Page 70 of Blood in the Water

“How can we start looking for Cas? We need to find him as soon as possible.”

His eyes followed me around the kitchen. Was that an edge of heat to his gaze?

“Ciel will do some searches to get us a lead on location.”

“And then?”

“And then we go and get him.”

It sounded so easy coming out of his mouth. But Max wouldn’t give him up without a fight. Without Wynn, I’d never be able to break Cas out of wherever he was.

I needed to get strong enough to fight my own battles.

I squeezed my eyes shut and laid my head down on the counter. My cheek pressed against the cool granite. “We don’t have forever.”

“Ciel does quick work, Leona.” He leaned over and placed his hand over mine. This time, I didn’t question my longing for his touch. I twisted my palm so our hands could interlock.

“I feel like a total asshole, sitting here and doing nothing.” I closed my eyes with a sigh. “I want to beout there. Walking the streets if I have to. Doing anything I can to find him.”

“I know how hard it is to wait for news,” he murmured, thumb brushing over my wrist. The gentle gesture sent tingles up my arm. “It feels like you’re going to bounce out of your skin. But I promise, being patient and conserving our energy until we have a plan isnotdoing nothing. Caspian would be in even worse shape if you got caught while searching for him.”

“I know. I want to be smart about this. It just sucks.”

“Would you perhaps want to train instead?”

My head shot back up. “Train?”

“Back at the safe house, before Ciel called, you said you wanted to learn how to wield weapons. To fight.”

My eyes went wide. “You’d start teaching me? Now? We barely slept.”

Adrenaline and anxiety kept me wired with energy even though I’d spent the night crying, and I felt guilty for resting even a minute, but Wynn deserved some sleep.

He waved his other hand. “I’m fine. It might be a good distraction. Ciel is one of the best in the world, but this kind of work still takes time. As we discussed last night, Max won’t kill Caspian when he has a link to you. It’s okay if you try to take your mind off it for the time being. When we have something, we’ll get him back, I swear it.”

“Where would we go train?” I didn’t want to be too far away if Ciel had news.

“The floor we’re on now has all our bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room, the weapons closet, and the library. We also own the floor below this one, where we train at our personal gym.”

My eyes went wide at the wordlibrary. This place was fucking amazing. Whenever I calmed down and stopped trying to distract myself, I’d have to explore.

“Then yes.” I straightened. If I was more competent with a weapon, maybe I could have fought back against Max sooner. Maybe I could have avoided this altogether if I had simply killed him in my father’s study. Training my meager skills could even help me get Cas back faster.

The corner of Wynn’s mouth pulled up. “Excellent.”

26

CASPIAN

Icame to with a sharp intake of breath. The room was dark, a single light hanging from the ceiling and shining directly on me like I was in a fucking detective movie in an interrogation room. But this wasn’t interrogation—this was torture.

My temple pounded in beat to my pulse, still reeling from the latest hit that had briefly knocked me out. My ribs were on fire. My fingers were broken already, three nails missing. The ropes pinning my hands behind my back and my legs to the feet of the chair had already long rubbed my skin raw.

It had been hours of this. Or had it been days? It didn’t matter. I was still alive, which meant so was Leona. My every breath was a giant middle finger to the poor excuse of a man standing in front of me while his second-in-command beat the shit out of me.

“Just tell me,” my former best friend sighed heavily. He pinched the bridge of his nose, his designer suit still immaculate. He cracked his knuckles, which to others might seem intimidating, but tome—his best fucking friend—was one of his few nervous habits. Beside him, that traitorous bastard Elio wiped his hands on a handkerchief.

“Fuck you.” I spat a glob of mucousy blood right on the top of Max’s shoe. “You’re a fucking tragedy, Max.”