Page 129 of Kai
Aaaaand here it came, complete in all its pathetic glory. The psychopath’s preferred strategy. Isolate the target. Take advantage of her history. Use it against her and make her feel seen, understood, wanted, in a totally predatory way.
I took a leveling breath and worked at cooling my fury. Cece was too smart to believe Levine’s shit, thank fuck. But the merc didn’t know this, and like he’d admitted, she was his best exit strategy, especially if he could incite a coup, and take me out of the equation altogether.
In his dreams. That shit was never gonna happen.
“Cersi, honeycomb of my nightmares.” He flashed a smile. “Iknowwho you are.”
“I doubt it,” she spat.
“You remind me of my mama.”
Cece sneered. “Was she a sadist like you?”
His eyes sparkled. “Best sadist ever.”
I learned on the spot that Levine’s disease was a product of both natureandnurture. Death and torture were in his DNA. His mother had passed on her sadistic genes to him. She’d probably taught him how to hurt others by inflicting pain on him, and yet, given the way he ogled Cece, I couldn’t muster an ounce of compassion for the merc.
“You need someone to help you achieve your potential.” The fucker nudged his head toward me. “That’s not Mr. Goody Two-Shoes. He’ll try to change you, force you to fit into his mold, suppress you. He’ll make you go back to your old life, the one you hated.”
I snarled. “You’re wasting your time,Jack.”
“Unlike you, I’minvestingmy time in a woman who’s worth every second.” The merc had the gall to keep going. “Cersi, I can unleash you upon the world. Château Astor may be huge and luxurious, but it’s also a labyrinth to nowhere that serves as a hidey-hole for a bunch of self-righteous pricks that are gonna get wiped out of existence. Why go back to living as a prisoner of a bunch of losers whenI’mwhat you’ve always needed in your life?”
At last, my restraint paid off. While trying to persuade Cece to his cause, he’d slipped and hadn’t even noticed. He knew all about Astor House. Every time he opened that big mouth of his, he gave me valuable info about his twisted personality, but also about his job and his association with the NWO. As for his efforts to lure Cece, the fucker couldn’t read the repugnance scrunching her expression.
“You? In my life?” Cece let out a mocking laugh, whirled on her heel, and stomped to the galley. “I’d rather spend my days rolling with pigs in the mud.”
“The idea of you dressed only in mud gives me the hots.”Levine schooled his voice into a silky tone. “I can make every one of your filthy fantasies come true. Think about it. You could be the Bonnie to my Clyde, the Steele to my Grey.”
Her pale blue glare flew across the room and hit her target. “I’d rather be the guillotine to your neck.”
The merc opened his filthy mouth. “Or—”
“Enough!” I’d had it with the asshole, and if we were gonna make rendezvous, we needed to get going soon. “Have you met Li?”
“You don’t meet Xao Li unless he wants to meet you.” The merc snorted. “He finds you, contacts you with orders. You carry them out and get paid. Or you get painted by a fucking missile.”
I looked at Cece for confirmation. From her place on the other side of the galley island, she nodded. Not only was she amazing. She’d found the perfect use for her gift.
Across the cabin, we locked eyes. I dared to hope that just as I accepted her gift, she would accept mine: that I sawher—the whole of her. And that I trusted herandher gift.
Chapter Forty-one
Cece
I nodded ever so slightly and got busy measuring up the coffee and pouring it into the filter. My chest inflated. Kai loved me, auras and crazy and all. How lucky could I be?
“What’s going on here?” the merc demanded. “Why are you two trading googly eyes?”
“None of your fucking business.” I sideswept the asshole with a glower, looking away from his revolting aura.
It wasn’t as if I wanted to study his disgusting energy, but I’d been desperate to figure out if he was telling us the truth, especially about Li tracking him to us. So, I’d summoned his aura. The vision that had answered my call came slowly, sluggishly, casing the merc with a poop-brown frame. It generated a flat hiss that sounded like a snake’s warning. The merc’s aura looked as stagnant as a putrid pond, and as thick and crusty as coagulated blood.
It was as if the man was already dead.
The mere sight of it gave me the shivers. Nausea squeezed my stomach, pain stabbed behind my eyes, and dread coiled in my chest. This didn’t surprise me. This poor excuse for a human was a psychopath and a murderer. If Dr. Lopez was correct, his dark energy was associated with negative emotions, blockages, violence, and selfishness.
It had taken me a few moments to figure out how to glean something useful from such a static vision. Once I did, I came up with a plan. I’d asked a couple of questions about things I knew about him, if only to test for changes in the merc’s energy field.
