Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 52592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
For a second, it crosses my mind how odd it is that a house with a security system wouldn’t have an alarm go off by someone prying open a window and breaking inside. I’m just about to think that maybe the Ghost isn’t as impressive as everyone thinks he is, when a shadowy figure steps out of a dark corner. I let out a small shriek and jump out of my skin.
“Breaking and entry?” he asks with a dry grin on his face. “That seems beneath you, Elle Monroe, doesn’t it? I was thinking you had some moral high ground, but I guess I don’t need to worry about that anymore.”
“You’re the one who invited me here,” I say as I put both hands on my hips. I refuse to be intimidated by Nico, or at least I refuse to let him think I am. I don’t want to give him that kind of power over me. He already knows he controls too much space in my head. “So, this was your plan all along, then, was it? You wanted me to break into this house, which I’m guessing is probably under surveillance and might even be locked like a trap now that I’m inside. And all the while, you’re just waiting here in the corner for me to come, like a spider in a web.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“And what if I’d decided not to come?” I ask, angry that he has the upper hand right off the bat.
“I knew you would come,” Nico says. His voice isn’t teasing now. He’s dead serious. “You’ve been chasing me for far too long to give up now. You want answers more than you want pretty much anything else. That means you had no choice but to come get them from me.”
“Is that what this is about?” I ask skeptically. “Did you bring me all the way out here because you’re finally going to give me some answers?”
He hesitates for a moment before responding. And when he finally does, his answer once again sounds dead serious. “Perhaps. Either that or maybe I’ll figure out another way to keep you from continuing to dig around in my business.”
I’m not sure what “other” way he might be implying, but the thought of it serves to remind me that Nico is an assassin. And if the Ghost’s reputation is to be believed, he’s a ruthless, brutal assassin at that.
Suddenly, I feel a tinge of regret about having been so quick to come here alone. I knew it was dangerous, but I chose to come anyway because sometimes danger is the only way to the truth.
“You don’t scare me,” I say, feigning confidence that I don’t fully feel. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Maybe you should be,” he says. “I thought you were smarter than to assume that you’d be safe alone with me.”
So did I. Something about the way he said that makes a heat fill my chest, and I can’t tell if it’s fear or something much more intense and dangerous than that.
CHAPTER 10
NICO
Where do I even begin?
Now that Elle is here, all of my carefully thought-out plans seem to fall by the wayside. I brought her here to tell her just enough to get her to understand and to back off her relentless pursuit of me. I’d already decided which things I was going to tell her and which things I wasn’t. I had responses planned for her questions, and diversions masquerading as answers to give in response to the questions I don’t want to answer. But now that Elle is here, standing in the dark room not more than a few feet from me, I seem to have trouble sticking to my plan.
She looks so beautiful, so strong, and so innocent. And something inside of me feels an overwhelming need to protect her from all the things that threaten to ruin her life—some closer to her than she thinks.
When she asks me questions, my premeditated, well-laid answers falter. And I find myself in a position that I haven’t been in, not since the night my brother was killed — a position of reacting recklessly.
“Why did you bring me here?” She asks as she stands there in the dimly lit room with the moonlight streaming through the window reflecting off her wide, hazel eyes.
She’s mesmerizing, and I hate it. Her mere presence next to me makes me want to reach out and sweep the waves of chestnut hair away from her face so that I can do something else reckless, something that I promised myself I would never allow—an intimate connection with someone.
My brother’s warning flashes through my brain like a red alert. Don’t get involved. Stay detached. Do the job.
“I brought you here to talk,” I say plainly. “I want to answer some of your questions, so you will stop your obsessive pursuit of me.”