Page 24 of Cruel Pawn (Cruel Duet #1)
Arden
BeatsPerMinute:
CameoSawConquered:
psychometer
damn stef youre really shit at coming up with names arent you
MostArdently:
Be nice, Cameo.
And maybe a 5…?
No more than a 6 angel emoji
Unless you count destroying someone’s birth control as psycho…
But that’s just good planning imo
BeatsPerMinute:
That’s a 10, you fucking lunatic.
MostArdently:
Ha!
Always knew I was a ten out of ten
CameoSawConquered:
just so you know im pinching the bridge of my nose in true and utter exasperation rn
does she even want a baby
MostArdently:
Yup
She just doesn’t know it yet
BeatsPerMinute:
Jesus fuck
MostArdently:
Sure, if that’s your kink
BeatsPerMinute:
I hate both of you.
I’ve actually never been so glad to be in a bullshit economy seat because at least it’s a distraction from your bullshit.
MostArdently:
Oooh
Off jetsetting are you, DJetSet? emojis
CameoSawConquered:
I thought you had the month off??
MostArdently:
Wait.
She’s using punctuation.
Why are you using punctuation, Cameo?
What do you know that I don’t?
Stop keeping secrets from me!
I’m part of the cool killers club, too!
If you forget me or exclude me in any way, I will cry, and I know you both hate criers…
BeatsPerMinute:
God
Calm the fuck down
MostArdently:
Well, okay, but only because you called me god.
CameoSawConquered:
this isnt about a certain singer on one of your songs is it………..
BeatsPerMinute:
No.
I haven’t seen him in weeks.
Mind your fucking business.
MostArdently:
What singer? eyes emojissss
Stef, are you in luuuurve?
…Stef?
CameoSawConquered:
guess he ditched us
ill tell you everything but I dont know much
MostArdently:
Wait, hold that thought.
My future wife is waking, and I must attend to her every whim.
CameoSawConquered:
unamused emoji
MostArdently:
Sexy stuff winkies
CameoSawConquered:
yes thank you i got that
i can see you typing
i dont want details
DO NOT give me details
MostArdently:
Ooooh, all caps, Miss Cameo means business.
Don’t worry, this is all private and confidential.
No one else gets to know what my wife looks like when she comes.
CameoSawConquered:
WIFE???
YOU MARRIED HER??
MostArdently:
Well, not yet…
But everyone dreams of walking down the aisle.
And I’m determined to make her every dream come true.
CameoSawConquered:
fuck you really are a 10 on the psychometer
I smirked at my phone, even if my darling cousins had interrupted my very important task of the morning.
“What the fuck is that?” Priya asked groggily, sitting up in bed and finding both cuffs reattached. Her attention was on the box on the kitchen counter in front of me, or maybe the blister pack in my hand. “Arden. That better not be what I think it is.”
“Oh these?” I asked innocently, popping out another pill on the counter. “These are just some surplus birth control pills.”
“My birth control,” she snarled, fighting at the chains, her eyes like pools of lava. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
I dared. I popped them all out onto the counter and used the side of a knife—hers, the one she stabbed me with—to crush them into a powder that I promptly swept into the bin.
“There,” I said to my seething wife. “No more pesky little pills.”
“I swear to fucking god, I will get out of these chains and end you.” Her nostrils flared, her face growing red. Adorable.
“I look forward to it,” I replied, and meant it. She was so fucking perfect even when she was trying to kill me. Actually, it made my dick hard when she got that murderous look in her eyes; she should do it more often. “What was the man who assaulted you called?”
Her fire banked. I regretted the question, but I needed his name. The expression on her face could only be described as wary, her eyes narrowed, mouth in a flat line.
“Why?” she demanded. “That better not be my laptop,” she snapped when I sat at the small table in the corner of the kitchen and cracked open the glossy silver MacBook. “Arden, leave it. I’m serious. I don’t want to rake all this up again.”
I sighed, meeting her eyes for a long moment. Beneath the anger and wariness was fear, and it stabbed right into my soft heart.
“Alright,” I agreed. Lied. I’d have to get creative in finding his identity. No problem. I got through her laptop’s defences once, and I could do it again. “What do you want for breakfast? Pancakes? Baked oats?”
Her flat look could have melted glass.
“I’ll make both,” I decided, knowing my future wife better than she thought I did.
She’d eat, she just refused to be beaten, and accepting food would concede a defeat.
I wasn’t sure what battle we were locked in this time, but I didn’t mind pretending to lose if it soothed my girl’s ego.
Even if she was seriously, devastatingly pretty when she glared.
I closed her laptop and got to my feet, getting ingredients together. While pancakes sizzled in the pan, I glanced at the group chat to see if Cameo had given me any gossip about the guy Stefan was obsessed with, but what I saw instead made my gut cramp and my spine stiffen.
CameoSawConquered:
btw i tracked down who sent an assassin after you and youre not gonna like it
brace yourself
it ran through a couple offshore accounts under different names but it traces back to coco holloway
which we all know is an alias of cricket hamish
I’m sorry, Arden, but your mum ordered the hit.