Sins of Mine - Mary E. Twomey Page 0,39
I had no choice. I had to keep my temper cool at all times and do damage control or run interference.” He thumbs the steering wheel. “She’s gone out on too many limbs for me—for all of us—for me to tolerate any of that, now that we’re on the outside.”
I keep waiting for a twinge of possessiveness to hit me when Gray talks like that, but I only feel warm inside. I’m not the only one who feels strongly about Arlanna being treated with the respect she deserves. “I agree. There’s two of us, plus Cassia and Charlotte. Between all of us, we’ll be able to smell when the wind shifts in a foul direction.”
“Here’s hoping.” Gray’s gaze has been on the front door of the palace, as if he expects Cassia to burst out any second.
When his eyes keep darting into the rearview mirror to fix on my face, I tilt my head to the side. “What’s on your mind?”
“Just wondering how things are going to look for you. You’ve been granted your freedom like the rest of us, but one day, you’re going to rule. Like, you’re going to go back to living there.” He jabs his finger toward the topiaries that line the left side of the palace.
“When that happens, I’ll do a smashing job of mourning for the cameras about my father’s passing, and then I’ll move you, Arlanna, Cassia and Charlotte into the palace. Plus, I assume Sloan will come, too, if he’s still alive. There’s no separating him from Arlanna.”
At this, Gray turns more fully in his seat to look at me directly. “No one’s going to allow a shifter to live in the palace.”
“No one now, sure, but when I’m king, I’ll have my fair share of say in things. It will be my house, and I can welcome whomever I wish in it. That doesn’t need approval from the cabinet.”
Emotion passes in Gray’s gaze. He reaches his fist back for me to bump, and I take him up on the offer. “Cheers, brother.”
“I will not leave you behind.” It’s a promise I have no problem keeping. The five of us have been through an ordeal that’s solidified us as a unit. “Though Cassia and Charlotte might want their own home when they get married someday, I do hope the five of us stay together.”
“Five plus Sloan.” Gray turns back around to watch the palace from our distance. “Come on, Sloan. Don’t be dead,” he chants under his breath. Then he leans forward. “Wait, what are they doing?”
I touch the window, my brows bunching when I see the grounds guards jog toward the palace and file inside. “Shite. Something’s up.” Though, what the something is, I can only hope isn’t the thing I dread. “Did they find Cassia?”
Gray’s hand moves to the door. “I’m going in.”
I lunge forward and grip his shoulder. “If you go in, you’re staying in until they ship you out in a body bag. I’m serious, Gray. You’re the driver. That’s your role. I’ll go inside and see what’s what. Maybe I can distract Father long enough for Cassia to locate Sloan and escape.”
Gray turns and jabs his finger onto the console. “If you think I’m going to let you go into that psycho’s lair unguarded, you’re mad. Besides, what’s a bigger distraction than a shifter in the bloody palace?”
My eyes close in mild frustration. “I suppose you’re right.”
Gray and I step out after a few bolstering breaths. We walk straight to the front entrance, which I didn’t actually use when I was here. I have a key, but that doesn’t stop the front door guard from halting his conversation in his comm to balk at me. “Your Majesty? I didn’t know the king was expecting you.”
I boop his nose, because I’m incorrigible, and I don’t care that the staff is subjected to my personality. They’re paid enough to put up with my petulance. “Now, I didn’t think I needed an invitation to my own home. How are things, Wilfred?”
The comm crackles a panicked, “He’s contained in the library, but we’re down two guards. He’s surrounded, but… Where did he go? He was just there!” the comm cuts out, leaving us all in suspense as Wilfred hurriedly finds the volume button, pushing it to silence far too late.
Hope rises in me that perhaps Cassia found Sloan and vanished him after all.
“Trouble?” I ask Wilfred, trying not to sound smug.
He feigns authority. “There’s about to be, if you don’t get