“Like hell! We’re in the middle of the nowhere.”
“Do you know where I live?” I demanded. “How long have you been watching me?”
I couldn’t believe it. My entire life as I knew it had changed in just 24 hours. I’d spent half of my life grieving over a man who wasn’t dead, but rather was stalking me.
Constantine turned and suddenly, we were at my house. I’d been so blindly mad, I hadn’t realized he’d gotten me home safe, like he’d said. He parked and we stared each other down.
“I can’t believe you. What made you ever think this was okay?” I demanded.
“It wasn’t, but there was little I could do. If I came around while we were still in foster care, they might have sent us further away, maybe out of state. I couldn’t come too close.”
His words sunk in. He was right. The only reason I’d been allowed to see Kansas was because we escaped together. We’d been told we weren’t allowed to see any members of the Family. If they’d discovered we were talking to Constantine, the Minister’s son…
“Will you let me come inside and we can talk about it?” he asked.
I was still furious, but when he reached over the seat and gently squeezed my hand, I relented. We shared a look, and I wondered if he was remembering what had almost happened in the bathroom of the bar, and if his plan was to finish what he’d started. Did I want that?
“Yes.”
Rule 19 - Constantine
Take your time.
“Do you want some tea?” Eisley asked the moment we stepped inside her house. It felt weird, using the front door.
“I’m not really a tea drinker.”
She ignored me, going to the kitchen. “I need something to calm down.”
I followed behind, and watched as she pulled out a mint green teapot with gold trim and a black bat on the side, and prepared it for boiling.
“What are the holes for?” I leaned over the stove and pointed.
“This is an assassin’s teapot.” She beamed.
“A what?”
“These two holes,” she pointed. “Go to a different chamber. You can pour two different drinks into the teapot and serve one drink or both.”
“And why do they call it an assassin’s teapot?”
“Because one drink could be poison, and you’d never know because they were served from the same pot.”
* * *
“This is pretty good. I can’t even taste the poison.” I teased.
“That’s the point.”
I studied her intensely. No picture or video could ever come close to seeing her in real-time. I’d waited so long for this very moment.She sipped her tea and glared across the island at me.
“So you knew where I lived. What else do you know about me?”
If she was mad now, I couldn’t imagine how pissed she’d be if I revealed the truth.
I took a deep breath. “This isn’t the way this was supposed to go.”
“What do you mean?”
