Considering that Aimee, Idella, and Midnight were here, it could have been any one of them. Junebug knew it wasn’t her. She and Jameel still needed to work out a few things before they even thought of something as important as marriage!
It also couldn’t be her sister. Midnight would run a million miles in the opposite direction if she heard wedding bells ringing. Junebug entered through the elegant double doors at the same time as a heated male voice hissed “Absolutely not!”
It sounded like Jameel, but there was something different about the way he spoke, so it must have been his twin Junayd. Her gaze swept the room, searching for Jameel. He was standing near a set of tall windows. He looked tired.
Pulling her gaze away, she studied Junayd. While they might look exactly alike, there was a more reserved air about Junayd. He was intense where Jameel was more laid back.
Junayd and Tarek both looked horrified and stubborn. Melik was amused. Midnight and Idella had that gleeful look that they got when they were about to do something exciting, but when Midnight caught sight of Junebug, her expression became a silent question.
She answered with a shrug, glanced in Jameel’s direction again, and looked away, giving her sister a crooked smile as she walked over to them.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Junayd’s quickly concealed expression of surprise made her smile. Most people thought the same thing when they first met her after knowing Midnight. Their contrast in appearance always drew questions about whether they were actually related.
Midnight grinned. “I was offering to go after Rashid al Hamid.”
Junebug made a face. Part of her research last night had been on who and what was happening with Bronislav and Coldhouse. She wasn’t going to take any chances after the recent attack on her sister.
Rashid al Hamid was Jameel’s relative… second cousin or something to the King. He was the puppet that the bad guys had been setting up for a while, the legitimate face of Jawahir royalty who would appease the people after the rest of the family was murdered and the bad guys started using the power of the Jawahir throne. It seemed no one had received the memo that Rashid would no longer be an issue.
“Don’t bother," she informed them. "Coldhouse had him taken out last night.”
“What?” Tarek exclaimed, walking over to them when he overheard her.
She partially turned in Tarek’s direction and wiggled her nose with distaste. The video of the assassination had been really gross. Thankfully, it had also been very short.
Her gaze paused briefly on Jameel when he silently crossed the room. It was difficult to keep her focus on what was being asked when all she wanted to do was drink in the sight of him. After only a few days being with him 24/7, she missed not having him there.
A slight blush rose to her cheeks when her sister touched her arm to draw her attention back to the discussion. The heated look in Jameel’s eyes made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Blinking, she drew in a breath, remembered what she was talking about, and continued.
“I intercepted a video message a few minutes ago. That’s what I came to share. Bronislav wasn’t happy that this Rashid guy took off. Coldhouse sent a couple of cleaners to the hotel Rashid was staying in. Pop-pop-pop, he’s dead.”
She gave an uneasy smile as she felt instant regret for what she had just said. She shot Melik an apologetic expression. She really needed to learn better social manners. There was probably a better way of telling the king that his cousin had just been offed by some mercs than saying ‘Pop-pop-pop’.
“My cousin got what was coming to him,” Melik reflected with a heavy sigh and a regretful shake of his head.
Tarek frowned. “Now if we could just get Coldhouse and Bronislav.”
Idella tucked her arm in Tarek’s and gave the group a confident smile. “It is only a matter of time.”
Junebug almost felt sorry for the crippled Bronislav and Coldhouse and their slow, agonizing defeat… almost. She was feeling more bloodthirsty than she ever had in her life, and it was all because of Allison.
The woman had given them an entire speech about how this was just survival, just business, but her latest stunt was neither of those things—and it hurt and it was enraging and it was stupid because of all the things Allison had done, this was the most teen drama cliche, but it also felt like the bond between them had been severed.
Yeah, Allison had been working against them before this, but how hard had she really been trying? She could have bombed Jameel anytime—like a time when he actually would have been there. She had warned Bugs about the goons behind her, giving her the chance she needed to escape. She had waltzed right into enemy territory, brazenly said hello to all five of the people who outnumbered her, and she did it to accuse Jameel of being a terrible friend!
But now it seemed like all of that was smoke and mirrors. Junebug remembered the satisfied gleam in Allison's eyes when she saw them holding hands on the train. What if Allison had been waiting for them to get together so she could break them up—andthenkill Jameel?
Delaying the plan for years while she enjoyed Jameel's company online didn't make them friends in their heart of hearts. It just made her a stalker.
Junebug's feelings wouldn't be hurt in the least bit to come across a video with Allison receiving a few ‘pop-pop-pops’!
“So, is there going to be a wedding or not?” she asked, waving a hand at the wedding cake set up on a side table.
“Yes, there is,” Tarek replied with a laugh.
Junebug looked at her sister with a confused expression when Midnight scoffed.
