Page 60 of Fierce Monarch

Motherfucker. I knew it was a mistake to see him again. I knew he was going to fuck me over. “No, he doesn’t want my people. He wants my family. Specifically, he wants Shara.”

Nate’s eyes widened, flicking down to the gun in my hand when I flexed my fingers. “I didn’t know he was going to do that. I just thought he was going for the license or something.”

“Bullshit.”

“I swear on my mother’s life, I’m not lying.”

Despite knowing that his mother existed, I wasn’t so sure Nate cared about her like he said he did, so I wasn’t taking his vow to heart. “I meant what I said before. Tonight was a mistake that won’t happen again. We’re done. Go back to your brother and the Aces, and leave me be.”

“Mari, wait.” He reached for me, and I let the muscle memory take over. Twisting his hand away, I grabbed him by the throat at the same time that I hooked a foot around his knee. If he had been paying more attention, it wouldn’t have worked, but he was distracted. The landing knocked the breath out of him, and he curled onto one side as he fought to get it back. I crouched so I was on his level, my gun at the ready without pointing at him.

“I won’t say this again. Stay out of my life, Nate. I don’t want to kill you, but fuck with my family again, and I will.”

I didn’t wait for him to answer me, just hauled ass out of the apartment. My car screamed to a halt in front of Gilded just in time to see Shara being stuffed into a cop car. She was mouthing off to the cop, who was manhandling her. Just before she ducked her head, she looked up, and we stared at each other over the asphalt.

I’ll get you out of there.

With a wink toward me, she dropped into the seat, and then she was gone, locked away and firmly out of my reach.

Chapter Sixteen

Dominic

“Idon’t care what you have to do or who you have to bribe. I want her out now.”

Mari’s growl echoed through the police station, and I took note of the few officers who looked far too giddy to hear it. More than one of them had their hands on their weapons, and Greyson and I were constantly scanning the room to make sure no one got suicidal and pulled one on our girl.

“Maybe we should keep our voices down, just in case these aren’t our type of cops,” Lewis Donnaghal, lead lawyer from Donnaghal and Sons, suggested. When I turned to glare at him—because, really, how fucking stupid did he think we were—he blanched and turned away.

The man was a bland-made human, with everything about him lackluster and dull. He seemed competent enough, but with Shara in jail, we needed a fire-starter. We needed a powerhouse. Lewis Donnaghal didn’t feel like the man we needed.

“I’ve called his father. Ronan should be here any minute, and when he arrives, Lewis will be lucky to see the inside of a courtroom for a year,” Grey mentioned quietly as Mari slowly turned and took up Donnaghal’s breathing space. He looked like he was going to pass out as she leaned in. How the fuck the man made partner without meeting her before was beyond me.

Mari took a breath, obviously trying to keep herself calm. Anyone could see it wasn’t working, and I didn’t blame her. Shara was inside alone. No protection, no way out. It was enough to make anyone antsy. Mari’s voice was razor-sharp. “My sister is inside that hellhole. I don’t give a fuck who hears me, Lewis. I want her out. Now. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because I pay you, you’re in charge.”

I was struggling with how to help. Not because I didn’t know what to do, but because I was pissed.

She’d snuck out again. Put herself in danger, and for what?

I needed to do something.

That was what she’d said when we’d cornered her outside the police station thirty minutes ago.

No explanation about what it was or where she’d been. Just I needed to do something, and the fact that she wouldn’t meet our eyes.

I’d been unmoored since Nate’s treachery, struggling to straighten myself after he left us reeling, but this? This was too fucking much, and her bullshit answer was just that—bullshit.

I thought we’d turned a corner recently, thought we’d finally gotten back to the point where she trusted us. But obviously not, and honestly, Grey and I deserved better.

We were here, waiting for her to come to us, waiting for her to lean on us, and Mari refused to let us in. She wasn’t being a good partner.

The empathetic part of me piped up with a reminder, she just had her heart ripped out a week ago.

Maybe, but she was ripping out ours every day. Something had to give, or Nate was going to break more than just them; he’d break us too.

The sound of a car door slamming tore my focus from the quiet man nearly wetting himself in front of my girl. He looked like a quivering dog, and I was once again surprised he’d been allowed to meet us without a fucking chaperone.

“Puppies,” Mari muttered, turning away to watch the new arrival.

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