Sing, Canary - Ashley Amy Page 0,26

my life. I grew to love him aggressively for it. Aside from my father and August, Talon would always be the person I felt the safest with.

"I know I ask too much of you, but I have one more thing, Tal." I let my arms circle his neck. I felt terrible that I always had to use him, but he was the only one who could solve this one for me.

"Lyra, you don't ask enough of me. You've asked one thing of me since you were arrested." Talon was a good man. I hated that he tarnished his badge for me.

"Simone Barclay."

"Who is she?"

"She's the only other female in here. They treat her as their personal whore, Tal. She's also innocent, and I need you to prove it to free her."

"I'll look into it and get back to you." He kissed my head again. "I'm just glad you're holding out as well as you are."

I felt all of his stress as he spoke to me, so I knew it was time to confess something of my own to him. He deserved to know where my heart sat when it came to him.

Being this free within my emotions, I nestled my head deeper into his hold. I was finally free for a single moment in time to whisper another truth. "I'm too selfish to let you go, Tal."

"And I'm too greedy to let this be our goodbye."

Maybe Dolion was right...

At some point, all my secrets would be known.

Sing, Canary...

16

Caine

My tethered hands worked to pick up the phone as one of Armoni's men waited to receive orders from me. I hated that I was stuck in this prison while our empire needed me the most, but I was trying to secure the vampires in this place.

Too bad that went south immediately. I should've known Barcel wanted to play us, but I had my hopes too high.

My eyes tracked all the smudges blurring the glass between Gregor and me. The room had terrible lighting from no windows being in the cement walls. Four other people were talking to lawyers or loved ones, but I would be doing business.

After my failure with the vampires, I needed to hear some good news from the outside. Gregor's toothy grin greeted me as I listlessly lined the phone up to my ear.

"Caine," his gravelly voice told of the cigarettes he couldn't quit smoking. As a human, he ran that communication for my family, causing cigarettes to actually affect his lungs. We needed to have some words about how things had been going after a problem arose.

Right before we were put away, one of Armoni's warehouses was raided. I needed to figure out who the mole was that betrayed our work.

"Gregor. You look like you're doing well." It was true. From the storeroom being in his sector, he appeared to be at ease.

"Yeah, well, you guys working together in there is paying off."

"Working together?" I asked my leading guy on the outside.

"Yeah, you and Lyra. I can't believe you two figured out who the mole was."

At his words, I leaned back a bit. The metal around my wrists, dug into my raw flesh from the movement. I had been cuffed a lot since being in here, and my wrists were paying for it from how often I flexed them.

Though, the shock of his words had me trying to conjure what my stepsister had done. Nodding, I decided to play along to gain more information.

"Right. The mole. You got word of it?"

"Yeah, Lyra using Talon really helped. Her code words were perfect for me to know which warehouse they'd be raiding next. We were able to clear it right before their invasion. Using a wife that we all know I don't have." He paused to hoot. "Classic."

"We all know Talon is on whatever side Lyra needs him to be on," I muttered with a grunt. Gregor laughed, thinking I was adding onto his joke.

"I still can't believe you guys figured out it was Freddie the whole time. That little bitch cost us a lot of product that should've hit the streets by now."

"Yup. Freddie Diego." There was only one Freddie, so pinpointing who, was easy.

"Watching the news a few days ago, I was so happy to learn you guys took care of him. Having his neck snapped is August's favorite signature."

My hand gripped the phone tighter. While I had been trying to secure a new ally, my sister had managed to save our merchandise and keep our name clean.

"August