Page 5 of Fierce Monarch

My nod was on autopilot, a movement completely detached from my mind. It unsettled me that I was already falling into good soldier habits, but what else could you do in deadly situations where fighting back got you dead? I had to hold it together for a little while longer.

Make a plan. Get to Mari. Kill Cash. “You got it.”

Stepping through the crowd, I let the bodies swallow me up. I checked out the women, unseeing eyes skating over each body before moving on. It made my stomach roll. I didn’t even want to pretend to check them out. It felt like cheating.

Hard to cheat when you blew your relationship to smithereens.

One of the women walked around with sealed bottles on a tray, and I traded in my empty for a fresh one. Getting Mari back was my second priority. Surviving was my first.

I was almost to the other side of the room when she stepped into my path, and I had to resist the urge to curl my lip.

The woman was small, tiny in stature and body, but it wasn’t healthy. She looked sickly, yet I knew from my time in the compound that she was one of the women who prided herself on having everyone in the gang at least once. I was just another notch on her bedpost.

“You looking for company?” she rasped, and I winced at how painful it sounded.

No was on the tip of my tongue, and then I looked back to see my brother and his guest watching.

Son of a bitch.

Filing through my options, I closed my eyes against a groan. I didn’t have a fucking choice, and I hated it.

“Yeah.” Snatching her arm, I pulled her behind me down the hallway and into my suite. Despite the fact that I’d lived here for years, the room was no-frills at best. It was nothing important, just a place to rest my head. A transitional space with three rooms, two bedrooms connected by a main living area and kitchen. I learned early on that Cash liked taking my things away. It didn’t matter if I made him happy or sad—or even if he wanted the damn thing. If I had it, he wanted it. The good thing was, it taught me to care less about my possessions. I had nothing I would be upset to lose.

Except he’d done it yet again, this time taking away the only thing that had ever been mine, and I’d let him.

Pulling the girl into the spare room, I shut the door behind us and motioned to the bed. She went eagerly, then reached for my belt. I slapped her hands away before they could get close. “Don’t touch me.”

She looked around as if she could see a camera. “I don’t understand.”

Sighing, I looked up at the ceiling for patience, cursing Cash every way I could. “What’s your name?”

“Ava.”

“Okay, Ava. How much would it take for your silence?”

“Silence?” Her brows furrowed like she’d never heard the word, and I groaned. Christ, was she on drugs? I couldn’t negotiate if she was high; she’d be too much of a liability. People with vices liked to open their fucking mouths whenever possible, and this had to stay between us.

“Are you high?”

“No.”

“Drunk?”

“No,” she growled.

“Would you pass a drug test?”

“Sober as a church mouse.”

I stared at her, and she rolled her eyes. “Fine, two beers, but I’m not a lightweight. I can still consent.”

“Do the men in this gang really stop to ask that?”

“No.” That one word killed me. For a moment, Ava sounded as small as she looked, and I ached to tell her to run, to leave and never look back. This wasn’t a life for anyone, and she was in her early twenties. Still plenty young enough to start over and be happy. Then her eyes sharpened, and I knew she wouldn’t go, even if I promised her a way out. She was ready to die on this hill, and I had no doubt she would. They always did.

“You got an old man?”

“No.”

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