Read Online Darkest Fire by Tawny Taylor - Free Book Online

tell my brothers anything. No matter what happens. Promise me.”
    Her eyes widened. “I promise.”
    He gave her one final look and then, figuring he had a fifty-fifty chance of her keeping his secret, and wishing his chances were better, he decided he couldn’t take her back to his house yet. His brothers were taking up temporary residences to give them some privacy, but they wouldn’t be gone yet. “I think we’d better go with Plan B.”
    “Plan B?”
    “Where do—did—you live?”
    “Oh! That Plan B. Take a left at the next light.” She pointed up ahead.
    “Can I get there and back in fifteen?”
    “Ten, and that’s if you hit every light.”
    “Excellent. I need to make a quick stop and I’d like to be there before Campioni does. Don’t want to risk walking into an ambush. He isn’t expecting me, right? That’ll work to my benefit.”
    “Actually, I told him it wouldn’t be me. I was afraid . . .”
    “It’s okay.” He left her at the curb, looking small and terrified, and an uneasy sensation washed over him.
    Earlier, when she’d been crying, he’d blamed his weakness on that awful sobbing. Even he, who was normally impervious to the majority of human emotions, had a hard time remaining stoic when a woman was crying. But there’d been no tears since, and still, at this moment, a part of him wanted to hold his new bride, to protect her and take care of her. Badly. Not because it was his duty, like he had told her, or like he had tried to convince himself.
    But just . . . because.
    This was not the way he’d thought his wedding day would go.

    This wasn’t the way Rin had imagined her wedding day would go. There’d been no formal ceremony. No church. No altar. No flowers. No reception or maid of honor.
    No love.
    No stolen kisses in the back of a limo.
    No being carried in strong arms over the threshold.
    Not even a giddy, happy anticipation of things to come. Tonight. Tomorrow. Next month or year. Nope.
    Instead, here she was, married but alone. With nothing, not even the money she’d basically sold herself for. And she was clinging to a promise from a man she barely knew and the miniscule shred of hope he had sparked in her heart, that she hadn’t made the mistake of a lifetime.
    Hardly the wedding day of her dreams.
    Even so, she was sitting in what she’d always expected would be her temporary home, feeling some sense of optimism. Drako was nobody to mess with. She could see it in his every movement, the flinty black depth of his eyes and the firm set of his jaw. If her sister hadn’t been smuggled off already, to another pimp somewhere, he would convince Campioni to sell her to him. He would buy her freedom.
    Rin just hoped Drako or Lei wouldn’t be hurt.
    She burned off some nervous energy by packing what few personal possessions she’d accumulated in the tiny apartment over the past few months, stuffing the items she didn’t want to throw away into cardboard boxes and suitcases. She checked the clock often—about every fifteen minutes—as she worked.
    This was absolute torture.
    A half hour passed.
    An hour dragged.
    An hour and a half crawled.
    Two hours crept at a sloth’s pace.
    Just as Rin was contemplating calling the police to report her new husband missing, a knock on the door sent her heart racing. She didn’t walk, or even jog, to the door; she raced. Without bothering to check the peephole or ask who it was, she unlocked it and threw it open.
    Her sister’s face was a deep scarlet, stained with tears, and her almond-shaped eyes were rimmed in bright red. Lei lurched forward, throwing her thin frame into Rin’s arms, and overwhelmed with relief—it was over, finally over!—Rin cried into the slick black sheet of her hair.
    No matter what, the sacrifice she’d made had been worth it.
    Together, the two sisters unleashed the tears they’d held back, the sorrow and fear and frustration escaping them in shivers and sobs. It was only after the shaking eased to