by Jillian Dodd
I set the cupcake on the counter, place a single candle in the middle, and light it. Then I place it in my palm, holding it out in front of me.
“Happy Birthday,” I say out loud then I close my eyes and make a wish.
“What are you doing?” Ari asks, interrupting me.
“It’s just after midnight. The twelfth of June. My birthday.”
Ari gets a strange look on his face. “Are you telling me that today is your actual real life birthday?”
“Yes.” I nod. “We didn’t get to celebrate our birthdays at school, but I always snuck down at midnight and celebrated like this. I guess it’s sort of become my tradition.”
“Today is my real life birthday, too,” he says.
“Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“Hmm,” I say, holding the cupcake between us. “Make a wish, Ari. Then blow out the candle with me.”
“One, two, three,” he says, both our breaths extinguishing the flame.
“Happy birthday,” we say to each other.
“Ari, how old are you?” I ask.
“Well, according to my legend, I’m twenty-one.”
“But how old are you, really?”
“I’m now officially nineteen.”
I stare at him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because I’m turning nineteen today too. How weird is that?”
“It’s quite weird, actually.” He grabs his phone and types, then reads. “Although nearly nine hundred thousand Americans share the same birthday, only about ten thousand are born on any given date.”
“And two of them just happen to be standing here pretending to be brother and sister?”
“We look an awful lot alike,” he counters.
“I thought it was good casting.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little odd how comfortable we are with each other? How well we mesh as a team already? How sometimes we don’t even have to speak to know what the other is thinking?”
“Good training?” I suggest.
“I’m not attracted to you. You’re beautiful, and I am pretty much attracted to anything with a pulse, but—”
“Not me? But you joked about watching my six.”
“I was just giving you a hard time—teasing you.”
“Are you suggesting that we are really brother and sister, like for real?” I ask.
“Brother and sister? Huntley, if we share the same birthdate and are related, that would make us twins.” He stares at me for a beat then says, “What the hell?”
And I have to agree with him.
EPI:LOGUE
The leader of Black X sits in a smoke-filled room, enjoying a cigar. He knows he shouldn’t smoke inside, but he’s celebrating with good reason.
That illusive bastard The Priest is finally really dead.
Something he’s been waiting six long years to happen.
“Sir, you’re going to want to see this,” the Ghost says, interrupting his celebration by throwing a laptop on the desk in front of him and pressing play.
He watches a live feed from the kitchen in the Montrovian villa.
Huntley is alone, standing by the large island with a cupcake in her hand, lighting a single candle at midnight just as she did every year she was at Blackwood.
As she’s getting ready to blow it out, Aristotle walks in on her.
They quickly discover the truth about their birthdays.
“This is bad, boss. They’re going to start digging.”
“And what if they do? Huntley’s birth certificate shows her mother’s real name, Kelley Bond. And Aristotle’s adoption papers have been in place since he was born, showing that a Kelley Bonde gave him up. An unfortunate typo that wouldn’t be that difficult for them to figure out. But that’s the point, right? It’s all part of their cover. Brother and sister, illegitimate children of Ares Von Allister. Now reunited.”
“You and I both know that’s not true. Kelley never would have given up her son willingly. When you told her he died shortly after birth, she was heartbroken.”
“We had to give the boy to the General. It was the only way to get him to comply. Besides, she got Huntley. She couldn’t have handled them both with her career.”
“It was cruel.”
“It was necessary.”
“Do you think all this manipulation is worth it?”
“If we don’t fight, who will?”
“You’re obsessed with revenge.”
He takes a puff of his cigar. “Yes, I am. And I vow to achieve it.”
“Have you gotten any updates on her mental state? The old man said she went off grid. Do you know where she went?”
“She killed her mother’s assassin. I would assume she felt the need to celebrate.”
“And now what? She’s accomplished her goal. What if she wants to quit?”
“We can’t let that happen.”
“Maybe it’s time you tell her the truth.”
“She and Ari will figure it out in due time. They are curious by nature.”
“They are young adults living a dream life in the lap of luxury. There is no reason for them to continue our fight.”
“If they want to continue living in the lap of luxury, they must. I suspect her focus will now shift to a higher goal. The Priest and X share many qualities, and we made sure she studied his work extensively as part of her curriculum. I’m told she had great admiration for the man. I was a bit worried that she wouldn’t go through with it when the time came. I’m even more in awe of her abilities.”
“The old man did a good job training her. You should give him some credit for that.”
“She had innate gifts.”
“Just like her mother,” the Ghost agrees.
The leader picks up his glass and raises it into the air. “May she rest in peace.”
The Ghost nods solemnly. “So what’s next?”
“Some well-deserved time off, during which I suspect she will realize this is not over. Killing The Priest may have felt like retribution, but I expect the vengeance will feel empty once she realizes he was only the paid trigger man.”
“You think she’ll do the rest on her own?”
“If not, we’ll make it her mission.”
THE:END
GET: BOOK 3
THE SOCIETY
BOOKS BY:JILLIAN DODD
The Keatyn Chronicles
USA TODAY bestselling young adult contemporary romance set in an East Coast boarding school.
Stalk Me
Kiss Me
Date Me
Love Me
Adore Me
Hate Me
Get Me
Fame
Power
Money
Sex
Love
Keatyn Unscripted
Aiden
That Boy Series
Small-town contemporary romance series about falling in love with the boy next door.
That Boy
That Wedding
That Baby
That Divorce
The Love Series
Contemporary, standalone romances following the very sexy Crawford family.
Vegas Love
Broken Love
Fake Love
Spy Girl Series
Young adult romance series about a young spy who just might save the world.
The Prince
The Eagle
The Society
The Valiant
By Jillian’s daughter, Kenzie Hart
Young adult travel romance.
Girl off the Grid
ABOUT:THE AUTHOR
Jillian is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author who writes fun romances with characters her readers fall in love with, from the boy next door in the That Boy trilogy to the daughter of a famous actress in The Keatyn Chronicles to a kick-ass young assassin in the Spy Girl series.
She lives in a small Florida beach town, is married to her
college sweetheart, has two grown children, and two Labrador Retrievers named Cali and Camber. When she's not working, she likes to travel, paint, shop for shoes, watch football, and go to the beach.
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