Page 109 of Thorns of Deceit

“We captured the culprit and he’s alive,” Kyran continued. “And he’s going to help us use some old pirate caves to get inside the castle without being spotted.”

I sat up straight. “Why in the fuck didn’t you start with that?”

He grinned. “Icing on the cake and shit.”

For the next few hours, we laid out plan A and B, but I had high hopes that plan A would pan out.

Tyran glanced at the time and shot up. “Lunchtime.”

He didn’t even wait for us, just headed for the door. It had become a ritual. Raven, my brothers, and I made time to meet in the kitchen for lunch every day.

But the evenings were my favorite.

The penthouse fell into a hush, so removed from the pulse of Paris. The city glowed with flickering lights while the EiffelTower towered over the rooftops, all of which we had the pleasure of viewing from the living room windows.

The world slowed down in those hours, leaving Raven and me to rediscover each other in the quiet.

It reminded me of the beginning, but just like I told my wife, there was no use living in the past. We had to move forward.

Each day she’d share little pieces of her life. She made it easy to listen and learn more about her. We’d sit close at the kitchen counter or sometimes curled on the couch, her legs draped over mine, her head tilted back in laughter. Like tonight.

She was recounting a chaotic adventure that involved breaking into a bookstore to rearrange the shelves, all so her friend Athena’s romance novels could be front and center for her birthday.

Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, hands moving animatedly.

“And we succeeded,” she said proudly. “Of course we forgot the boxes outside, but Kyran brought them in through the front door. Did he tell you he hit his tailbone against the erotica shelf?”

I laughed, picturing the scene.

“He never told me that,” I said, shaking my head. “It must have been too big a hit for his ego.”

She grinned, leaning into me. “It was a really good day.”

“I wish I could’ve been there.”

“I promise you, going forward, we’ll share those moments. Or, if nothing else, you’ll be there to save me from trouble.”

I wrapped my arm around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “You got it.”

She sighed. “Although, with the little one on the way, I suspect my wild days are behind me. Hopefully, he or she takes after you.”

I chuckled. “If they don’t, I’ll be there to save them too. After all, that’s my job.”

FORTY-TWO

RAVEN

Iwas unraveling, bit by bit, with each day that slipped by. Every hour felt like a thread pulled loose, and I could feel myself fraying at the edges.

Aiden and his brothers were planning how to infiltrate Duncan’s estate and extract my mother from whatever nightmare she was trapped in. But they didn’t share the details, and that gnawed at me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them; I did. But a dread, deep in my bones, wouldn’t let me be.

I asked questions and they answered, but their private, knowing glances only added to my unease and fear.

I was terrified of what could go wrong, of someone getting hurt, but also of what we might discover. My mother had been in Duncan’s grip for five years. Five freaking years!

She hadn’t spoken much about him during the first nineteen years of my life, but what little she had shared was enough to haunt me.