Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
She'd drawn that piercing like she knew exactly how it caught the light.
Like she'd studied it.
Like she'd memorized it.
Jealousy filled me.
How did she see the piercing?
His thighs were thick, muscled, slightly parted in the loose sprawl of deep sleep. One arm was flung above his head, exposing the vulnerable hollow of his underarm, the bulge of his bicep, the veins mapping his forearm like rivers. The other hand rested on his stomach—fingers long, relaxed, curled slightly inward.
Killer's hands rendered gentle by unconsciousness.
But it was his face that destroyed me.
In sleep, all the coldness had melted away. The cruel set of his mouth had softened. The calculating sharpness in his eyes was hidden behind closed lids.
He looked younger.
Peaceful.
Almost innocent.
He looked like a man who hadn't killed anyone.
Like a man who could be loved without consequence.
Mami had drawn him the way she wanted him to be—soft, open, belonging to her.
I stared at the page. "So. . .she probably took a picture of him while he was sleeping and then drew this."
“Correct. My brother would never let her see him like this. Not willingly.” Hiro pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Telling Reo that the Eyes are involved.”
I snapped my view to him. “What?”
“The only way she could have done this is if both Eyes let her do it. That means that they have a level of secrecy and odd loyalty that none of us know about.” He sneered and typed into the phone. “I never fucking liked those Cum Guards, but at least I thought they would keep my brother safe while he was sleeping.”
I’m glad Kenji stopped using them when we got together.
I tensed.
Did the Eyes also work for the Fox?
The thought uncoiled in my mind like a venomous thing, spreading its poison through every assumption I'd made.
The Fox wasn’t just a mastermind.
He was a puppeteer who had spent decades, threading his fingers into every corner of his son's organization. Not with brute force. Not with obvious attacks. But with patience. With placement. With trauma. With the slow, methodical insertion of loyal bodies into positions of trust.
The Eyes could be the Fox’s spies too. . .
Kenji's Eyes were supposed to watch him when he couldn't watch himself.
During those vulnerable hours when even the most dangerous man in Tokyo had to close his eyes and trust that someone was keeping him safe.
During sleep.
During sex.
And the Fox had corrupted even that.
This is worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
If the Fox controlled the Eyes, then every time Kenji had slept, his father had been watching too.
Every time Kenji had fucked someone, his father had known.
Every nightmare, every moment of unconscious vulnerability, every whispered confession in the dark—the Fox had seen it all.
And I thought my father was a piece of shit.
My skin crawled.
This nest of snakes was bigger than I'd imagined. More layered. More insidious. The spy wasn't just one person—it was a network, woven so tightly into the fabric of Kenji's life that pulling one thread might unravel everything.
Or nothing at all.
Because how do you fight an enemy who's already inside?
I felt them then—the snakes.
Not real ones, but real enough.
Phantom scales sliding up my ankles, coiling around my calves, slithering higher. They wrapped around my thighs, my waist, squeezed my ribs until breathing hurt.
Tons of them.
Their tongues flicked against my ears, hissing secrets I couldn't understand.
We're everywhere. We're everyone. You'll never find us all.
I shuddered.
Hiro looked up from his phone. "Reo's personally grabbing the Eyes now with two men.”
“He’s leaving Kenji alone with the Scales?”
“His Fangs are in there.” Hiro put his phone up. “Once they have the Eyes, Reo will have a Fang check their movements in the footage to see if anything's been strange."
"Shit." I pressed my palm against my chest, trying to slow my racing heart. "This is insane."
"But good too."
I blinked. "How is this good?"
Hiro's smile was sharp—the smile of a predator who'd just caught a scent. "You're helping us catch snakes. Enough snakes will help us catch the Fox."
"How?"
"Once we trap all of them and put them in the prison my brother has below the mansion—" He paused, letting the weight of that settle. "Reo, Kenji, and I will have a very lengthy conversation with all of them."
All I could imagine was the splattering of blood.
Crimson on concrete.
Screams echoing off stone walls.
The wet sound of flesh meeting fist, meeting blade, meeting whatever tools they used to extract confessions from people who'd betrayed them.
Hiro continued, "They'll show us how to contact our father. And Kenji's hackers can use that. We can grab his location much faster."
“Oh.” The dread that had been crushing my chest shifted. Something else pushed through.
Hope.
“Good job. . .sis.” Hiro winked. "You may be helping us end the war much sooner than we thought. Instead of waiting on my father to call Jean-Pierre, we may lure the Fox out this way."