Chapter 47 THE KING’S DISSONANCE

Chapter 47 THE KING’S DISSONANCE
Kanan’s POV
I stood just around the corner, down the corridor, watching her walk away. 

Hell, even the way she walked showed just how much of a trouble she was. 

She moved with a slow, swaggering confidence.

I shook my head. No, not confidence. It was arrogance.

Yet, beneath the bravado of the street girl, there was an underlying grace that pulled me forward like a tide. It was a physical tug in my gut, like a magnetic frequency that made my skin prickle with heat.

She had somehow gotten completely, viciously under my skin.

I reached up, my fingers trembling slightly as I touched the back of my own neck, right at the base of my hairline. 

The skin there was still warm, as if her fingers were still there. 

The touch. That goddamn touch.

It hadn't just been a fumbling brush of fingers. It had been precise. 

The slow, feathering caress along the sensitive nerve endings of my nape was a sensation I hadn't felt in over a year. 

I hissed under my breath. Elena used to do that. 

Back then, during those few, rare moments when the pressure of the business became too much, and I went to find a temporary crash in her bed, she would reach up and trace that exact line as if feeling my tension. 

I had never told Elena that the spot was my weakness. I had never told a soul. 

I didn't even know how she had discovered it back then, but she had simply gotten it. 

It was my mute button. No matter how much cold fury was raging in my veins, the moment her fingers feathered along my hairline, my defences would completely dissolve. I would relax against her, helpless against the soothing quiet she brought.

And now, a tattered, tatted-up street brawler had just hit that exact same button with absolute, flawless precision.

How?

The question clawed at the inside of my skull, turning into a dangerous, spiraling paranoia. 

It was impossible. It was a coincidence born of my own warped mind again. 

Sienna looked nothing like Elena. She spoke with a razor-sharp edge, dressed like a high-end sin, and carried herself like a woman who would rather spit in my face than please me. Elena had been a creature of soft obedience and quiet compliance. 

I turned and walked down the private exit toward the garage, hating the way my mind refused to let her go. 

Heat pooled low in my stomach as I remembered the way her dress had slid up and revealed the blade strapped to her thigh.  

I got into my car and leaned my head back against the leather headrest, the silent interior offering a brief respite. 

A few seconds later, my phone vibrated in my pocket, shattering the silence. 

I pulled it out and answered without looking at the ID. Only a few people had this contact.

"How did it go?” Viper’s voice sounded through the speaker before I could say a word, tight and incredibly anxious. “Did... did it work out? Do you think she’s a good fit for the job?"

"It was ok." 

Viper released an audible breath of relief. "So you liked her."

"I didn't say that," I said coldly, staring out the windscreen into the shadows of the concrete garage. "She pushed the line, Viper. She asked questions she had no business asking."

"Fuck,” Viper hissed, her voice remorseful. “I’m sorry, Ice. I’ll discipline her, I told her—"

"No," I interrupted, my voice a flat, absolute baritone. "Leave her be. She's smarter than I expected."

She hesitated. “Bu... but you just said…” She paused, taking a deep breath to calm down. “I’m confused, Ice. Which is it? Do you like her? Do you not like her?”

“I don’t have to like someone to do business with them, V,” I replied smoothly. “She’s kind of too bold for her own good, but... she will be a good fit for the job. She has the nerve required to look a shark in the face without blinking and understands how the business works."

She let out a pleased hum. "I told you she was good."

"She is also arrogant."

That made Viper chuckle. "Now that definitely sounds like you liked her."

Annoyingly, she wasn't wrong. Most people became irrelevant the second they left my presence, but Sienna seemed determined to linger.

"She'll do the job," I said finally. “I have a suspicion that she’ll be a pain in the ass, though."

"Well, look at that,” Viper drawled, a tentative, lighter tone creeping into her voice. “Pain in the ass is what we need right now. Maybe it’ll get you back in the game and bring back the playboy Ice we knew before… your ex." She hesitated before continuing, as if not sure how far to take her teasing. “Or is Elena hotter than her?”

A grim, sharp laugh escaped my chest."Don't compare a house pet to a wolf."

“Which do you prefer?” Viper pushed. “A pet or a wolf?”

“Stop it,” I said, letting my voice drop into a cold cadence. “I’ve told you to stop trying to set me up.”

"Right, of course," Viper said quickly, backtracking. "So, we move forward with the operational details?"

"Yes. Set it up. Whatever her fee is, let me know," I commanded, then hung up the phone before she could pry any deeper into my head.

I started the engine, the powerful hum of the car vibrating as I pulled out of the garage and headed back toward my apartment. 

Ignoring the two cars of my security escort behind me, I tried to let the silence clear my head.

But instead of the quiet drive through the city to distract me, it only made the obsession twist deeper into my chest, anchoring itself like a parasitic root.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, my hands tightening around the steering wheel as the realization arrived with a terrifying, absolute clarity. “I think I want to see her again.”

I didn't just want to hire her; I wanted to be in her space again. I wanted to feel the volatile, erratic frequency she gave off. 

I wanted to feel just how her skin would react under all those tattoos. Will she be pliant, or would her fire carry over into her passion in bed? 

I clenched my jaw as a flare of arousal shot through me. 

Something about her was entirely wrong.

It wasn't a clean attraction. She was addictive, an intoxicating puzzle that was currently threatening to dismantle the perfect peace I had built since Elena’s death.

I let out a breath, and a slow, dark smirk curved on my lips as a predatory intent settled into my bones.

Since when have I denied myself something I wanted? 

I was going to pull her into my world and use her to hunt whoever was tearing down my empire.

And while she was trapped under my command, I would have what I wanted till it was out of my system.

“Hey Siri,” I called out. “Call Jeremiah.”

“Sir?”Jeremiah, my head of security, replied before the second ring. 

“I need you to look into someone.” I ordered calmly. 

“Who?” He asked, his voice sharpened immediately.

I stared out at the city lights. “Find out everything you can about Sienna.”

“How deep do you want me to get?” He asked cautiously. 

“Very deep,” I said, my tone grave. “I want to know everything.”