Hive Betrayed (Hive Queen Chronicles Book 2) by Sasha Wexler

Author:Sasha Wexler [Wexler, Sasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

24

Luke

I shove the plastic card in the crack of the doorframe right by the knob. I told Wade we wouldn’t need any special tools to break into Trixie’s apartment. I’m surprised the door was locked at all, considering we just barely escaped the hornets who broke in. It’s not like they’d take the time to lock up after themselves, but perhaps a landlord had come by, because the knob didn’t twist when I tried it.

But I was right, though the locks on Trixie’s apartment door are plentiful, they’re also flimsy, and my plastic credit card springs it open easily.

I’m surprised, however, when the chain latch catches before I can open the door more than three inches. Who engaged the chain? And why?

I hear movement somewhere behind the door, and I quickly and silently ease it shut.

Wade raises an eyebrow at me.

“Someone’s in there,” I hiss.

“Friend or foe?” he asks quietly, reaching toward his boot for his metal stinger.

I can’t tell. When I focus on the creature behind the door, all I get is a pungent, unpleasant scent. “Not sure. You try.”

Wade stares at the door, narrows his eyes, and tries to get a bead on the creature inside. “Neither,” he says after a moment, a quizzical look on his face. “But I think you’d better knock.”

I furrow my brow at him but do as he suggests, balling up my fist and banging it on the outside of the door.

“Maybe knock a little less like a cop?” Wade grumbles, but I ignore him because I hear a yelp from inside. Female, sounds like. A low, irritated grumble quickly follows. That’s definitely a male. So there are two of them in there?

The thin flooring of the third-floor hallway rattles as someone stomps across the room on the other side of the door and jerks it open, again allowing the chain to stop the door from swinging more than a few inches.

A green eye looks out the crack. “Go away. We don’t want any,” the man says, and he moves to close the door, but I shove the toe of my boot in the crack.

“We’re looking for Trixie Barnum,” I say in my most coldly authoritative voice.

“Fuck,” the guy mutters, and I expect him to try to kick my foot out of the crack and I’m ready to bust the door in, but to my surprise, he slides the chain back hurriedly, opens the door about six inches wide, and slides through and into the hallway. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back,” he calls through the open door, then quickly shuts it behind him.

He has straight, floppy blonde hair, a pimply face, and skinny shoulders. He’s not bad-looking, just at that awkward stage that a lot of humans seem to go through. Could this be Trixie’s brother?

“Charlie?” Wade asks, obviously either reading my mind or having the same guess himself.

The skinny guy gives Wade a confused look. “Uh, no. But dammit, you guys, I thought you were done coming by here. I just rented the apartment from an ad in the paper, man.

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