Page 143 of Terror Tuesday

Giggling, I take my toes and lightly kick him, but he grabs my ankle until I almost fall. He snatches my waist and hoists me over his shoulder while I balance my coffee like a ballerina. Carefully, I take a sip. But when he swats my behind, I squeal.

In the afternoon, we’re settled in his war room desk chair, me on his lap as he helps me draw a Monarch wing with an ink pen.

“What now?” I ask timidly.

“What now, what?” he asks, tapping the paper to show me where to shade in more.

With a sigh, I gather the courage to speak the words aloud. “What about Harvey? How do we go about our next attempt?”

He doesn’t seem very perturbed. “I’m thinking we don’t try again publicly.”

“We go after him directly?”

His throat tightens. “Well…youhave a lot of ties to him. So what if you arranged a special meeting with him, and I watch from a camera?”

“And then I would…” My vision gets blurry just thinking of going solo.

“Kill him.”

“How? More poison? What if he overpowers me? What if they’re onto us and I can’t get closer now?”

Valen takes a moment to sip his energy drink. “Good point. Perhaps they’ll suspect anyone from your family and definitely mine. We probably can’t try that again.”

“He’ll attend my grandfather’s holiday event next weekend. Everyone does…”

“It would be bold of him to show up. But maybe he’ll bring more enforcers this time. I also wonder if it’ll be the same bartender.”

At that, my jaw tightens. “Do you have any information on him yet?”

“I’ll have to get back to my room atDelta. I don’t have everything set up that I need here. But my dad is helping with what I can’t find. He’s got some deeper resources through his business associates.”

“Don’t you think going to the house is dangerous right now? Shouldn’t we stay holed up here?”

“Yeah…it is. But how are we supposed to avoid classes this week? I’m not so worried about myself. I’m afraid ifyougo back, especially toOmega, they’ll try something.”

I take a breath and shake my head. “I don’t think the president wants any Cardell blood on his hands at all. That may have the board turning against him.”

Valen’s green eyes sparkle as he takes a swig and sinks deeper in thought. He reaches for my hand and uses my thumb to dab at the corner of his mouth, wiping off a drop of his drink. I smirk, then stick it in my mouth. “Romantic,” I say sarcastically.

“Hey, mama birds do it. Figured you would like some of my spit.”

Something about that makes my pussy flutter.Focus, Olivia.

He ponders, “I think, for this moment, the easiest and quickest thing we can do is to break in and shoot him in the middle of the night.”

A vision of us in ninja outfits scaling the walls of the white mansion to enter the president’s bedroom makes me feel more at ease than the poison plan. “Quick and clean, you mean?”

“I’ll take care of the surveillance. We’ll have to skip past the guards, but yes.”

“We’ll have to set up alibis. Just in case…”

He nods, a flop of his hair falling over his forehead. “Yeah, but my father can forge that easily. So we’ll show both of our locations here, logged for the entire evening. We’ll even bring in someone from outside the family to vouch for us.”

“Ashlyn Donovan.”

His head tilts. “Ashlyn?”

With a narrowed-eyed smirk, I say, “Yep. I realized something,Vanq. That day we were at the bar together, Elliot and I, she must’ve known who you were. One of the few who’s seen your real face.”