Page 27 of Desert King

“I have food and a half bottle of wine?”

She gets off me. “We’re not friends. He wants you gone. So, get gone. I’ll give you until Sunday.”

“Or what? You’ll jump me again?”

“Please. You looked good but your kiss is boring as fuck.”

“Really? Tell Tarak, Edge didn’t think so.” I smile smugly, knowing how much Tarak hates Edge.

“What?” Her head snaps up. Murder is back in her eyes. She picks up her gun. Looks like I hit her neve instead of his.

“Are you his ex or something?”

“Or something.” She bares her tiny, perfect teeth at me. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, horny COVID girl. But I need you to blow out of town as quickly as you came in. Don’t make trouble for my brother and me. If you mess with us, we’ll take you out to the desert and let it decide your fate.”

“You’re his sister?”

I study her closer. Her skin has the same bronze gold brown color, her eyes aren’t as dark, but the strong bone structure in her face is similar but softer at the cheek. “My brother hates you and I can see why.”

“You can?”

“You’re a vixen. A seductress. Even I wanted a taste and I’m straight as the arrows my ancestors used in battle.”

“Me a seductress?” I collapse on the bed, laughing until tears spring from my eyes. “Bitch, please. These inverted tits and boney ass can’t seduce shit.”

She slaps me hard across the face. “Sunday. You, Gone. Get it?”

“Or what?” I spit, grabbing her hair hard. She slaps me again and I punch her in the stomach. She rolls off me to the floor. “Make it Saturday. And when I come back it won’t be just be. I’ll have the Royal Bastards with me.” She slams the door. The cheap windows rattle.

“I’m calling the police on your ass!” I scream after her, already hunting for my cell.

The door flies back open. “Do it. They’ll have a good laugh. My name’s Regan Cassadore. Make sure you tell Greg that when he answers dispatch.”

With the phone pressed to my ear, I make the call, calling her bluff.

“Local dispatch is this an emergency?”

“Yes. I-I was assaulted by an intruder in my apartment.”

“Are they still there?”

“She... just left.”

“She?”

“Regan. Regan Cassadore.”

“Is this the brown mouse?”

“What?!”

“You have till Friday.”

The call ends.

She laughs from the open door. “My brother’s the king. You think the cops will help you when my brother protected them all? Kept their families fed and safe?”

She must be talking about the pandemic. Jenny filled me in on some of what had happened here. This mountain town tucked away in the desert was surrounded by Tarak and his knights riding their horses made of chrome.

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