Areston thinks he can shield me from his past, but what he doesn't realize is I'm already part of it.
The darkness that haunts him? It's the same one that's been chasing me for years.
I've given him everything-my body, my heart, my soul-and still...
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"We have been sitting here for an hour. What the fuck are we doing here?" Zayd hisses at me, blowing the surface of his second cup of coffee.
"Brainstorming on how we can catch Fletcher and Nikolai," I mutter distractedly, looking around the coffee shop.
He had just returned from London and showed up in my office when I decided to drag him along to Sea Cliff village in Long Island.
"We already discussed it on our way here, fucker. Nikolai has gone sunk in some rabbit hole following his exposé done by The Rothschild News Network and The American Observer. Several women have come forward with claims of sexual harassment since which has strengthened the case against him. So, it's going to take some time for him to track him, and the same goes for Fletcher."
It pisses me off that even after having deployed the world's finest intelligence agencies and our own teams, we're unable to catch the two bastards.
I lower my own coffee cup and exhale heavily. "We need to think harder."
I'm killing time, waiting for the girl Calliope—my mother... Althea's precious little project. It's the middle of the work day and I have heli-hopped to a village where she lives and runs her cafe when she's not out for her modeling projects, which happens to be a lot according to the background information I received on her. Horace convinced me that I should meet her because she's the only link to the woman who raised me. I don't agree to any of that bullshit. I am here solely because Horace's efforts intrigued me enough to see the person that woman replaced me with once she got rid of me.
The anarchist in me wants to destroy what is most likely a fake relationship that she has built with the girl for some twisted selfish reasons just like she did to me for 19 years. I wouldn't do that, though. Simply because it's none of my business. The only business I have to be here is to see the woman who adopted her. While I have long decided that I want nothing to do with her, I want to see her. One last time. I'm hoping she'd show up here at this cafe with her adopted daughter today. I know she has returned for a month-long trip to the states. Probably to spend time with the girl and show her that she cares and is the best mother she would have wished for.
"No, we don't. We'll let our team take care of it on our behalf. Now, why don't you solve a problem of mine while we're here?"
I am tapping my index finger against the hot cup, continuing to look around. "Shoot."
"This girl I like... it has been a year since I kind of distanced myself from her. I tried to connect with about 26 days ago but she blocked me..."
That fetches my attention. "Blocked you?"
"Don't look so pleased, fucker. Yes. She blocked me. Her assistant thwarted all three of my attempts to connect with her. I think I mentioned this before?"
"I don't consider you important enough to remember all the bullshit you spout. Blocked where? Social media?"
"You know I don't use any form of social media, bastard," he huffs. "Phone. She blocked me on her phone."
