Lords & Thieves: Chapter Eight
The prequel arc of ✨The White City✨ — a weekly serialized urban fantasy series
Previously in The White City:
Tensions build and heat rises after an exhilarating escape
She starts figuring out…he really, truly, undeniably isn’t…human
The numbers on the pages didn’t mean shit to him, no matter how many times he flipped the leaflet back and forth. “Fine. Do it.”
His Right Hand straightened her shoulders. “You’re sure?”
“Yes. No. Fuck.” Cade ran a hand through his hair and considered pulling it all out. Or using the grip to slam his forehead into the nearest brick wall. “I don’t fucking care. Just do it.”
Seka Derringer pressed her lips together, the only other sign of her disagreement with his decision. The fisted hand on her hip was the first tell. “I told you, you should have sent one of my guys in. Hell, one of yours.”
“And I told you, I don’t delegate personal favors.” He shoved himself away from the table and grabbed his mug for another swig of beer, only to frown when he discovered it’d been replaced by a mug of coffee. “Where’s my porter?”
“Where’s your watch? It’s ten o’clock in the morning!”
Cade considered dumping the lukewarm coffee on her head, but there existed the strong probability she’d just throat punch him with the mug. “Whatever.” He chugged the rest of it and made a mental note to stop by the nearest pub for a shot of whiskey to wash it down. “I have errands to run. Shit to do.” Hearts to shatter.
That coffee wasn’t sitting well in his stomach.
“Does any of this happen to involve a certain Latina goddess?” Seka didn’t wait for his response because she already knew the answer. “I told you once and I’m going to keep saying it until you listen to me: You. Are. Making. A. HUGE. Mistake.”
“It won’t be that bad!” Cade threw his hands up in the air, mindful not to chuck the mug through the front window of the restaurant. Yet. “What makes her different from any of the others?”
“For starters?” Seka gave him a quick once-over and smirked. “No one else ever got you riled like this.”
“You do a perfectly fine job crawling under my skin.”
“That’s just it, though. That’s my job. I’m the very loud and irritating voice that keeps you headed in the direction that gets us what we want.”
Cade glanced around and waited for the underlings to clear more boxes out of the room before he lowered his voice and dipped his head to her. “What happens when I don’t know what I want?”
