Page 53 of V for Vengeance

“I don’t like to agree with the cock-blocking princess over there…” Cash’s ghoulish gasp only reaffirmed her point, and I lost it for a second. Jo went on like the smooth assassin she was, “But maybe the bait idea will get the witch to take one of her barriers down long enough for us to get inside and move into action,” Jo argued, visibly uncomfortable because she’d even remotely aligned herself with Cash.

The pompous platinum-blonde landed a hand on his hip with his other hand out as if he was a mother who’d spent the entire day arguing with her children. “See. Even Her Evilness agrees with me, you brute. That old hag uses blood sacrifices every chance she gets, and it’s impossible to get in without being implicitly invited. Not unless you want to be shredded to bloody pieces. Even with your regeneration abilities, you couldn’t recover from her blood magic. Blood barriers…it’s a new one, but not outside her usual tricks.”

At least Jo could do a little recon. That was better news than going in blind, but I didn’t want to rush ahead without exhausting all of our options. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind being bait, but after what occurred last week, Phillip wouldn’t agree to it. Not even if we didn’t have any other options. He’d argue that there had to be something we missed.

“What if we used butterfly dude? We could get a little of his blood and use it as a way to enter.”

Phillip’s eyebrow rose in confusion. “Butterfly…dude?”

Cash hummed and tapped his mouth, the action striking me as annoyingly adorable. “In theory, yes, but we couldn’t be sure they shared blood recently enough to get us through. It would need to be fresh. It’s been too long since we captured him. The shared blood would be weak, if not gone entirely. The only way to test it is by trying, and if we fail, she’d know it immediately. It’s a bit too risky, love.”

I caught his straying purple gaze, and something about it seemed off. But the glimpse of whatever it was disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

Jo sighed, playing with her dagger. “It was a good idea.” She smiled at me when my eyes jerked over to her. “I like the way you think.”

If I had to hazard a guess, she assumed I’d woken up and chosen violence today. I mean, she wasn’t exactly wrong, but I didn’t like how tickled she was with my thirst for blood.

Phillip expressed how agitated he was by Jo’s pointed compliment with the click of his tongue before his mouth twitched up. “I hate to agree with this one, but she’s right. Itisa good idea, V, and one we can still use.” His eyes dropped down to the cave entrance. “We’ll wait for one of hers to leave, and then we’ll know the blood’s fresh and works.”

It would be risky to attack anyone near the cave, so we’d have to keep track of them until we could trust it’d go unnoticed, but itwasclever. We’d need to subdue them quickly and carefully, but that was a task any one of us could do without batting an eye.

Cash sighed and nodded. “That just might work. It could be a long wait, though. Only her favorites are permitted to leave because she knows they’ll come back. It could easily be a week, maybe several, before we see anyone come out of that cave.”

Phillip ran a hand through his dark hair and scanned the area. “A stakeout it is.” His icy blues slid over to me, the usual smirk in place. “This is where you learn how to stalk your prey, maus.”

Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms, feigning insult.

I was a little tired of him treating me like a total amateur, but I honestly still was. All these creatures were new to me. A witch wasn’t something I’d fought before.

Still, I got a little sassy with my reply. “You must’ve forgotten who my grandmother is. That’s one of the first things I learned to do, Phil.”

The second I turned my head, Cash pointed at his phone. Mine went off again. Probably something about how brutish my “full-of-himself boyfriend” was being. But after the well-dressed nuisance waved his phone in the air like I hadn’t gotten the message—how dumb does he think I am?—I finally caved and took mine out again.

Cash:Your bodyguard has been obnoxiously attached to your hip as of late. We need to talk.

Giving the shameless asshole an eyebrow, I typed out my response while Phillip was still distracted by gathering our stuff so we could trek down the mountain and find the best vantage point for our stakeout.

Me:Oh, sure…because that went super well last time.

The annoyed blonde leveled a sassy glare on me, then typed out his reply before Phillip could catch us in the middle of a secret conversation.

Cash:I’ll do what I did at the café, love. It’s important.

After sighing, I nodded at him. Whatever he wanted to say, I could almost guarantee it’d piss Phillip off, so I’d give him a few minutes of my frozen time. He’d find a way to do it anyway, and at least this way, I had control over when it happened.

Suddenly sidetracked, I noticed two new messages waiting for me from Sloan. He hadn’t been able to reach out for a week, not since our little night together on video chat, so I’d been worried he’d been put off in some way by what the three of us did together. But Sloan addressed me like he always did.

S:Things here have come to a head. I’ll explain after I find Nigel.

Find Nigel? I ignored the discomfort in my stomach and read the second message.

S:I can’t wait to get you in my arms again and breathe in your delicious scent. Feels like it’s been forever since I’ve held you.

My heart still pounded any time the charming Brit boldly proclaimed what was on his mind. I was never left confused or worried long. Sloan wasn’t Phillip. He didn’t toy with my emotions or leave me guessing.

Which was why being separated was new and uncomfortable. He couldn’t reach out to reassure me, and I couldn’t beg him for answers when I was feeling vulnerable. It could compromise his mission. But the minute he could reach out, he did. It was honestly impressive how intuitive the other Hunter was. Like he knew when I was overthinking and drawing ridiculous, off-base conclusions.

Still, where had Nigel gone? What happened on their mission? Did they get Theo? I couldn’t ask. He would’ve ditched his phone after sending those messages, so I’d have to wait to hear whathappened while he and Nigel sowed discourse in Theo’s wolf society.

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