Crooked Paradise: The Complete Series by Chance Eva & King Harlow

Author:Chance, Eva & King, Harlow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ink Spark Press
Published: 2022-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

3

Mercy

The breeze flicked through my hair, the summer air cooler now that it was evening. I leaned forward on my rooftop perch, watching passersby come and go on the street of shops below me. With the sky darkening and the streetlamps blinking on, no one would have been able to make out my form where I’d used my parkour skills to clamber onto the top of the bank on the corner.

I’d been roaming around the Bend for the past couple of days since I’d left the Noble mansion—being careful like I’d promised Wylder I would be, but needing to see for myself what was happening out here in the aftermath of Colt’s fall. So far I hadn’t run into Xavier, which I couldn’t say I minded. My explorations had left me unsettled, though.

This was my home. I’d lived here since I was born, but it didn’t feel like the same place anymore. There was more tension in the atmosphere than I ever remembered feeling before, a nervousness to the way people moved. Most of these stores would normally have been open until well past dinnertime, but now they were locking their doors at six or seven. By now, coming up on eight, nearly everyone had vanished.

A pang ran through my chest at the thought of how much the ongoing battles for territory had affected the Bend.

Not quite everyone had gone home for the night, though. Raucous guitar music echoed through the streets. It grew louder until a car came around a bend, windows down, radio blasting a heavy metal song. The driver swerved back and forth a little as if he was distracted or drunk.

The car jerked to a halt in front of a bar partway down the street, and the music cut out. I frowned, narrowing my eyes.

That bar was the main reason I’d chosen this spot tonight. It was closed, the windows already gathering dust from disuse. The place had used to be one of the Steel Knights’ main business fronts, but it didn’t look as if anyone had been operating out of it since Colt’s death. I’d wanted to keep an eye on it just in case some of his former underlings were still in action.

The five guys who pushed out of the car and swaggered across the sidewalk to the bar weren’t Steel Knights though, at least as far as I could tell. It was hard to make out their features in the deepening shadows, but none of them had the typical red bandana wrapped around their upper arms. Three of them carried axes, the other two baseball bats studded with spikes.

Even though they hadn’t seemed to be keeping their arrival quiet, they glanced around shiftily as if they were worried about getting caught at whatever they were about to do. One guy flexed his shoulders, and I got the impression he was putting on his swagger to hide his nerves.

“Come on! Let’s tear it all down!” he shouted.

He and the other guys went at the bar with their weapons like they wanted to demolish the place.

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