Page 31 of Jaded Princess
Kai met me on the same wavelength. “Did you deliberately lose to her?”
Theo stalked toward us, then easily past us. “If you’re coming, Scarlet, you’d better hurry.”
“But—but—” Kai looked to me, like I could somehow possess all the answers to Theo’s motivations.
“Dude, I don’t know,” I said. Theo’s form was slowly blending into the black of the night. “But I need to go before he disappears again.”
“Scar, wait.” Kai caught my elbow. “I have such a bad feeling about this.”
“Then why did you agree to work with him in the first place?”
“I didn’t—argh!” If Kai had fangs, I would’ve seen them. He released my arm in a dead drop. “Everything I do, all I’ve done, is to try to do right by the law, yes, but also to keep yousafe, Scar. When we first started this, we totally knew it was dangerous. Probably stupid—definitely insane. But you were the only link remaining to the Saxons we had. A family growing in riches at an alarming rate, and off the backs of criminals and bodies. Even if the FBI no longer believed in using an uninformed, uneducated, barely experienced cocktail waitress—”
“Is this supposed to make me like you again?”
He palmed his chest. “I believed in you. Inus.But now we’ve crossed that line from danger to definitely dead. You can’t go with him,” he repeated. “And you absolutely cannot do this alone.”
“I won’t be alone.” I pointed in the direction Theo departed. “I have him. He’s lethal.”
“Exactly my worry.”
“Sax won’t hurt me,” I said softly. “Not physically.”
“Even he admits he can’tkeepyou from getting hurt.”
I paused for a long exhale. A boat sounded its horn in the distance.
Kai stepped closer. “You know what this means if you go with him.”
I didn’t answer.
“He’s a fugitive,” Kai said anyway. “And you’ll be one, too.”
An itch began at my shoulder blade. Absently, I scratched it, and thezingof pain as I broke skin was both surprising and pleasing. “It’s our last chance to get Trace. Sax probablydoesknow something, and Trace will be in the wind by the time we figure it out for ourselves.”
“I don’t think you fully understand,” Kai said. “The FBI will consider you a traitor, they’ll come after you, too. I didn’t tell them Theo contacted me months ago. I definitely didn’t disclose that I agreed to work with him in order to try and get you out of this.”
“I don’t give a shit about that.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, aren’t you the brave one. How about this, then? I’m calling Chenko right now. Telling him we have Theo. Admitting all my wrongs.”
I reeled. “Kai, don’t—”
He lifted his phone out of my reach. “I’m not letting him get away, Scar. Not this time. And especially not with you. I didn’t agree to any of this. He broke his promise. I’m bringing him in.”
“Don’t!” I grappled for Kai’s hands, and he twisted, smacked, elbowed me out of the way as he tried to press Chenko’s contact button. “You’re making a mistake, we don’t have enough—”
“We have a Saxon!” Kai shouted, arms spread wide. “And I have you. So what more am I waiting for?”
I leapt for his phone again. Missed. When his screen flashed in front of me, I saw the ominous green call button.
“You can’t!” I cried.
Kai’s thumb hovered, then paused. His face showed genuine concern. “Scarlet, you can’t possibly still love him.”
“I don’t,” I replied.
“You’re about to push me off a dock so I don’t get him arrested.”