Page 69 of Poison Ivy
My mouth drops open in shock. “What?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck!”
“I know.”
“He does realise that it is comprised of a bunch of extremely powerful supernatural beings most of whom never reveal themselves?”
“He knows.”
“Fuck! Tate!”
“Yeah.”
We stare at each other, and I close my eyes, exhaustion pulling me under. But I open them again and ask, “What does he expect me to do?”
“Work from the inside to destroy them.”
“So basically, a suicide mission.”
He doesn’t reply. He doesn’t have to.
I let out a long, slow breath, trying to process thisnew information. “So, Torin wants to use me to take down The Syndicate from the inside, and he thinks I’ll just go along with this insane plan because... why exactly?”
Tate’s jaw clenches. “He has ways of ensuring cooperation, apparently.”
A chill runs down my spine at his words. “Torture?”
“Among other things, I’d imagine,” Tate says grimly. “Torin can be... creative when he wants something.”
I laugh bitterly. “Well, he’s in for a rude awakening if he thinks I’ll break that easily.”
Tate’s eyes darken. “Ivy, you don’t understand. Torin will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and right now, what he wants is you - Poison - under his control.”
“So, what do we do?” I ask, hating how small my voice sounds.
Tate is quiet for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the darkening horizon. When he finally speaks, his voice is low and intense. “We could run.”
I blink in surprise. “What?”
He turns to face me, his eyes burning with an emotion I can’t quite name. “We could leave. Tonight. Get as far away from here as possible. Start over somewhere new.”
For a moment, I let myself imagine it. A fresh start, away from The Syndicate, just Tate and me, building a new life together. It’s tempting, so tempting.
But reality comes crashing back in. “We can’t,” I say softly. “You know we can’t. The Syndicate would hunt me down. Besides, I don’t want to run. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every minute of every day. I need to think. I need to really think about what it is that Torin wants me to do.”
“That isn’t a no,” he murmurs.
“It’s not a yes, either. There are things that need dealing with first. Give me until the day after tomorrow, and I’ll have answers, okay?”
He nods and captures my chin in his grasp. He leans forward and kisses me deeply and possessively, sending tingles up my body from my toes to the top of my head.
I pull away from Tate’s kiss reluctantly, my mind spinning. “We should get back before anyone notices we’re up here.”
