Page 15 of Twisted Desire

“Jackson who?” I ask.

Monica bites her lip. “Hawthorne.”

Nikolai shakes his head. “He won’t help.”

I turn to him again. “How do you know?”

“Because he was light fae and always hated the idea of merging with the dark.”

“But doesn’t he care that people—our people—are dying?” Allison asks.

Nik shrugs. “Yeah, probably not. The guy’s an asshole.”

“Makes sense you know him,” I mutter. “You probably hang out together at some shady club.”

He shoots me a grin. “Please. He’s not cool enough.”

“Guys,” Allison cuts in, getting our conversation back on track.

“All I’m saying is Jax has pull with the fae community around here. At least those who are—or were, I guess—light fae,” Leigh says.

“We should call a meeting,” Allison suggests, because apparently, that’s the only thing we know how to do. I’ve about had it with all of these goddamn meetings. “See how many fae we can bring together. The more that show up, the more information we’ll get.”

“Will those who identified as dark fae even show?” Monica asks. “They know how much Jax despises them.”

“He sounds like another Jules,” I say with a shiver. I thought that fucker was one of a kind.

“He’s not,” Nikolai assures us. “He’s a total ass, yeah, but he’d never do the shit Jules had planned. Honestly, I’m surprised Jules didn’t kill him. He was always challenging Jules’s position.” Huh. Maybe he’s not so bad.

“Can you contact him?” I ask Leigh.

“I’ll try. He’s not exactly an easy guy to get ahold of.”

Nikolai smiles, but it’s far from friendly.Consider my curiosity piqued.“I’ll do it,” he says.

“I feel like we’re on a wild goose chase at this point,” Allison says, flopping onto the bed inside our hotel suite. It’s a simple room with two double beds and a flat screen on the opposite wall. There’s a small bathroom with a toilet and a tiny sink and tub.Ah, the life of luxury. Fuck, I miss the Westbrook Hotel.

“We’re bouncing from contact to contact without getting any real information that’s going to help us take down The Experiment,” she continues.

Allison’s right. I’m as frustrated as she is, but I’m trying to keep it together—at least on the outside. Nikolai is in the room next door, hopefully on the phone with Jackson. Oliver followed him, leaving Allison and me together.

“What’s the plan if this Jackson guy agrees to meet us?”

I sit at the desk in the corner of the room and pull my lipstick and compact out of my clutch. Popping it open, I reapply the dark red to my lips, pressing them together to make sure it’s blended. “Jackson has more contacts than we can get in touch with fast enough. The idea is for him to get everyone to meet at one spot so we can speak to the whole group at once.”

“If anyone shows. Jackson isn’t a fan of the dark fae, so who’s to say others won’t feel the same?”

After I close my lipstick and put both it and the compact away, I swivel the chair around to face her. “Whatever happens, happens,” I say in a flat voice. “There’s nothing more we can do than send out the invitation and wait for fae to show up.”

“Right. And from there?”

I don’t have a fucking clue. “One step at a time.”

There’s a knock at the door before Nikolai pops his head in.

“So?” I ask, combing my fingers through my hair.

He walks into the room, followed by Oliver who has his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. “So what?” he says with a little grin.

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