Page 18 of Seduce & Destroy

I shrugged. “A scenario.”

“A scenario,” he deadpanned.

“A scenario. Yes.”

“If you weren’t interrupted, would the scenario have led to sex?”

I gasped. “No! Get your head out the gutter, it wasn’t like that.”

“Sure, looked like it.”

“Well, looks are deceptive. It was hand-to-hand combat. You have to get close to your partner.”

“Close, yes. Pressed down under them, no. And hey, it’s okay, Kenna’s hot. A little reckless but you should have a little danger in your life, but don’t trust her.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m the daughter of a mafia boss.” And I was smart.

“Yes, and? You’ve left the compound for like a total of four weeks of your life.”

“Wha–” I attempted to interrupt.

“Total.”

I grew angry and pushed Neenan away from me. “Okay, fine, I may be sheltered, but I’m always in danger.” Then lowered my voice. “We all are.”

Silence passed between us. This week had been an unrelenting grievance for this family and organisation, the scale of the attack was unprecedented in my lifetime. And there was a threat banging on a pan in the back of all our heads, building like a migraine to incapacitate us. They just hadn’t revealed themselves yet.

In a quiet wisp of breath, Neenan conceded. “Especially now.”

“You think they really did it?”

“Who?”

“Rivals? Suppliers?” Karsteins. There was a desperate hope that maybe my sheltered lifestyle could remain in its cocoon, but the foreboding fog had begun to settle across the Ravencroft Estate. The writing plastered on the wall.

He gave me a sad smile. “I hope not.”

Father said we went underground. But he lied.

We were lying in wait.

Chapter 6

KENNA

They are going to kill me.

Darkness befell the Ravencroft Estate as I stood outside Laney’s door. After she got pulled off of me in training, I’d been itching to see her again. Not only because of her disappearing act that evening—this place was shrouded in mysteries that I wasn’t yet privy to—but also because I feared that I was the cause for her worried expression as she left the training room. It was code for regret.

I’d only seen her in passing today. It wasn’t good enough.

“I see the shadow of your feet under the door.” A voice semi-shouted from the room. She’s awake and feisty. I liked it. “You can come in.”

I opened the door without a word. The sight before me took me by surprise. Laney sat at the centre of her bed, legs crossed, with a grey matted face mask on and a nail file in hand. It was a gentle image in comparison to the brutalist style of the barracks and the men who filled them. I was lucky that they placed me in the main house. They told me boys and girls don’t mix. It wasn’t problem for me, I wouldn’t look at the boys twice anyway.

Her eyebrows raised as she took me in.

“Surprised to see me?” I said.