Page 89 of In the Dark

that’s where the treasure will be.

A chill snaked up my spine, cold and sharp. The song. The slogan. My father hadn’t just been singing me to sleep; he had been teaching me a code.

“Find any floral arrangements you like?”

I flinched violently, my knee knocking against the underside of the desk with a loud thud.

Callahan was standing right in front of me. I hadn’t heard him approach over the blood rushing in my ears.

My hand reflexively jerked the mouse, minimizing the browser window with the security footage. My heart was beating so hard I thought he must be able to see it beneath my shirt.

“Really pretty ones,” I breathed, trying to keep my voice steady. “Want to see?”

He narrowed his beautiful blue-green eyes at my flushed face, and then he peered over the computer to see.

He didn’t buy it. Not for a second.

“What were you really doing?”

I licked my lips and held up the book I was going to check out. “If you want honesty, I was looking up if this book was good or not. Turns out it’s orgasmic.”

He glared at the book in my hand. “A book?”

“Shain was talking about a scene online, and I’m honestly wondering how the idea to do something that hot in a fantasy was thought up because—”

“Shain?”

“The author, Callahan.”

“You want to know how this Shain guy comes up with hot scenes?” He looked perturbed as hell. I didn’t care to correct him and tell him Shain was a woman.

I shrugged and gave him a cheeky smile.

“We’re leaving,” he said, his voice flat. “Now.”

I stood up, happy I deterred him from my actual search. “Great. I want to get home and see how good this romantasy actually is.”

He hummed, and I swear he grumbled, “Yeah, me too.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to read that book with you.”

That had me stopping. “What?”

“I’m gonna find what you find so orgasmic about this Shain’s writing, Jasmina. I need to know exactly what you want from me on our wedding night.”

Shit. I was supposed to be focused on the breadcrumbs my father had left. The treasure wasn’t just a bedtime story. It was real, and my lullaby might just lead to it.

It was important.

And yet, somehow the transgressions of my father and my uncle felt less important now. I was surviving with Callahan so far. And my cousins and aunt and uncle seemed safe.

A treasure being found, I wasn’t sure I needed … or wanted.

Instead, I was thinking about Callahan being a shadow daddy and how much I may want that on my wedding night.

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