving without my permission. That never happened before you. Now you’re standing here with a box of Muze, acting like you don’t understand what this means?”
Heat flushed through my chest. It mixed with the flicker of unease in my gut. I licked my lips. “Maybe I don’t understand your world fully, but I know when someone is keeping me in the dark.”
Something flashed in his eyes—a flicker of suspicion, the kind that made my pulse spike. “And are you hiding something, kitten?”
The words cut through me, each accusation closer to the truth than he even realized. My heart beat erratically against my chest, throat going tight as I tried to speak. “I’m not—” My words were lost on my tongue as I rationally tried to think ofa response. Because I had almost just confessed, almost given myself away to the deadly man in front of me.
I am not who you think I am.
Kaius’s hands came down hard against the desk beside me, caging me in. The heat of his body short-circuiting every sensible thought in my brain. His face was so close now, I could feel the soft drag of his breath, the smell of the whiskey he had drunk earlier that day filling my senses.
“Careful,” he murmured, voice rough enough to scrape along my skin. “In this room, secrets have teeth. I know you have claws, Acelynn, but do you have the bite to back it up?”
“You know I do,” I replied, voice sharp and laced with a slight bit of seduction. Maybe I could still gain the upper hand in this conversation, steer his focus away from what I was hiding.
For a long beat, we just stared at each other. Kaius’s gaze dropped to my mouth, and the air between us turned electric. I could feel the moment his control began to waver—the fraction of a second where he thought about closing the distance. I had him right where I wanted him.
