Serpent King's Bride: A Dark Mafia Romance Trilogy

He shook his head. “Keep talking, Abby,” he said, his voice so quiet I practically had to strain to hear him.

I flipped my phone over and put her on speakerphone. “Sure, I can do that,” I replied, my response automatic, but my mind raced with the implications. A trip to HQ meant leaving Nathan’s orbit, breaking whatever fragile connection we’d built. I didn’t even want to think about how this might mean I wouldn’t get him back.

“I’ll give you the address,” she said. “You got something to write with?”

Nathan wordlessly took a neat pad of paper and a pen out of a drawer in the island, then slid them over to me.

“Ready,” I said, pen poised over the notepad.

Diane rattled off the address, then a number where I could reach her if something came up. I scribbled them down, each stroke of the pen etching deeper uncertainty into my gut.

“Thank you,” I said, and ended the call.

The finality of the click echoed through the big kitchen, and I glanced back at Nathan. His obsidian eyes held mine, steady and unreadable.

“What do you want me to say?” I asked, my voice low and steady despite the turmoil inside. “I’ll be your insider at the FBI—if it means you’ll trust me again.”

“I will never trust you again,” he said. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

The knot in the pit of my stomach tightened. “Let me try, at least.”

“Okay, try,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. “Honestly, I’ll be incredibly impressed if you somehow manage to make it out of this alive.”

Chapter Thirteen: Nathan

The sun had barely broken over the horizon, casting a soft glow into my kitchen. Abby stood across from me, her face unreadable—an FBI agent in my house, in my life, and I wasn’t sure what was real anymore. Her phone still sat between us, the call between she and her FBI handler out in the open.

She broke the silence, taking me by surprise. “I’m serious. What do you want me to tell the FBI?”

Her voice was steady, but her eyes searched mine for an answer she couldn’t seem to find on her own. I was confused, disoriented…because she was making me an offer.

An offer to be my insider, my agent.

An offer to betray the career she’d worked toward her whole life.

I watched her closely, every muscle in my body tensed like a coiled spring. “Why are you doing this, Abby?” My voice was rough with suspicion. I cocked my head, trying to decipher the mystery before me. “Is this some kind of play? You think you can trick me?”

Her expression flickered, just for a moment, before she regained her composure. But in that fleeting instant, I saw something that looked like genuine concern—or was it just another layer of deception?

I could never tell with her.

Abby let out a long sigh, the kind that told me she was tired. Tired of the games, maybe even tired of lying. “Nathan, you need to start trusting me if we’re going to get out of this alive.” Her eyes locked onto mine with a fierceness that made my chest tighten.

“Alive?” I echoed, my mind racing as I tried to piece together her motives.

“The FBI is looking for Tyler,” she continued, her voice low and urgent. “And there’s a good chance your father will find out about me. About my real job. Nathan, I want out of this too.”

It sounded like a confession, but what if it was a trap? A ploy to get me to drop my guard? I wanted to believe her, wanted it more than I’d admit to myself, but trust wasn’t something that came easy to me. Especially not now.

I thought back to a couple days ago, after I’d asked her if she had been assigned to seduce me. She had said no, her denial sharp and quick.

But now, as I watched her standing in my kitchen, offering herself up as some double agent, I realized something crucial—she may never have been allowed to do any of this. To be here with me, to become entangled in my world.

“Did you break the rules for me?” The question was like a bullet, straight and hard. “Coming after me, staying with me. Was that against your orders?”

Her answer came quick, her gaze unwavering. “Yes,” she admitted, and it felt like the room’s temperature spiked. “I wasn’t cleared to do any of this.”

She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a whisper that seemed to vibrate through the air between us. “I’ve actually fallen for you, Nathan. I want to be with you—“