Page 80 of Serpent King's Revenge

But it seemed like he had already made up his mind. “There’s no choice,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

The room was a tomb of secrets, and the conspirators within it were its guardians. The light's shadows did little to soften the tension between us. Xinyi's proposal still hung in the air.

“And of course, I’ll do whatever it takes to help,” Xinyin said.

I saw the risks as threads, a web of outcomes. They were woven by fate's indifferent hand. I knew I needed to be careful in these treacherous waters. One misstep could send us into chaos. Mafia politics was a deadly game, and we were about to play our hand.

"Good, because look," I said, breaking the silence after her declaration. "We need all the help we can get to take down Kenny. And honestly…I hate the guy." I glanced at the table. It landed briefly on Nathan's siblings, then skittered away. "No offense."

A smirk twitched at the corner of Nathan's mouth as he shook his head, the familiar glint of dark humor in his dark eyes. "None taken," he replied, laughing.

squeezed Nathan’s hand. His skin was warm against mine, his grip firm—here was a man who had faced down death and lived to tell the tale. "We're taking Kenny down, come hell or high water," I said firmly, locking eyes with him. My resolve hardened like steel; fear had no place here.

Nathan's lips curved into a smile, a rare glimpse of the boy he once was before life handed him a gun instead of choices. "I know we will," he replied, the fire in his brown eyes mirroring my own.

From the head of the table, Xinyi's voice cut through the tension, steady and unwavering. "Couldn't agree more." Her agreement felt like a promise, the kind that binds not with ink but with blood and shared conviction.

“So what now?” I asked.

"Leave that to me," Xinyi said, rising from her seat to state the meeting was at an end. "I'll get things in motion and we can reconvene at the teahouse tomorrow. We can make our case to the Triads then."

"What if they don't listen?" Knuckles had been quiet all this time, his presence almost forgotten. As usual, he lurked in the shadows, an observer playing his cards close to his chest.

Xinyi turned towards him, a slow, dangerous smile creeping onto her face. Her eyes sparked with a fire that was almost alarming. "Then," she said, her voice laced with icy determination, "we'll have to make them listen."

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Abby

Rain tapped a steady rhythm on the windowpane of the safe house. Its scent mingled with the wet asphalt. Together, they added to the night's unease. Nathan stood silhouetted against the window, his gaze locked on something in the darkness, his grey sweats hanging off his lean frame.

We were holed up somewhere in the safehouse for now, somewhere Kenny wouldn’t be able to find us.

At least we hoped so.

Even then, Nathan was paranoid. He worried that someone had stalked us here, despite Knuckles' assurance that it was safe. I couldn’t blame him. Given all he had been through--hell, all we had been through--it made sense that he was keeping watch.

Things had been…normal. We hadn’t had sex yet tonight, we’d just settled in and chatted, and everything about it felt nice, mundane.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we were worried about our lives and I was on the edge of crying all the time—an obvious symptom of the pregnancy—then I could probably get used to this.

"Anything?" I asked, breaking the silence.

He shook his head without turning, his profile etched with lines of thought. "Nothing,” he said. “I really hope they don’t know we’re here.”

"There are people watching this place," I said. "Knuckles is a careful man. And at this point, we would know if Kenny knew where we were. Right?"

Nathan nodded. “Unless he’s planning something.”

I gripped the fabric of my black slip dress. It was a useless attempt to find comfort in its smoothness. Finally, he turned from the window. His black eyes swept our room. The dragon inked across his torso seemed to coil with life in the flickering light as he approached me.

"Hey," he said softly, coming to stand by the bed, close enough for me to see the resolve in his gaze. "We need to think this through. All of it."

I met his stare, knowing well the weight behind his words, the empire he balanced on a knife's edge. In the hush between us, the storm outside felt distant. It was irrelevant compared to the shitstorm that was our lives.

Our love.

"Thinking's all we've done, Nathan. It's time for action." My voice gave away none of the fear that gnawed at me.

He nodded slowly, recognizing the steel in my tone—steel born of love and forged in desperation. We were beyond second-guessing. Survival had blurred right and wrong. “Yes, but…”

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