Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2)(31)
Use me to make it happen. I beg, let it be soon. And let us have a chance to live.
Winter
Senior Year
CHAPTER NINE
LAND DOWN UNDER
Dad contacted me three days before Christmas. I’d been beginning to wonder if there were any more Neph out there who could be allies. He forwarded my travel itinerary for the following day with a message saying he’d meet to debrief Kope and me on our second layover, which would be in New Zealand. I stared at the itinerary for a long time. We were going to Australia! Dad warned me that it was summertime there, so I’d be sure to leave behind the sweaters and jackets I’d been donning.
I saw that our first short layover was in Los Angeles, which pinched at my heart. I’d be so close to Kai, and he wouldn’t even know it.
Out of sheer concern I’d told my dad what I’d learned from the twins about Kai not working. He gruffly replied that he couldn’t get involved, but promised to let me know if he heard anything. Dad said L.A. had a constant high volume of whisperers prowling, so we’d have to get the timing just right before he’d send me there.
Trying to be patient sucked. Time just kept taunting me. And now the holidays were here.
We’d be gone over Christmas. I’d never been away from Patti on the holiday. I hated to leave her alone—especially in our apartment, which looked so dreary without the annual decorations. But we couldn’t be caught celebrating.
Before she took me to the airport, I slipped a gift onto her bed when she wasn’t looking—an angel necklace with a list of a hundred things I loved about her. Some of the stuff was silly, little memories and inside jokes only she would get, but I knew she’d read it over and over while I was gone.
Kope flew down, just like last time, and met me at the Atlanta airport. He was more subdued than normal on the first leg of our flight. Maybe because the last time we’d seen each other I’d revealed an awful lot about myself and my feelings for Kai to him and the twins. I didn’t mind the quiet, though. And I was glad the truth was out there.
When we changed planes in L.A., there was blessed little time to contemplate how near I was to Kaidan. Kope kept sending me furtive glances, but I was too lost in thought to talk.
I’d been on an adventure across the world, and Kaidan had no idea. For so long I’d been in a holding pattern, refusing to move on, and recently I’d been shoved forward without him. With each new event and journey I felt farther from him.
I stared out the airplane window and sent a silent greeting over the dry hills before our very long flight across the ocean.
Jet lag set in as we arrived in New Zealand. My internal clock was thoroughly confused; thankfully, enthusiasm for the trip overrode it. Kope and I waited at a corner table in the airport restaurant where Dad said he’d meet us. We hadn’t been waiting long before he came clanking up. I wasn’t sure how he got past the metal detectors with those giant steel-toed boots. I stood and hugged him around his thick waist.
“Trip okay so far?” he asked.
“Great,” I told him.
The three of us huddled over the table when he took out the manila envelope. He wasted no time.
“This is the son of Mammon, Duke of Greed. Name’s Flynn Frazer. Twenty-six years old.”
He pulled out a picture of a youthful man with bright red hair, cut short, and a slightly crooked nose. I easily recognized him as the bouncer from the awful summit in New York City. Flynn had a wide mouth and an infectious grin. He appeared to be in a gym, standing next to a punching bag with some other guys. He wore shiny red shorts and a sleeveless white T-shirt. He was short in stature compared to the other guys, but he had a wiry-muscled build that boasted of strength. One of his teeth was an obvious shade whiter than the others.
“Does he have a fake tooth?” I asked.
“Probably,” my father answered. “He’s an MMA fighter. Mixed martial arts. He’s the current welterweight champion in Australia. Never lost a fight. You’ll get to see for yourself while you’re there.”
I chewed my lip. Fighting, even for sport, made me a little nervous.
“What’s welterweight?” I handed the picture across the table to Kope.
“The weight class between lightweight and middleweight. Around a hundred and seventy pounds. His sin manifests itself differently than you might think. His father’s a dragon when it comes to hoarding gold and jewels, but this kid doesn’t seem to care about those types of acquisitions. He’s greedy for attention and status, especially when it comes to his rank and reputation, whether it’s a win in the ring or building a rep with the ladies.”
“I think I know of him,” Kope said. “Was he the boy forced to entertain the Dukes with a fight?”
“Yep, that’s our guy. Here’s his story. The only time Flynn’s sin raises its head is when he does something competitive. His greed takes over, sort of like it’s his win and he has to have it. His father is a big boxing fan and wanted Flynn to try his hand at fighting when he was just fourteen. He learned quick, and Mammon bragged about him to all the Dukes. When Flynn was nineteen, Shax, Duke of Theft, bet Mammon that Flynn couldn’t beat his son, Erik. Erik was a twenty-one-year-old boxer in Atlantic City at the time.” He paused, sitting back and crossing his arms. I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“It’d been a long time since anything brutal happened to a Neph at the hands of the Dukes. Stuff like that used to happen all the time before the number of kids went down so drastically. Anyway. The annual summit was held in Australia that year, and they brought both boys to fight. Erik held his own for a long time, but once Flynn finally got the upper hand, he couldn’t stop himself.”