King’s (The King Trilogy #1)(34)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“Yes. A little pain is good for the soul. Reminds you you’re alive and you should strive to remain that way. Fucking is also an effective reminder.”

“Thanks,” I said, “but I don’t think I need to sleep with you to figure out that I don’t want to die.”

“I said f**king, not sleeping. However, given the men you’ve been with, I’m not surprised by your confusion. I doubt they had the courage to give you what you really wanted.”

“Whoa. What’s that supposed to mean? And how could you possibly know about the men I’ve slept with?” I seethed.

“I’ve been inside your head, Mia. I know everything. Even your darkest thoughts and desires.” He scratched his chin as if contemplating. “I must admit, you surprised even me.”

His words crashed right through me, igniting a painful tug-of-war inside my brain. It was like my mind insisted on pretending that none of these things were possible. People didn’t get inside other people’s heads. But it was possible. King had been there last night. I remember thinking how his being there hurt. I felt him scratching around, digging, like he’d been desperate to find something inside me. I remember silently screaming that what he wanted wasn’t there, that it was tucked safely away inside my heart—a place he’d never enter.

I winced from the memory. “Don’t, for one moment, mistake me for you, King. I have a soul.”

“And I do not?” he asked, as if intrigued.

“Not a good one. I care what happens to people. You use them.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Must be a sad and lonely place inside that heart of yours.”

He glanced at me from behind his mirrored lenses. “Perhaps you are right. But at the very least, I know who I am. You, on the other hand, are too frightened to face your true self.” He looked at the road and grinned. “Such a shame because I find those dark bits very intriguing. I think I might like to ask them to come out and play.” His grin grew even wider.

I hissed out a breath and shook my head. The man was egging me on. Stay focused, Mia. He’d said that he’d found Justin and the Artifact. If this was true, then all this could soon be over.

“What else did you say last night?” I asked.

King swerved through an intersection and ran the light.

I gripped the leather seat. “Shit. You’re going to get us both killed.”

“Not likely,” he said coolly. “I told you that I learned the Artifact is here with your brother.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“After we visited Vaughn in London, and I dropped you off at the hotel, I…” He hesitated. “I paid a visit to someone I’ve recently met. She has a particular tool for locating inanimate objects.”

Did “tool” mean a gift? Damn. That sounded strange, but I didn’t know what else to call it. “So they have a power or whatever?”

“Yes. The woman has a very special ability.”

I quickly wondered if this woman could be a way out for me. Why would King need someone like me, who randomly saw crazy colors, when this woman could actually track objects?

“So you won’t need me anymore,” I said.

“I would not say that.” Once again, he grinned. “Her abilities are hit and miss. Usually trackers, as we call them, lack any sort of precision. They can point you in a direction, like a compass, but that is all. Last night, she got lucky.”

He made a turn down a long narrow street lined with warehouses, and I felt my temperature spike. My entire body tingled. “You’re sure Justin is really here?”

I couldn’t believe it.

King removed his glasses, and his eyes scanned the seemingly empty buildings with broken or boarded-up windows and covered in spray paint. “He was last night.”

“Then why didn’t you come last night?”

“I only knew he was in Edinburgh, so I had people scouring the city all night. I learned his exact location only twenty minutes ago.”

People scouring the city. I gave that some thought. What sort of power and connections did a person have to have in order to mobilize a group of people large enough to cover an entire city? I guessed the answer was a lot. A lot of f**king power and connections.

He pulled up behind a broken-down-looking green sedan parked alongside a brick building. He exited the car, and I followed along. The nonstop drizzle immediately coated my hot face. We went down a narrow alley, toward the back of the building. A rusted metal door creaked as the wind nudged it open.

“Stay behind me, Mia.”

What was King expecting to find? And why, for the love of God, was Justin hiding out in some abandoned warehouse in Edinburgh?

He pushed open the door and stepped inside. Dull light seeped inside the vacuous building from windows at the very tops of the high walls. The place looked like an abandoned factory stripped of all its machinery.

“I don’t see anyone,” I whispered.

King grabbed my hand, and I had to push myself to ignore how his powerful touch made me feel. He pulled me toward a small door in the far corner. It looked like it had been an office of some sort.

When we got to the door, he placed his ear against it, then turned and looked at me with those striking eyes. “Mia, this is one of those occasions where you must obey me.” He placed his palm on my face, and his warmth overwhelmed my senses. My body felt the urge to lean into him, to increase the contact. “Do you understand?”

I didn’t. How could I be so absorbed in him? Now? With one simple touch?

I shook my head no.

He frowned. “Close your eyes. And do not open them again until I tell you to.”

“What’s wrong?” King was about to reach for my wrist, but I yanked my arm away. “Okay. I’m closing my eyes.” I did as he asked, but only a moment passed, the space of three breaths.

“Fuck. You may open them now,” King said.

“Why did you make me close them? What’s wrong?” The last time King had me close my eyes, he killed two men.

King slipped his fingers inside the collar of his starched white shirt and pulled. “Dammit.”

“What?” King didn’t say anything, so I moved to open the door to the office.

He pulled me back. “Wait. You need to be prepared. It’s not pleasant in there.”

Oh no. No. “Please don’t tell me he’s dead.”

“Your brother is not in there.”

I didn’t believe him. Why else would he be holding me back?