Page 11 of Wicked Heiress

Without a word, I crossed the room, dressed in my robe, and stood beside my brothers. The Knights were not my blood, but we were a family. Only those who lived locally were in attendance—the four Salvatore brothers, the three Cormac brothers, Drake, and me. We had several hundred members spread out across the country.

“The auction is approaching,” Luca said with a bitter edge to his tone. “And we’re no closer to shutting down the Il Circo website.”

“I’m getting closer,” Drake told him. “But whenever I hack into their site, they shut it down and lock me out. I’m doing everything I can.”

“Your best isn’t good enough, Battle,” Luca snapped, his top lip curved upward like a pit bull ready to attack. “Try harder. Your future Queen’s life is on the line.”

I didn’t think Luca cared about anyone until Alex came into his life. He was cold and cruel, one of the most ruthless men I had ever met. You would never know he was only a few years older than me because he never showed his age. Wise beyond his years, Luca was a good leader and never did anything without a plan.

“I’ll find a backdoor,” Drake assured him, though his voice lacked confidence. “Give me more time. They have teams of hackers running that site.”

Luca rested his elbow on the arm of the throne, looking like a gilded god holding court. He blew out a deep breath as he studied each of our faces. “Now that Alex and Grace are in Devil’s Creek, we have even more of a target on our backs. We don’t have time. Get her off that fucking site and do it quickly!”

Luca always had the appearance of rage simmering beneath the surface but rarely lost his cool. The thought of losing Alex must have set him over the edge. I could relate now that I had Grace to think about. Until she walked through my front door, I had no real purpose within the organization.

She gave me one.

“Luca,” Marcello interjected in his usual calm voice, the peacekeeper of the Salvatore brothers. “Drake is doing everything he can to get Alex off the Il Circo site. Yelling at him isn’t going to change a thing.”

Luca shot up from the throne and was in front of Marcello instantly. “Don’t tell me how to rule, little brother.”

Marcello sighed. “Luca, we love her, too. We get it. Taking out your frustration on Drake isn’t helping.”

“Marcello’s right,” Bastian Salvatore chimed. “Let Drake do his job, and we’ll do ours. Alex is at home sleeping. No one is going to touch a hair on her pretty head.”

Bastian wasn’t always a Salvatore. Before his parents were killed in a plane crash, he was Bastian Kincaid and lived with Fitzy before getting adopted by Arlo Salvatore. His childhood best friend Damian Townsend was also part of the deal and was now a Salvatore. Though, you would never know the Salvatore brothers were not blood-related. Only Marcello and Luca.

Grace met her cousin when she was younger. But they never had much contact, and Fitzy wanted it that way. Probably because he feared them conspiring against him. Maybe one day they could have a real relationship.

A ringing sound pierced the silence in the room. With a groan, Luca reached under his robe and removed his cell phone from his pocket.

“Time to go,” he said to his brothers. “Alex is awake and looking for us.”

Luca was a psychopath. He probably had a tracking device on her ankle.

“What about Grace?” I asked before he adjourned the meeting.

He yanked off the robe and flung it onto the throne. “What about her? Do you think I give a damn about the terrorist’s daughter? The Lucaya Group can have her.”

“But you swore to The Founders,” I shot back. “We all did. Are you seriously okay with them hurting Grace?”

“Do your job, Marshall.” Luca stepped off the dais and leveled me with a cold stare. “Until my family gets admitted into The Founders Society, we will keep her alive.”

“And after that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t care what happens to her.”

“I do,” Bastian cut in. “Grace is my only relative who isn’t a piece of shit.” He shoved a hand through his brown hair, glaring at Luca. “If anything happens to her, we’ll have a fucking problem, brother.”

Luca rolled his eyes. “Don’t let her die, Marshall. That’s your only order.” He waved his hand at the group. “All of you are dismissed.”

Chapter Six

GRACE

My first few weeks at Fort Marshall were a lot of the same routine. Breakfast in the dining room with Cole. Sometimes, his brothers got out of bed to join us. But it was usually just the two of us.

Most days, we had lunch by the pool under the cabana. Today, we ate a burger and fries before I dipped my feet into the infinity pool. Living with the Marshalls was a dream, like something from a movie.

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