Page 99 of The Kingpin's Call Girl

My phone buzzes. I glance down, seeing Orton’s name, and check it while she roots around in her schoolgirl books.

Spoke with counter person at bakery - woman matching Edie’s description exactly. Paid cash. Three blocks from her residence hall. Circle cookies delivered precisely when we discussed the meet.

The words blur. Blood rushes in my ears, drowning out Edie’s voice.

Each detail hits like a hammer blow: the timing, the location, her fucking description. The pieces lock together with sickening clarity. And her studies. She clearly understands Latin. She heard us set that meeting.

She heard us.

She told the cops—it could only have been her.

Edie betrayed us—betrayed me.

The realization punches through my chest with the force of a bullet.

How could I have let my judgment get so clouded?

And yeah, maybe she thought better of it and sent cookies to warn us, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a betrayal all the same.

My chest tightens as she holds up a book, open to a page with an image of a quill pen. “Right?” she says.

Were we talking? I don’t even remember, and it doesn’t matter.

A lifetime of ruthless survival has taught me what to do with traitors. It should be simple. Clean.

“W-what’s wrong?” she asks.

God, even now, knowing what she’s done, I want to mark her as mine in ways that have nothing to do with death.

I barely recognize the abomination I’ve become—a kyre who hesitates to kill a spy because he’s drunk on the taste of her scorn.

“Tell me, princess...” I bite out, voice like ground glass. “What did the barbarians do to those who betrayed them?”

“Excuse me?” She searches my eyes—warily. She’s hiding something. How did I not see it?

I force my voice to stay steady. “What did the barbarians do to those who betrayed them?”

“I-I don’t understand...”

“Betrayal. Surely you’ve heard of it. What punishment did they deal to those who violated their trust?”

She shuts the book and clutches it against her belly.

I move in like the predator I am, my blood a roaring inferno.

“Luka...”

“Did they make examples of them?” I settle my four fingertips onto her jawbone, ear to chin.

She’s trembling now.Good.

I force myself to imagine choking her, squeezing the air right out of her. The way her skin would redden. The way she’d struggle.

“Tell me,” I demand.

“M-maybe they would listen first. Let the accused explain the reasons?—”

“Explain the reasons?” I wrap my hand loosely around her throat, skimming the side with my thumb, up and down, up and down. “Make up stories to save their ass? You think they’d allow that?”