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RIDER

LARISSA IONE

NEW YORK BOSTON

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Table of Contents

A Preview of Lethal Rider

Copyright Page

For everyone in the romance community—readers, writers, and publishing professionals—who recently came together to help one of their own, and who continue to put together events that benefit individuals, communities, and even entire countries. You’re an amazing group of people, and this Horseman is for you!

Acknowledgments

Huge thanks, as always, to the entire Grand Central Publishing team who worked so hard to get this book onto the shelves, with special thanks to Amy Pierpont and Lauren Plude for all their work and help.

Also, thanks to Cid Tyer for letting me have Rhys to torture a bit. I had a lot of fun!

And finally, a big thank you to Shawna Malone… now we just have to move you to Wisconsin!

One

Arik Wagner had to hand it to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; they threw one hell of a party.

Well, three of them did, anyway. The fourth, whose name had been Reseph before his Seal broke and he became known as Pestilence, had been lying low since his defeat at the hands of his siblings, Ares, Limos, and Thanatos, a month earlier. The asshole and his demon army was no doubt regrouping, but for now, everyone was breathing a sigh of relief.

Hence, the celebration, which was part celebration for the victory, and part engagement party for Ares and his fiancée, Cara. Everyone who’d survived the battle had been invited to Ares’s Greek mansion. Ares had also extended an invitation to the Underworld General staff who hshoΒad helped Cara when she’d been dying, so the place was crawling with demons.

There were even a couple of angels roaming around. Reaver, who Arik had already decided was one big tool, was over by the chocolate fountain talking to a sparkly female angel named Gethel, who used to be the Horsemen’s good Watcher before Reaver took the job. The Horsemen also had an evil Watcher named Harvester, but she hadn’t been invited. Something about her being a world-class bitch who might eat the guests.

Thanatos, the fourth Horseman, bumped into Arik as he dove for a football someone had tossed from across the huge great room.

“Watch it, dickhead,” Arik muttered.

“What’s the matter, human?” Thanatos punched him in the shoulder with the ball hard enough to make Arik stumble backward. “Ping-Pong more your speed?”

Arik shot Kynan Morgan, an old Army buddy who was now one of the bigwigs in charge of The Aegis, an ancient demon-slaying organization, a you-ready-to-go-or-what look, and Ky, who was deep in conversation with Ares, held up his finger. He and Arik had intended to stay no more than ten minutes, since Ky wanted to get home to his wife, Gem, and their new baby. That was more than fine with Arik.

If Arik spent another minute inside with these supernatural, superior asshats, he was going to slit his own throat. Also, if Limos, the drop-dead-gorgeous female Horseman, caught him leering at her one more time, she’d likely slit his throat for him.

She might appear to be the definition of a sorority party girl, but under the skirts, nail polish, and flowers in her hair, she was every bit as dangerous as her brothers.

No one seemed to be paying any attention to him, so he strolled out of the house and into the cool November night air. He’d always liked Greece, had visited a couple of times on military assignments. The food was good, the weather perfect, and the people weren’t assholes to Americans. Sure, the Greeks had a high concentration of demons living among them, but some of the oldest countries did. Demons, being extremely long-lived, if not immortal, had a tendency to stay in the places they knew well.

They really weren’t all that adventurous. Pussies.

He parked himself on a stone bench overlooking the sea. He could feel the piggy eyes of Ares’s Ramreel demon guards on him, but he ignored them and looked up into the heavens. The stars were bright tonight, their lights glittering in the pitch-black sky. He’d spoken to Cara for a few minutes out here when