Page 62 of Love & Heart Braking

Soleil glanced at me, no doubt sensing I was about to join him. “Got that healer’s number?”

I took her hint and left to go inside and grab my tote. I called my healer, then—in better command of myself—returned outside. Jaeke needed us to be strong for him.

The postwoman approached me, fidgeting. “This is a bad time, but I can’t leave without that document. It will mean my job.”

The twelve were involved, so I believed her.

“Right.” I picked up the parcel and slid out the contents.

Dear Miss Concordia,

We accept your terms and have delivered your signing bonus.

Jaeke was just a signing bonus to them. I gritted my teeth, then flicked through the contract beneath. They’d kept the copy I took to “sign.” Mars alive. I didn’t have time to go through this now, but I couldn’t sign until I checked it over with a fine-tooth comb. Yet they’d sent someone to await my signature—an innocent someone that they would absolutely ruin to spite me.

The twelve were trying to catch me off guard again.

Smiling, I reached into my tote and extracted a copy of the contract I’d printed to take to the alliance meeting two nights before. Finding a pen, I initialed the bottom of each page, then signed the last one.

I slipped that contract inside the parcel wrapping.

“That’s a different document,” the woman said uneasily.

“Yep.” I placed the papers they’d sent and their letter into my tote. What was to bet they’d had the Dethnels make tiny changes before signing it. Well, they could all initial and sign again, on the real contract.

Bastards.

The woman looked at me again, then at Jaeke before exhaling. She sealed the parcel and left.

I gazed down at the broken cupid.

I now officially worked for the twelve, and I’d never wanted to take them down more. Even then, Jaeke’s condition was a huge, flashing warning that I could never, ever let my guard down.

The pocket of my leather jacket warmed.

I frowned, pulling out the gold token. Huh. “Is your token warm?” I asked Soleil.

She lifted Jaeke. Transferring him to one arm—because she could do that—she reached into her pocket. “Nope. Cold.”

I’d messaged Fenton earlier saying I had to speak with Gug. “Must just be for me.”

“Want me to come with?”

“No, you better stay with Jaeke. The healer will be here soon.”

“Got the beeper?”

“Yep.” Jaeke had slipped into unconsciousness again, but I squeezed his hand before heaving my tote up and setting off.

The gold token warmed, and I followed its prompts to the back entrance of a café a few blocks away. The café was full.

I wandered through the bottom level, not spotting Fenton anywhere. Seeing a stairwell, I headed upstairs, only to find the walls of this level were lined with strange boxes.

Only one seat here was empty.

The gold token was hot.

Weird. I crossed the wooden floor and sat on the empty seat, jumping when a partition lowered from the ceiling, boxing me inside. A weak light flickered to life inside, and a panel slid open that I couldn’t see through.

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