Page 83 of Monstrous Urges

“Ahh yes, from the parents without social security numbers.”

I bristle, but this isn’t news to me.

“They were?—”

“What,” Drazen smiles lethally. “Day traders trying to avoid taxes?”

“They…worked for the government, okay?” I mutter.

That’s what my great-aunt Florence told me when I woke up.

Drazen actually laughs. “What, spies?”

I nod. When he snorts and rolls his eyes, I glare at him.

“That’s such a fantastically unrealistic career for an international crime lord to imagine?”

He arches a brow, saying nothing as he dips his chin.

“That’s honestly where it came from. They set it up for me before they died, and I didn’t touch it until I was ready to launch the firm.”

“Yes, well, unfortunately,” he mutters. “That isn’t true. The money is mine. And you seem to have stolen it the night you…” His brow furrows deeply. “The night you, shall we say, cheated death.”

I shake my head. “No. That money is mine. It was my parents’—”

“You know this how.”

I glare at him. “My great-aunt Florence told me!”

“Yes, a woman you knew for two months.”

“She was my great-aunt!” I spit.

Drazen shrugs and drums his fingers on the arm of his chair. “I won’t charge interest when we arrange the repayment plan.”

I look away. “You are such an asshole.”

“So I’ve been told.”

I take a slow breath, pushing my hair back as I gaze out over the water. “Do people really think I’m—I mean, Annika—is dead? Like, the people sitting at this Iron Table thing?”

“They do.” His brow furrows. “So did I, actually.”

“Until?” I frown. “I mean, when did you...how did you?—”

“Your tattoo,” he murmurs.

I stare at him, open-mouthed. “Do you know what it means?” I blurt.

He nods, and my pulse spikes.

“Tell me,” I whisper heatedly. “Please. I’ve wondered about it ever since I woke up.”

Drazen looks away.

“Please…”

“It’s your family crest.”