Page 16 of Keeping Kasey
An actualsnort.
The source is a pixie of a girl perched on a chair at the table to our right.
At first glance, it’s impossible to tell how old she is. She has a round face and wild blonde curls falling over her shoulders that give her a youthful appearance, but there’s nothing youthful about the thin black tank top that clings to her chest. Her soft features are pinched in uncontrolled laughter, which is what brings me back to reality.
“Can I help you?” I ask, lacing condescension through each word.
Her laughter eases, and her eyes—a stunning, pale blue—meet mine. There’s something both alluring and wicked in those eyes as she regards me with an expression of pure amusement.
She smiles at the burly man who hasn’t stopped glaring since I sat down. “You’ll have to excuse my friends. It seems they’ve mistaken me for a man.”
“Is that right?” I ask, standing without a second glance at the man.
The girl stands, and I want to laugh at how small she is. The top of her head just reaches my shoulder, and she looks so fragile compared to James and me, who tower over her.
A wide smile spreads over full pink lips as she holds out her hand. “Kasey Camilla Miller.”
James sighs. “Cam.”
“Please, call me Kasey.”
The reality of the situation sets in.
Thisgirlhacked into my base and cut all power. She’s the reason we spent hours hunched over a computer playing a children’s game. Then, she screwed with us again by leading us to believe she was the man in the corner.
This girl looks better suited to teach Pilates than hack into the bases of the country’s most notorious mafia families. She’s attractive, with delicate features arranged in a smile—a perfect disguise for the hellion she’s proven to be.
Heat spreads through my chest, and I take a deep breath, careful to keep my mask of composure firmly in place.
I can use this. Somehow, I can use this.
I scan her up and down: the arrogant posture, the relaxed stance, the smug grin. While her overconfidence isn’t entirely undeserved, it is a pedestal I plan to kick out from under her.
“Any more tricks up your sleeve, or are you ready to start acting like an adult?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow.
My lack of reaction doesn’t seem to faze her. She drops the hand I refused to shake and sits at her table.
“Well?” she says when James and I take the seats across from her. “What’s your offer?”
“I’m not making you an offer.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Assessing a threat,” I say, leaning back in my chair.
Kasey’s smile is saccharine sweet. “And do you like what you see?”
My lip turns up.
She’s a fiery thing. She knows she has leverage, skill, and my attention—which is giving her one hell of a confidence boost.
And as I—once again—scan the girl in front of me, I’m sure she’s never experienced a confidence shortage a day in her life.
She’s beautiful.
I send my brother a look, and he lowers his head only slightly in answer.
“I think you look a hell of a lot easier to neutralize than he did,” I say, nodding toward the man who still glares at me.
