“Miles…” He reaches out and catches my hand as I watch him. “I… this is… I don’t have the words to tell you how much this means to me. I just… can’t explain what this means to me. Thank you so much.”
His words make me unbelievably happy, that I almost feel embarrassed. “Yeah, it’s no problem. It took me like an hour,” I say as I try to brush off his words. I’ve never seen Havoc at a loss for words when trying to be kind.
He cocks his head as he stares at me. “What? My freedom has been at your fingertips, and it only took you an hour?”
“Yeah… maybe… but if I would have done it sooner, you wouldn’t have had this cool metal,” I say with a smile. “And I had to find the spell and everything!”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Even to this day, you still impress me.” He leans in and kisses me softly on the lips, so I press up against him.
“Ew, gross.”
I pull back and look at Lanni who just smiles at me before walking into the meeting room. People are beginning to file into the shrine, so I step away from Havoc.
“Are we headed to the meeting room?” Evan asks.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I say, but as we walk, I grab Havoc’s hand and tug him back. “I have one more secret for you.” I look up at him as he looks at me in interest. Havoc has always loved a good secret even though he can rarely keep it.
“What’s that?” he asks, blue eyes locked onto mine.
I press up against him until my lips are just against his ear. We are right outside the meeting room door where everyone is talking about something. “I’m naked.”
He quickly looks me over, clearly seeing me clothed, and raises an eyebrow.
“What?”
“It’s an illusion that I have clothes on. I came naked just for you,” I say.
“Oh my gods,” Havoc says as he reaches out and touches my chest. Even though his eyes are fooled, his hand isn’t, and he grins. “You’re going to sit through a council meeting butt ass naked? Your first council meeting where they decide if you’re worthy to be the district boss?”
I grin mischievously at him. “Yep.”
“I love you,” he says, and the words make me smile. It’s not as if I didn’t already know he did, but it’s nice hearing them.
I can’t wait to see where life takes us now that we’re together. I just wish Geoff wasn’t involved. “I love you too. Now let’s go,” I say as I walk into the meeting room and take a seat in Rehna’s chair. She’s probably rolling in her grave knowing my naked balls are smooshed into it. Willow, Jacob, Evan, and Pepper all turn to me. The only other person there who isn’t of the council is Lanni, whom I invited.
“Alright, let’s first go over a few things,” Evan says and turns the floor over to me.
I talk to the other council members about what happened with Rehna as well as what happened following her arrest. Rehna knew her end was near and made sure to prove it by giving us no information. Even when they brought in a succubus, she was able to avoid giving any information that would help us. Without the celestial being, her body began to age rapidly, and within three days, she passed away.
We tried getting more information out of her, like where Geoff is or who was controlling the Siren, but either she didn’t know or she was taking it to her grave.
“So, Geoff is still out there growing more and more powerful?” Willow asks.
“Yes, but we will stop him,” I say. “We will do everything we can to stop him. We have to do everything to stop him.”
“So that brings us to our next topic. We need to decide if we would like to vote in Miles to take Rehna’s place. All in favor say ‘aye.’”
Everyone says “aye” without hesitation.
“Well, that was simple,” Evan says. “Alright, Miles, you have your second in mind?”
A second is the person who helps run the district but is also there to take care of it if the boss is gone. I can’t have Havoc as my second since if I leave, he generally goes with me. I’d asked Yoko, but she told me she couldn’t even run her own life, let alone a district.
“I would like to suggest Lanni,” I say as I motion to her.
“Understood.”
“I have one question first,” Lanni says with a sweet smile.
“Of course,” Evan says, giving her the floor.
“Do I have to be naked as well?” she asks.
Everyone looks around in confusion as I stare at Lanni the Traitor. Dammit. It must be why she said “ew gross” when she walked in.
“Why would you think that?” Evan asks.
She sets a hand against her chest dramatically. “Oh! Miles has an illusion on! Forgive me! I’ve always been able to see through his illusions,” she says with a sweet smile still on her traitorous face.
Everyone turns to look at me. Willow’s face scrunches up, and Havoc is trying his hardest not to laugh.
“Are you…” Evan stops to compose himself. “Are you naked right now?”
I look at him like he’s an idiot. “What? No! Of course not! Why would you think that?”
“I’d like to suggest the removal of Miles Shavold as district boss. All in favor, say ‘aye,’” Evan says.
Everyone says “aye.”
Author’s Note
If you want to be the first to know about what’s next for Miles and Havoc, and to be the first to know about the release of book two, join my reader group, Alice Winters’ Wonderland here! I frequently put up teasers, short stories, and giveaways! (There’s currently a few Hitman, Villain, Within the Mind, and Hidden in Darkness short stories that can only be accessed there!)
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If you’d like another action/comedy, check out The Hitman’s Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love!
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