Page 43 of Inside the Wicked

“Please,” I say gently, approaching the storm everyone is braced to bolt from. “We can have everything we want and more if we just work together. I’ve been three agonizing months without Rhett, believing he was dead. I can hardly look at myself in the mirror since I took the hand of the vile monster who tortured and captured the only man I’ve ever loved. I did it for Rhett. I had to be sure he was gone for good, and if he was, that I had the patience to get this right. To hurt Alistair worse than he hurt me.”

My breath comes harder. My throat is so bone-dry it’s painful to squeeze any words out, but I can’t stop.

“Now I know he’s been alive all this time, and I can’t fathom what Alistair has been doing to him. If I knew where he was, I’d be tempted to rage there right now and get him back too. But it would never fix the fact that the monster who caused his pain is still out there. As long as he gets to keep going, he wins. Maybe Kenna doesn’t want to be saved because she doesn’t know she needs to be. She doesn’t believe anyone is coming after her after all this time. If you take her, the man who broke her still has his empire.”

“Then I’ll burn it to the fucking ground for her,” he snaps.

“I’m begging you,” I say. “Do this with me. For both of them. We can save them and have our revenge on Lanshall in ways that’d make him beg for death. To watch as you take it all.”

“I told you not to fucking beg.”

Silas paces, occasionally fixing his frightening, calculating stare on me as he does. Deliberating my fate. Rhett’s fate. He could abandon me completely and still get what he wants. Focus his efforts only on getting Kenna out, even if she doesn’t want to leave.

And I would understand. Love is crazy. It makes people do wild things they never would have thought themselves capable of in the name of someone else. But while most harbor their obsession, whether root or full bloom, Silas wears his for the world to see.

I find myself wanting to be as bold and reckless in my love for Rhett. To make the world know nothing could get in the way of him being mine.

“All right, Kinsley. We’ll try this your way.”

My relief strains to burst, but it’s held in the painful bubble of my chest as he lights another cigarette and approaches me with eyes primed to strike.

“I’m sure learning what Kaiser did was frightening to you. Then you dove deeper and discovered Lanshall and Forthson are terrifying. You’ve reached the very bottom now, princess, where everything above is like fucking paradise.”

CHAPTER 17

Anastasia

Inever thought I’d be able to say I sat with Silas Balenheizer across from Alistair Lanshall in the office only the most trusted of his people have ever been in.

What I don’t expect is for Kenna to be sitting with Alistair on the long sofa opposite ours. At least, her body’s here, but it’s as if she left her mind behind. She’s dressed in a stunning, modest purple dinner dress, leg crossed toward Alistair. I wonder if he’s asked her to be here to make himself seem like a man of honor and respect despite what he does to other women.

Alistair has been charming Silas, but I know it’s only simmering the rage he came in here with. I’m trying to play my part, as wrong as it feels. I smile fondly at Silas, turning into him, and occasionally brush the hair at his nape while his hand lies on my thigh. We’re the perfect show of an enamored couple.

“She made a convincing case to see you,” Silas says. He smokes a cigar this time, gifted by Alistair. I decide I hate the scent of those far more than cigarettes.

“Anastasia is in every way America’s Darling,” Alistair appraises.

“Don’t feel the need to flatter me,” I say. It’s an effort not to stiffen every time I meet eyes with Silas. “We’re just looking forward to growing our empires together, aren’t we?”

He hears my hidden meaning, giving a wicked curve of his mouth.

“As long as I have you,” he says.

Kenna has barely looked at us. Alistair lays a hand on her thigh like our affection inspires him. When it climbs a fraction higher, my fingers thread and tighten in the back of Silas’s hair. My pulse skips, but it’s as if I can feel him humming with an impulse to tear Alistair’s hand from her body this second. Literally.

A muscle in his jaw works, and he gives me a pained smile, patting my thigh. His signal that his bloodlust is tamed for now.

“Why don’t you ladies give us a moment to discuss serious matters?” Silas says.

He’s only saying this because he wants me to follow Kenna. I’m not looking forward to this confrontation. Getting any information from a spy who’s trained for a decade is impossible.

Kenna doesn’t miss a beat, heading out without a glance at us, and I stand too, trying not to balk under Alistair’s scrutiny as I leave.

Letting Kenna out of my sight for a second is enough for her to vanish. I don’t even hear the resounding click of her heels, and I was only seconds behind her.

I’m skipping around this ridiculously big, stupid forest home like a new guest about to wet her pants with no directions to the bathroom. I can’t miss this chance again. Silas is so close to dropping me in his plan, and I can’t. Lose. Him.

My heart tumbles out of my ass with the relief of spotting her outside an open set of balcony doors. I approach tentatively, as if she’s a raven that could fly away, as she’s perched on the thin railing, shoes off, swinging her legs. She blows out a cloudof smoke from her cigarette, and I almost feel bad to disrupt her seemingly rare moment of peace. It’s as if no one is watching.

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