Accidentally Yours (Merffy Kizzmet) novel Chapter 184

Accidentally Yours

Chapter 184

s still smelled of plaster and paint. Too new. Too clean.

The shop d

So she fixed it the only way she knew how.

EDM thundered through the speakers, bass rattling the windows while Loin crouched on the floor with a roll of blue painter’s tape and a Sharpie. She stretched the tape in clean lines along the wall, muttering notes under her breath.

“Flash wall here. Big neon duck–Archy throne behind the counter? Shelving there. Sink goes here…”

Archy supervised from a milk crate: denim overalls cuffed at the feet, a faded red scarf knotted around his neck like a real hard worker. Lord Archibald–and now, apparently, Head of Interior Design.

Her pen scrawled wild arrows across a sketchpad open on the floor. The paper looked more like a conspiracy board than a floor plan, but

it made sense to her.

Across the room, lake was crouched near the breaker panel, wires spilling from his hands like veins. His laptop glowed on a crate, code streaming in constant motion. He muttered something about firewalls under his breath,

“You’re really going with a neon duck?” he asked without looking up.

“Obviously.” She tugged another strip of tape, teeth clenched around the roll. “Subtle is horing.”

He grunted. “Subtle keeps people alive.”

She shot him a grin over her shoulder, tape hanging off her fingers like streamers. “I’ve been alive this long, haven’t 17

Take just

shook his head, though she didn’t miss the faint twitch at his mouth

Normal. Keep it normal. Pretend yesterday didn’t happen.

She snapped another line of tape across the wall when a knock sounded against the glass.

Not hesitant. Not sharp, Just deliberate,

egun at his hip as he crossed to the door. The hall was Every muscle in her spine went rigid. Jake was already moving, hand brushing the empty, Just a black lacquer box on the mat, gleaming under the fluorescent lights.

Jake bent, checked it for weight, for wires, for anything that felt wrong, then carried it inside. “Courier drop,” he muttered, locking the door behind him

The box was heavy when he set it on the counter. Too heavy. A red wax seal pressed into the lid–fox stamped deep in the center.

Her stomach twisted. Of course it’s him..

“You want me to open it?” Jake asked.

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11:24 Thu, Oct 9

Chapter 184

She shook her head, law tight. “No, It’s mine,”

ASO

The wax cracked under her nail, peeling away to reveal folded parchment thicker than her sketch paper. She unfolded it, ink looping across the page in elegant script that made her want to roll her eyes,

To Miss Lola Marlowe

should I say, to the women fate saw fit to place in my path,

It is time

A debt as sacred as the one between us cannot linger unpaid. After due consideration, I have elected to name my terms,

You will present yourself at my gym beginning tomorrow. Training will be held three days each week, no less than two hours per session, for a term of six months. The exercises will be of my choosing Security, of course, may attend–but they will not interfere. Should they intervene, of should you fail to appear, the debt resets, and we begin again.

This is not punishment. This is refinement. You survived–now you will sharpen.

I expect punctuality.

Гох

da volpe flittle fo

Lintil tomorrow, piccola

Rafael

Ballandi

Lola barked out a laugh that cracked in her throat. Refinement? Punctuality? What the fuck is this, charm school?

Jake leaned closer, reading over her shoulder. His mouth tightened. “Son of a bitch.

ght?” she muttered, crumpling the edge in her fist before smoothing it back out. “He makes it sound like a goddamn cotillion invitation.”

“Obnoxious, right?” she

“Enzo’s going to lose his

is shit, Jake said natly.

Her phone buzzed on the counter like it had been waiting for

or that cue.

Lola slid the folded letter out from under her arm as she stepped off the elevator. Enzo was waiting, suit still on, tie yanked loose like he hadn’t even bothered to change after the night’s work. His gaze locked on her hand–the cream envelope crushed in her grip.

He didn’t speak. Just held out a palm.

She raised her brows. “What, no ‘hi, how was your day? Nice butt,“”

“Letter. Now.”

Her pulse spiked. Still, she stepped forward and slapped it into his hand. “You’re not gonna like it.”

Enzo unfolded it once, scanned the first few lines, and his jaw clenched so hard the muscle ticked. By the time he got to the bottom, his knuckles had gone white around the page.

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