Page 57 of Broken Prince
We break off, and I take the right side of the room looking through the files and books my father has on the furniture. But there’s nothing of interest here, so I move on to the next. There are statements and ledgers for companies I’ve never heard of, but nothing incriminating.
“Shadow?” Kylo’s tone has me chewing on my lip as I look over to him. He has a file in his hand and his face is paler than normal. I put my stuff down and move over to him, looking over his shoulder and reading what’s on the paper, my stomach rolling. I stumble back a step as my breathing becomes heavy; it feels like something is crushing my windpipe and I can’t get enough air. My vision swims as I feel behind me for something to steady myself.
“We know who’s behind most of this now,” he says to comfort me. “I can’t believe it’s Jade,” he says, shock clear on his face. “I can’t believe she would be brave enough to come here?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, my anger rising. “Who the fuck is she?”
“She was behind everything with Bo and the guys, but Bo exiled her as punishment…”
“Wait a minute!” I cut him off. “He fucking sold me to your brother, then tries to back pedal on it by going to Warrick’s father,” I seethe. “But then he loses his bottle and tries to pull out?”
“I know,” he says, coming to lean against the desk with me. “But we know Bower’s brought her here to take down Bo and the guys.”
“Jade’s his cousin,” I growl, and my fingers are painful from the death grip I have on the edge of the desk. “She knew you liked me and she set it up for this shit to happen!”
“She’s a sneaky little fuck, but she will pay for everything she’s done,” he spits, I look up at him and I can see guilt clear as day on his face, he looks at me with a sad smile. “I’m so sorry you got brought into this, Shadow.”
“No, don’t do that,” I snap, standing up and turning to face him, “Don’t put the blame on yourself. She’s a psycho and she needs to be stopped.”
“We need to get these to Bo,” he says, standing to his full height in front of me. “You ready to get back?”
“I need to go see Mr. Tickles before we leave, but then we can go home,” I say, making sure the files we don’t need are where we found them.
“Okay,” he answers as his fingers tap away on his phone before he locks it and puts it in his pocket.
I let him go first and shut the door behind us, then carefully climb through the hatch and close the mirror, we must have got lost in searching because it’s gloomier outside than it was earlier. Kylo’s phone pings and he pulls it out, I look over his arm and see it’s later than I thought it would be.
“Bo just messaged saying there’s some shit going down in Black Creek and they have to deal with it. So we don’t have to rush as they’ll come back to the house when they can,” he says as he tucks his phone away.
We walk down the hallway in silence, and I smile as I think how weird it is that he’s here. A sadistic part of me wishes my father was here, because I know Frost scares the shit out of him even though he tries to play it off like he doesn’t. So I’m curious to see what reaction he would have to Kylo.
I cut through the kitchen to the back door and step out onto the deck, the zoo stretches out before us and I feel him move closer to me. The animals are making noises and doing what they do, and I chuckle as I feel his hand on my waist.
“Shadow, what is this?” he asks curiously.
“My dad’s zoo,” I say as I walk past the different enclosures. “He’s a collector of exotic animals.”
“Is that a lion?” he asks in shock.
“Yep, that’s Gumbo,” I say as I watch him call out into the air. I’ve always loved the sound they make and being able to hear it all the time was kind of soothing.
“You’re a strange woman, you know that?” he asks with a smirk. “But I want to know…” he asks with a quirked brow, “Do you boop the snoot?”
“Do you want to stick your hand in there to boop his nose?” I ask teasingly. He looks at me horrified, and I burst out laughing when I see him take a step further away from the enclosure. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
“Thank God, Miss Whitlock, I thought you’d left without coming here,” Adam says rushing over to us.
“I’m sorry we lost track of time,” I say sheepishly. “Are you okay to give me a hand with a spectator in there with us?”
“Sure, I can help,” he says ushering us to the gate of the biggest enclosure in here. “Sir, can you please stay behind us and if we tell you to run. Do it!”
“What the fuck do you mean, run?” he asks, higher pitched than normal.
“Have you got the meat ready?” I ask as I grab the pole for the smaller meat.
“Yes, we’re good to go,” he says.
I look at Kylo and I have to hold back the laughter as I see him trying to get a good look in the enclosure. I get everything I need and I let Adam go in front of me to get into position. I walk through the gate making sure he’s in step with me, and point to a sprayed marker on the ground. My eyes narrow on him as he looks at it and then at Adam, I see him gulp and I smirk. I hook some meat on to the end of my pole before slowly stepping toward the water.