The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)(62)
Author: Gena Showalter

He definitely needed distance between him and Kaia. Then he’d stop thinking about her. Stop reacting to her. Stop caring about her past. After al , he’d just gotten out of a bad

“relationship” and didn’t need to endure another. Plus, that’s what had happened the last time he’d left her. He’d left, and al the torment had stopped. Granted, his reactions hadn’t been quite as strong back then, but there was no reason to think this time would be any different.

“So where are we going?” Kaia asked no one in particular.

“Nowhere,” Strider replied.

“To kil Gil y’s family,” Wil iam answered easily.

Strider needed to have a chat with the man. You didn’t undermine your friends. It was worse than cock-blocking.

Kaia tossed Strider a shut-your-mouth frown before bouncing in her seat. “Do I get to help? Please!

Can I? You may not know this, but I’m very handy with a blade of any kind, a hacksaw, a whip, a—”

“Hey! Someone went through my bag,” Wil iam said.

“So?” Kaia continued, as if Wil iam hadn’t spoken.

“Whatever the weapon, I’m good with it.”

He would not be impressed. “We won’t be using weapons.

We’l be smashing jugulars.”

“Oh, oh! We can play Who Can Smash More!”

“No, we can’t because you can’t help,” Strider said at the same time Wil iam blurted out, “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t help.”

Kaia hmphed at him.

“Just try not to destroy the entire neighborhood,” he snapped. Nobody listened to him anymore.

Slitted eyes returned to him. There was no hint of black in the whites, so he knew her Harpy was under control. “Why are you so grouchy?”

“I’m not grouchy. Only women are grouchy.”

“You’re grouchy,” Wil iam said.

“You’re grouchy,” Strider said. Realizing he sounded like a child, he leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees, his face in his upraised hands. What the hel was wrong with him?

Wil iam snickered at him. Kaia simply continued to watch him, her expression unreadable.

“Wel , grouchy or not, Stridey,” she said, “I have news that wil cheer you up.”

Leaning forward had been a dumb move. The scent of cinnamon and sugar was stronger now, enveloping him, making his mouth water. Would Kaia taste as delicious as she smel ed?

Suddenly she stiffened. “You smel like a woman’s peach-flavored body oil.”

Did he? He thought back to the stripper he’d had on his lap at Paris’s ranch, and yep, he remembered smel ing peaches. Kaia must have hated peaches, though, because she was obviously planning to murder the maker of that oil.

“I. Wil . Destroy. You.” And yep, black now bled into the white of her eyes. Her nails had already lengthened and sharpened into claws, and those claws were embedded in the plastic console between the driver and passenger seat.

Hel o, raging beast.

Mental note: never eat peaches in front of Kaia.

Win? Defeat said on a trembling breath, the question having nothing to do with uncertainty this time, and everything to do with being cowed.

Yeah. Good luck with that, buddy. She’l eat you for lunch and spit out your scales. “I’l wash, okay.”

Strider jerked upright, as far away from her heavenly aroma as he could get. “And just so you know, I don’t care about your news.”

“I cannot kil him,” she muttered to herself. “I cannot kil him. I promised Bianka I’d stop at ten bodies a day, and I’ve already surpassed my quota for the fifth day in a row. I cannot kil him.”

As far as pep talks went, that one kind of blew. But it calmed her, the black in her eyes fading and those claws receding.

Strider peered out the window, wil ing to count the trees that whizzed by rather than peer at that too-pretty face. “Now listen up, buttercup. Stri-Stri is going to take a little nappie-poo. Everyone hush their big, fat mouths.” Better to be bored pretending to snooze than accidental y piss Kaia off again.

“Fine. Sleep.” Al kinds of irritation layered her husky voice.

She wasn’t squawking, though, which was another excel ent sign that the danger had passed. “Just know that while you’re catching up on your much needed beauty rest, you’l miss my story about how many Hunters I bagged and tagged this week.”

“Good.” She’d bagged and tagged a few? He tried not to look intrigued, even as he rethought his strategy. “Go ahead and start your story. I’m sure I’l be so bored I’l nod right off.”

“No. You’ve been a bad boy and don’t deserve a reward.

Therefore, I won’t tel you that there’s a certain Hunter on your trail and he’s closing in.”

“Someone always is.”

She blew out a frustrated breath. “I also won’t tel you—”

He snored as loud as he could, just to be contrary, and almost laughed when she uttered a quiet shriek.

Part of him liked this verbal sparring. Liked annoying her and feeling the sparks that nearly sizzled from that petite body.

“That’s it! Do you hear me, Strider? That’s it! I chal enge you to listen to me. Now.”

That he didn’t like.

As his demon jumped up and down in his head, now desperate to win, Strider glared at Kaia, pretty face be damned. And he didn’t give a shit if he pissed her off, either. “I knew you’d do this. I knew you’d chal enge me.

You’re just like every other female I’ve ever known. No, wait.

You’re worse. You know what happens to me when I lose, but you chal enge me anyway.”

Hurt flashed over her features, there one moment, gone the next. Surely he was mistaken.

Harpies—especial y this infuriating Harpy—didn’t do hurt. Ever. “You know you can win this.”

“So go on, then,” he snapped. “Talk. I’m literal y dying to hear what you have to say.”

Kaia ran the pink tip of her tongue over her teeth, and his stomach clenched in reaction. She could have refused him and sent him to his knees in gut-wrenching pain. Instead, she finished her little speech. “You captured Haidee. Her boyfriend and his fol owers have been chasing you. There.

Done. You listened and won.”

He didn’t feel like he’d won. And neither did his demon.

There was no rush of pleasure, only a need for a real chal enge. Something he’d have to work for. I don’t wanna work for anything, remember? Stil . Everything inside him froze. His heartbeat, his lungs.