Page 40 of Pretty When She Breaks

I roared, grabbing the broken chair and throwing it across the room. It crashed into my shelves as I sank to my knees.

I needed to take Thaddeus down for my own peace of mind. For the pack’s future.

But there wasn’t a future without Ocean.

“I can have both,” I muttered, grabbing my notebook from the table and scattering papers everywhere.

Free Ocean without compromising our mission.

I could do this. I had to.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by a door slamming open somewhere in the house. I exited my room to find Kaos snatching up his jacket from the back of the chair. He’d already shouldered his tool bag, though goodness knows what he was planning to use it for.

“Got her,” he snarled. “She lives in the Starlight villa.”

He started toward the exit.

“What?” I said, darting in front of the door. “Where are you going?”

“To fucking find her,” he said. He was a mess, a flickering live wire in the bond.

With a sudden, dawning panic, I realized it was just me and him right now.

He was more unstable than I’d felt in years, and I didn’t know how to handle him. I didn’t know how to calm him down or what to say. So, I just grabbed my stuff and followed him out the door.

She lived deep in the lion’s den, but it didn’t seem to matter.

I’d never thought I’d see Kaos enter the Crimson Palace again, but here he was, striding through the door with single-minded focus. I followed, trying to keep close and paranoid that he’d be recognized.

I tried to remind myself the chances were extremely slim.When he’d left the Blood Well, he still had the bulk of a fighter in his prime, muscles that had long since wasted away to leave him with his current skeletal frame. His hair had grown long now, almost to his waist, and he’d dyed it a light blue.

People barely gave us a second look as we walked past the nightclub.

Kaos had prepared before we left, setting a thirty-minute blackout on the first floor camera. We didn’t have much time left. He was erratic, his hands clenching and releasing, muttering under his breath. His eyes were darting back and forth, and I was hoping whatever he planned to do would calm him again. Ocean was the one who could bring him back from these moods, and I’d never paid much attention to how.

I didn’t think I’d have to.

We walked through the lobby, and I pulled out the VIP key card we’d swiped a few months back, using it to access the private path that led to the luxury villas. Kaos practically vibrated as we walked.

I was almost sick with relief that no one was there as we wound through the garden paths.

Kaos glanced at the black and gold signs we passed.

We passedSunset, Twilight,andMidnight, and he stopped abruptly at the next one.

Starlight.

Thick hedges rose above us, and Kaos unlatched the metal gate and strode down the paved path. I closed the gate behind us, heart pounding. There was a garden, with a birdbath on the lawn, and I followed Kaos up the steps to a small veranda. I glanced at the windows facing us; no lights were on. Was she still out, then?

The wood creaked under our feet, and Kaos impatientlysnatched the key card and swiped it. To my surprise, the light flashed green, and Kaos yanked the door open with a snarl.

Her scent stopped us both in our tracks as soon as we stepped inside. The scent present on the blindfold had been stale, but here in her place, the scent was alive. The scent of roses was vibrant, slightly spicy and earthy, and the vanilla notes were sharp like spun sugar crackling in the air.

It was so beautiful that I wanted to find the source of it and surround myself with it until it was the only thing I could smell. I felt my shoulders loosen as I breathed it in.

A black cat suddenly shot away down the corridor, breaking me out of the spell.

Kaos was unresponsive, the only movement his nostrils flaring.