Page 2 of Fierce Monarch

“Mari, I’m?—”

“Don’t,” I snapped. “This is on me. I brought him here. I inducted him. I fucked him. This is my fault. Everything is my fault.”

Greyson looked like he wanted to argue, but at my glare, he backed down. I knew he’d beat himself up too, but there was only enough guilt in this room for one, and I was determined to carry it until I died. A permanent reminder of how foolish trusting someone made me.

“How deep did he get?” I asked, stepping over to the first-aid cabinet. I wanted to let my knuckles fester, but who knew when the others would come after me. I couldn’t afford a handicap when it could mean the difference between life and death.

Grey leaned against the wall, swiping through his tablet as I cleaned the cuts, layered on some salve, and wrapped them. The stuff was a family recipe from Tennessee’s mee-maw and the shit worked miracles, so I’d probably be healed up in a day or so.

“I’m not sure. His credentials didn’t give him access to much, but he could have found out any of ours by being observant, though that would’ve only given him access to the archives. He didn’t have biometric access to anything but the house unless he hacked the system.” He paused, writing himself a note in his phone before continuing. “Regardless, I already changed everything. Passwords, biometric scans, et cetera. I’ve moved the location of the safe houses, swapped warehouses, and even gotten the three of us new phones and numbers, but honestly, there’s really no telling what he could have found out. He was here for a long time.”

Just long enough to make me love a lie.

Nate knew everything. All our plans, my goals, everything—and now, so did Cash. Nate had said he believed in me, that he believed I was doing the right thing against his brother, all so he could gather all the ammo he needed to shoot me in the back.

I’ll never stop loving you, he’d whispered last night while he’d held me in his arms. While we’d made love.

What a fucking joke.

“He knew.” Knew he was coming home and fucked me anyway. Held me anyway. Told me he loved me anyway.

I thought the look in his eyes was devotion when it was really goodbye. He’d wanted one last orgasm before he broke me. The fact that he’d been so cruel, so disgusting, made me want to scrub my skin until I got rid of the cells that touched him.

Greyson’s sigh was sad. “We have to keep moving, Mari.”

“How?” I turned to him with burning eyes courtesy of the booze, desperate for an answer I wasn’t sure he could give.

How do we fix this?

How do we move on?

Where do we go from here?

My chest ached because we both knew what I really wanted to know. How could he do this to me?

“I don’t know, reina.” His voice broke for me. For us. For the family that we thought we’d made, and just like I knew I would, I broke too.

Tears ran in tracks down my face, though I caught the sob before it could leave my throat. Nate could have my tears—could fucking drown in them if he wanted—but he didn’t get my voice. My body curled in on itself, desperate to protect my soft spots as I let myself fall. Grey wrapped himself around me, following me down to kneel at my back on the floor. He held me tight, whispering nonsensical words in my ear and running his hand down my hair as I tried so fucking hard to rein it in again.

I would not break. Not for Nate. Not for Cash. Not for fucking anyone.

When I felt stable enough to stand on my own, I did. My legs wobbled like a newborn foal, but they held. They would always hold. I had to be strong enough for that.

Greyson’s scent lingered on my skin, a reminder of the home I’d always had, and it gave me the courage to ask, “What would you do?”

“If it were anyone else, I’d suggest normal protocol for spies.”

Assassinate him, he meant.

Grey cleared his throat quietly, like the noise would set me off. “I can find someone to do it discreetly if you’d prefer, but I didn’t want to assume.”

I debated it. Truly, I did. But I couldn’t imagine a world without Nate Black in it, even if Nate Black wasn’t real.

He’d hurt me, broken my trust, and still, I couldn’t sic my people on Nate like a pack of dogs. I couldn’t hurt him. Pain or not, my heart beat for him just like it did for Greyson and Dominic. Until I cut his part out and cauterized the wound, I couldn’t sign his death sentence.

“Leave it for now. If anything, it’ll lull them into complacency until we’ve decided the correct course of action.” I sighed and moved over to the weight bench. My legs were too unstable for running, so I’d lift until my arms fell off. Although, they were already feeling wobbly. “Where’s Dominic?”

“Destroying his room. It’ll need a complete overhaul.”

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