'Til the World Ends by Kagawa Julie & Aguirre Ann & Duvall Karen

Author:Kagawa, Julie & Aguirre, Ann & Duvall, Karen [Kagawa, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Fiction
ISBN: 9781460303436
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-29T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Yes, I thought, and you need me to be.

I didn’t say that aloud. Instead I took the hint and stepped away. He was a man who equated touch with sex; I didn’t mean to send him the wrong message. I wasn’t looking for that, and if I were, it wouldn’t be with Thorne, who intended to take over Stavros’s kingdom.

“Is there anything you’d like to take with you?”

“From here? No.” His tone was emphatic.

Thorne turned his mother’s hands over and saw the blood beneath her nails. There was a weapon beside her on the dirt floor. Churned earth showed where they’d scuffled, where she’d lost. The pain must have been overwhelming. Even if they’d had a troubled relationship, this woman had given him life, and she was gone.

“She fought hard,” I said. “Does that help any?”

I imagined her last moments of life, struggling until they had her on the ground, boot on her throat. Bruises were already darkening on her neck after death. They would have offered mercy if she gave up her son. In desperation, she had. And they killed her anyway.

“Not much,” he said roughly. “Tell me, if Stavros took you, would you tell him where to find Alonzo and Elodie to save yourself?”

“No. I’d let him kill me.”

He offered a weary, sardonic smile. “That’s how family’s supposed to be...or so I understand.”

Given this glimpse into his past, I ached for him. Though I’d lost both my parents, they’d loved us. They’d done their best in a world gone to hell. Neither one of them would’ve sold me out for an extra second of life.

“Did you think they bribed her?” It was an awkward question, but he had been surprised to find her body; he’d expected to find a living woman to blame.

He tensed. “It was a possibility.”

“Were you coming to...deal with her?” I meant execute, and he knew it.

“It doesn’t matter now.” His frozen expression hinted at so many things.

I took that as a yes. It was good that he hadn’t been forced to kill the woman. Such trauma drove people crazy. Part of me wished I could believe he wouldn’t have done it, no matter how she’d wronged him, but Snake Ward made monsters out of people on a daily basis.

Bending, I examined her body, and in her closed palm, I found a scrap of paper. It was the note Thorne had sent with the messenger, warning her to clear out. Crammed in her mouth, I found another, clearly a gesture of scorn from her killers. The words were smudged, written in a nearly illegible scrawl with no punctuation or capital letters, but I could make out the gist. I crushed it in my hand, unable to believe what I was seeing.

i know where he is come see me we’ll make a deal.

She’d called Stavros’s dogs, trying to benefit from Thorne’s warning. I’d never had this feeling before, but it was so powerful, it had to be hate. I was glad the bitch was dead.

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