Page 113 of Terror Tuesday

The air grows tense for a moment as she pauses with her fork in the air. “I need to tell you something.”

I spread my napkin over my lap and take a swig of my drink, eyeing her nervousness over the rim. “Yes?”

Her breasts rise with a deep breath before she says, “They assigned me to kill you.”

Without knocking over the candle in the middle, I reach across the table and stroke her cheek gently. “I know.”

thirty-one

Valen speaksas if he’s aware of everything. My mouth hangs open. “Youknew?”

“I mean, I figured that’s what would happen. I think they’ve sent someone to watch me…a man in a cloak. And then I toyed with them. Didn’t complete an assignment the way they liked. So they gave me one that would be impossible to complete, so I’d have to face their wrath.”

As ravenous as I was, I’m suddenly not hungry. “And what was that?”

“To kill your father.”

A breath gets caught in my chest as my fork slips from numb fingers, clattering on the fine china like a gunshot. My heart slams against my ribs like it’s trying to escape. Terror and disbelief collide in my veins. Would he do this to me—destroy everything I love?

“Oh, I have no intention of harming Xavier Cardell. Besides…” He shrugs, his tone so casual it’s chilling. “He had something I wanted.”

Valen’s steady green eyes crinkle at the corners, as if amused that I would think he could do such a thing. SeeingElliotsay it relaxes me somewhat.Somewhat.

“What was that?”

He acts like he didn’t hear me and carves into his lobster, savoring the bite. Fine. I guess I’ll find outmyway.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I tell him, my voice steady even though I can still taste the fear that coated my tongue. “I was told to, yes. But I never would. You know that.”

He studies me from across the small dining table, a half-smile playing on his lips. “It seemed touch and go there for a minute.”

His candor relaxes me enough so that I can take a bite and relish the gourmet flavor. I’d been starving before coming here. My stomach rumbles with eagerness. “Why? Because you were pretending to be Mister Scholarship Perfection and taking me on normal dates while tying me to the headboard andleavingme for Sora to find at night?”

He smirks. “Yeah. Because of all of that.”

The flicker of a candle between us casts shadows up the walls, catching on the peeling paint and the faint glint of broken glass in the corners. Seeing him in this light, in this place…he’s evenmorestrikingly handsome than that first day I saw him at the president’s luncheon. Valen seems…peaceful. Dangerous, but calm. Like he’s always known I’d end up right here, across the table from him, secrets exposed.

“You have a plan,” I say, eyes narrowing.

He tilts his head, sandy hair slipping over his forehead. “Don’t I always?”

An argument stirs on the edge of my tongue. One I wouldn’t dare raise with men in the past, but the urge is there. To push him, to demand he stop treating everything like a game he couldwin. But his smirk softens, his eyes growing warm and earnest. I press my lips together to swallow the need to keep fighting him.

One of his hands extends across the table, reaching for mine. “Eat with me, Olivia. For tonight…let’s pretend there’s no one else but us. Just this and our food and the rain. No rules or society to worry about.”

My shoulders relax. That sounds perfect… “I would love that.”

Dinner is…surreal. Sitting here across from a man I’d known as someone else is bizarre. But the more he chats with me, the more at ease I feel. It’s like his two halves have become one.

I like it.

“So I’m your first, huh?” I say like a cocky schoolgirl, proud that I deflowered such a savage man.

“You’re my only,” he says without hesitation.

I feel warm all over at the adoration in his tone. “Why is that, Valen?”

He continues to eat, chewing his bites carefully. “We were homeschooled. Tutored. Mainly, self-learning. My parents are…different. I just played video games, I guess. Never was interested in anything else.”