Page 59 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
“Okay, uh… what the hell?”
I forced my body to move again. I stepped closer, staring down at the bouquet like it would suddenly explain itself. Rachelle hesitated, then moved with me. “Are these…?”
Her voice trailed off, but I already knew the question.
The answer sat on my Skroll page. The picture of Emir’s roses. The ones I had posted weeks ago. Rachelle’s eyes shifted toward me with her brows pinched. “Baylyn, these are just like the ones on your page.”
My fingers tightened around my keys.
“What the fuck?” she muttered, glancing around the parking lot. “Who the hell even knew we were here?”
I thought about the drinks that were sent to us. The mystery page liking my posts and the way that man at the bar had been watching me too intently. I wasn’t fearful but it was uncomfortable. Something wasn’t right but I also wouldn’t say that out loud. I forced my expression into a neutral one and shook my head. “It’s probably some weird coincidence.”
Rachelle gave me a look. “A coincidence? Girl, be serious. Someone left dead flowers on your car. That’s not random.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of prank?”
She scoffed. “A prank? From who? The same mystery person who sent the ones a few weeks ago. That was Emir, right?”
I stayed quiet because I didn’t have an answer.
Her voice softened. “Baylyn, was it Emir? Are y’all fighting or something?”
I turned to her quickly, shaking my head. “No. He wouldn’t do something like this.”
I said it with certainty because I knew him. Emir wouldn’t send a message like this. If he wanted me to know he was watching, he’d tell me directly. There wouldn’t be games. No theatrics.
Which meant…
This wasn’t him but it had to be connected to him somehow. I could feel it. Something from his world was crossing over to mine. I swallowed that thought and turned back to Rachelle with a casual shrug.
“Seriously, it’s nothing.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Baylyn?—”
“Rach, it’s fine.” I cut her off keeping my voice light, dismissive. “Some random idiot probably thought it’d be funny. Let’s just go.”
She stared at me a second longer with her lips pressed into a thin line, but finally nodded. “Fine. But I don’t like this shit.”
I forced a smile. “Can we not like it in the car because standing out here exposed is not the move.”
I pulled my door open, grabbed the bouquet without another glance, and tossed it to the ground before getting into the driver’s seat.
Rachelle got in beside me, still frowning. She didn’t say anything else. I could feel her thoughts and they mirrored mine. She also wasn’t the only one concerned. I just wasn’t ready to admit that I was too.
Chapter
Twelve
Emir.
The city was quiet at this hour. Not truly silent because Crescent Falls never really slept but out here the only sounds present were the crunch of gravel beneath my boots, the faint sound of security cameras rotating, and the low murmur of Yair’s voice in my earpiece.
"All clear. You’re good to go."
I slipped through the gate behind Calvin Mendez’s house. The fucker thought he was slick. For the last few months, shipments of firearms had been off. Not the whole shipment, but a few select crates at a time. Just enough to go unnoticed at first,but enough to piss off the right people once it started affecting their money.
I didn’t give a damn about arms dealers but I did care about the contracts they secured with me. I had been paid to figure out if Mendez was the one behind this shit, and if so, he wouldn’t be around for much longer. If he was the one stealing the guns, someone was feeding him just enough information to snatch what he wanted without setting off alarms.
