Page 103 of Beautiful Forever
“A sense of humor. You never used to have one.”
I go completely still when recognition slams into me. Iknowthat voice. I didn’t pick up on it the first time. Too busy getting the shit beaten out of me.
“It’s been…a while, Serena.”
“Ding, ding, ding,” she chirrups, tapping the top of my head with a pointed fingernail as she says eachding. “Took you long enough.”
I don’t need to hear the convoluted backstory. It’s pretty obvious. Serena is a back-alley cat with nine lives. Cunning, sneaky, and always lands on her feet. I now regret not having Drako put eyes on her when she left DF.
“You and Viktor.”
Viktor Androv is pushing sixty. He must be going through one hell of a midlife crisis to be sleeping with her.
“You know the saying. The enemy of my enemy is my friend…well, in this case, my fiancé. I would invite you to the wedding, but I don’t think you’ll be able to make it.” I can hear the smile in her tone, but it’s not a nice smile. She’s loving every second of this, like a child who got away with something bad she did.
“I’ll make sure…to check the registry…and send the least…expensive gift.”
Serena chortles, like what I just said is the funniest thing she’s ever heard. “Gosh, I’ve missed you.”
“Wish I…could say the same.”
Her heels startclick-clackingin a circle around me again, and the annoying sound only makes the throbbing in my head worse.
“Do you recall the last time we saw each other?”
“Unfortunately.”
She whacks the back of my head. Goddammit, that hurt.
“Don’t be rude. As I was saying, the last time we saw each other, I was begging for your help, and you just stood there and let that cunt humiliate me again.”
Syn didn’t enjoy making Serena crawl to the elevator, but in her defense, Serena deserved it.
“How’s the hand?”
Serena’s response is to smack me. Harder.
“Good enough to do that.”Clickity-clack. Clickity-clack.“I will never understand why you and Hendrix are so obsessed with that ugly bitch.”
“Seems like you’re…more obsessed.”
Another smack. I wish she’d stop doing that.
“Too bad Viktor isn’t going to hold up his end of the bargain.”
Clickity-clack. Clickity-clack.
Finally able to crack my eyes into slits, the thin stream of light flooding in from the open doorway momentarily blinds me. Serena is a blurry blob, as are the two armed guards standing at her flank.
“What are you…talking about? What…bargain?”
A Cheshire smile slowly spreads across her face. “The one where your ‘wife’ willingly gave herself up in exchange for your freedom. Or so Viktor led her to believe. Kind of tragically romantic if you think about it. Like Romeo and Juliet but with more blood.”
The guys wouldn’t let that happen. They would stop her. “You’re lying.”
Her smile morphs into a gleeful smirk. “I’m going to relish watching Viktor carve up that bitch right in front of you.”
Songbird, what did you do? I can’t let Viktor get her. The things he’ll do to her. The things he’ll let his men do to her.
