Page 68 of Let Us Prey
I must have made a noise, because she gives me another one of those sassylooksas she takes my hand again, pulling me into a room lit by torches like we’re inIndiana Bonesor something. Her eyes dance with mischief as she gestures at the floor and grins. “Brace yourself.”
That’s when thefucking floor drops beneath us.
“HOLY FUCK!” I yelp, before clearing my throat. My girl just smirks as we rocket down into the darkness aboard someTemple of Doomrolling boulder bullshit. When it finally jerks to a halt, I can only gape at her in shock.
“You get used to it,” she simply shrugs, like it's no big deal, before leading me to the edge of the big ass cliff we’re standing on. With her free hand, she gestures across the gap standing between us and the glassed-in room on the other side of the bottomless pit. “We have to jump.”
Dropping my hand again, she scrunches up her cute little nose and expertly springs across the gap, like the rabbit she is. Oh, yeah, my dick definitely noticedthat.
But I already knew she had thighs of steel.
You know, from the time I was between her thighs, licking her—
“Bash! Are you coming?”
“I might be, if you keep bossin’ me around like that, Cherry!” I call back, taking a running leap to land beside her on the other side. This place is awesome, and I can’t believe the spicy lizard has been hiding it from us.
I’m never buying him a stress ball ever again.
Delores runs through some biometric face recognition shit, and the glass door to the archives silently swings open. It’s all I can do to not start humming theMission Impredabletheme song as the airtight door closes behind us with a whoosh and a series of bright white lights click on in succession. My girl hurriedly puts on some adorable white gloves before handing me a pair, and I realize she wants me to wear them while we're here.
But she didn’t saywhere…
“Here’s the book I was thinking of!” Delores excitedly rambles as she places a dusty old tome on the table in front of her and flips to the index. “Ooh, there’s a chapter called ‘The Dragon’s Door.’ That sounds promising! Part of the original image left intact on Nico’s stained glass project showed a door and…ohmigawd,BASH!What thehellare you doing?!”
Shefinallynotices my dick is out, wearing one of the white gloves she gave me like a little hat. “Just offering you the white-glove service! Only the best for my girl.” I shake my hips enticingly.
As usually happens with anyone who comes face to face with Dr. Wolfenschlong, she’s understandably speechless. Finally tearing her baby blues away from my masterpiece, her gaze drifts to the security camera in the far corner before nervously flitting back to me.
Oops.
I whip the glove off and toss it back in the pile for Aubrey to deal with before tucking myself back into my pants. “All right. Dragon doors. Hit me with the top-secret intel, Agent Cherry.”
Delores clears her throat and turns back to her boring book, although I notice she’s struggling to hide her smile. “Ok, so it looks like it’s actually a dragon doorknockerwe’re looking for. And through that door is a ‘Blood Moon Circle,’ whateverthatis.”
Well, this just got more interesting!
“Blood, hmm?” I murmur, invading her personal space from behind, breathing her in. “Are we talking about ritual sacrifice? Or just a regular everyday stabbing?”
She shoots me an unreadable look over her shoulder. “It doesn’t really say, just that the ‘Apex Society’ should use this location to harness the power of the Blood Moon.”
I furrow my brow. “ApexSociety?I’ve never heard of them. There’s theCouncil,obviously, but I didn’t think they did witchy shit like this.”
“Well, I’m going to take a few photos of this section,” she says, taking out her DiePhone. “Maybe Aubrey or Renard will know something, since they’re so old... "
Grimacing, I glance up at the camera again. “Yeah… I’d say start with Renard. I can also see if Cash can ask Nonna if she knows anything next time they talk.”
Delores shelves the book and removes her gloves before leading me from the archives. “It’s really sweet that Cassius checks in with your grandma like that! I’ve been seeing this whole other side of him lately that makes me think he’s not the hardass he pretends to be.”
A bark of laughter escapes me as we step back onto the boulder go-kart for the return trip. “Yeah, Cash shows his softer side,sometimes... "I quickly switch gears before I spill too much about his past. “But Nonna doesnot.She is the current head of the entire Romulus family, back in Italy, and not a woman you wanna fuck with. Titus may think he’s next in line after our father, but... "
Fuck. Why can’t I stop my stupid mouth from being stupid?
“Titus?” her face scrunches in confusion. “You have another brother?”
I almost clam up entirely, but Delores is a Romulus now, so the least I can do is make sure she knows her history. “Not anymore, Cherry.” I sigh, allowing all my anger and betrayal—all my pain—to plainly show as I turn to face her. “The day he testified against Cash was when he ceased to be my family... " Our rocky ride starts up with an ominous clang that echoes throughout the cavernous space. “And became nothing more than the enemy.”
THIRTY-NINE
