Page 2 of Queen of Diamonds

I mean, he would. He’d been told I was looking for a decent meal and a hookup. But he didn’t know what I looked like—I’d asked Leisha to keep that part quiet.

I was done up my best, my makeup was pristine, nails were salon-fresh, and my usual studded earrings were in. ‘Omega goddess’ was the term Leisha had used when she’d finished adjusting my dress straps. The scars on my upper back ached beneath this thin silk, but the fabric covered them well.

Would he think I was hot, though?

Did I want him to?

“You’re beautiful, Glade. You haunt the dreams of every Alpha here.” I heard the ghost of a whisper as if he were next to me. The voice was Ace’s, curdling with nightmares in the blink of an eye.

Still, I was staring at Kent from afar, fingers digging into my purse for dear life.

All I had to do was approach him.

Leisha had set me up well. Her texts were clear. She’d told him I was a sexy Omega bartender not looking for commitment, and that my resting bitch face wasn’t real. Couldn’t ask for a better wing-woman.

“Kent was charming,” I said, taking another sip of my horrible coffee. “And just as pretty as you promised.”

I’d had this whole plan in my head for the date, like I was sixteen again, and my stomach turned at the idea of a kiss.

We would eat, there would be small talk. It didn’t have to come up that I was a mafia princess sold for an alliance the moment I’d turned eighteen. That I had left three scent matches who’d loved me on their knees, staring down the barrel of rejection and exile. Or that—after everything—I’d fled two years later, and now I was on the run from one of the most powerful men in the state. That there was a trail of destruction in my wake, a wreckage that haunted me every second I couldn’t keep it away.

Instead, I could lie and be whoever I wanted: as confident as Jade, as sweet as Elena, or as cunning as Annika.

I’d planned to tell him mundane, normal stuff—like how I liked sweet potato fries over truffle fries, and maybe we’d discuss hobbies—like I had any normal ones, cold night sweats driving me to kickboxing in my living room didn’t sound quite as simple as ‘I enjoy crime TV’.

And after, maybe we would go to his place. If I did, I could leave at any moment I needed to. Only he was an Alpha. The apartment would smell like him.

His territory…

And when he touched me, maybe he would have had enough drinks not to notice how broken I was? The touch of an Alpha was like a hot iron for me, making me shiver, and turning my brain foggy with a need I was afraid of. For years my hormones were worn thin, tortured and twisted so far beyond what was natural it left me vulnerable. It’s why I stayed alone, though I wish I could blame it on only that. It wasn’t like I’d dated betas, either.

So, naturally, I’d chickened out, yet the plan was still spiralling in my head again as I clutched my coffee mug. Like telling myself this lie would make it easier to tell Leisha.

What would have happened next, though?

Well, next, I’d put on an oversized night robe, we’d watch Netflix all night, and he’d cuddle me.

Like… we’d actually watch Netflix, and nothing else would happen.

Okay.

I knew that last part was stupid.

Somehow, after ages in that restaurant, I’d found the courage to stand from my chair, knowing I had to try to make this work.

It would be fun.

One piece of myself at a time, I’d clawed back, and this was next. Why shouldn’t I enjoy a nice dinner and the knot of a sweet Alpha? Well… not too sweet. Gentle was a taunt, silk laced with poison designed to make me suffer.

I shoved the thought away. Ace’s games would never leave. They were the last thing I had never faced. But tonight, I’d rid myself of him forever.

Only, as I’d stood, Kent shifted, reaching down and setting something long and slender on the table.

A wrapped rose.

The gesture was common, romantic, and innocent. But a thousand games flooded back. A thousand nightmares, and that alone was enough to send me fleeing.

I’d spent the next twenty minutes in the restaurant bathroom retching up stomach acid.

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