Page 153 of The Kingpin's Call Girl

I feel like I might be loosening one of the bars when I hear the main door open.

I go still. It could be anybody coming in here. Is it my sister? If she frees me, maybe there’s still time to go after him...

“Princess.”

I gasp. “Luka?”

He strolls in looking sexy and relaxed, pocket square gleaming, hair roguishly mussed. Face still faintly bruised.

“Ohmigod, what happened? Did you change your mind?”

“Not exactly.” He climbs onto the bed next to me and unlocks the handcuffs.

“What happened?”

“Remind me to teach you how to get out of these one of these days.”

He’s talking about the future—us in the future.

“Luka!” I get up on my knees and grab his shoulders. “You changed your mind! You decided to blow off the whole he-man-stroll-into-a-hail-of-bullets thing!”

“No, I went.”

“What?”

“You know I had to go.” He checks the bandage on my wrist. “This okay?”

“You went?”

“Your hand?—”

“It’s fine.” I yank it from him. “Tell me what happened.”

“The DNA test worked out in my favor.”

“Wait, what? So that means you’re your father’s son, after all? You seemed sure you weren’t.”

He hauls me into his lap. “The DNA test suggests that I’m descended from The First—a purebred kyre, I suppose you could say.”

“So you’re not... related to your father?”

“I’m related to my father in that my father is descended from The First, but my blood is purer. I’m more closely related to The First. At least that’s what the test said.”

I blink. “So... your mom had an affair with some super purebred guy or something?”

“Well, no.” He gazes out the window, thinking. Processing. “It’s actually bullshit. You know that ring Orton wears?”

“The one with the big red stone?”

I explain to her about the relic ring. How our people took relics from The First’s body—usually hair or bits of his burial shroud—and shut them up into those rings. And now Orton wore a fake ring.

“The hair is old, probably degraded, but there was enough DNA in it to make me look like the second coming of the original kyre.”

I look at him in disbelief. “The man who one hundred percent would want to kill you if you turned out to be a regular guy posing as a true blood? That’s the guy who fixed the test.”

“It’s... a lot to process.”

“Is it, though? It’s called loyalty, Luka. You earned his loyalty.”

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