Page 42 of The Queen's Knights

“If anything, I’m sure I’ll want the outlet. Besides, it’ll be Lance’s official introduction to the club, so we can’t skip it.”

But neither man looks enthusiastic. They lock gazes, and something indecipherable passes between them. Something that raises alarms and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

“What was that about?”

Lance averts his gaze and reclaims his laptop, closing his apps and turning it off.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” Percy says, standing and walking away. “I’m going to start dinner.”

I stare after him in shock, then at Lance. “Don’t you dare shut me out. What are you keeping from me?”

He glances toward the kitchen, his jaw clenching. “I can’t tell you,” he says, giving me a beseeching look.

“The hell you can’t. Secrets aren’t allowed, especially if it has anything to do with me, and I have a feeling whatever you two are hiding isallabout me. Tell me.”

“Gwen, don’t…”

“Goddamnit,Lance! What are you guys keeping from me? Is it about him? Do you know something already?”

“No… we just…” He heaves a sigh and looks at the ceiling. When he meets my eyes again, his expression is fierce. “They never caught the men who raped my mother, you know. They identified the weapon by the bullets they shot her with. Found the gun in the aftermath of a gang war a couple years later and just wrote it off, concluding her attackers were two of the casualties of that bloodbath.” He shakes his head, lips pursed like he’s tasted something bitter. “My brother and I never really got justice. For all we know, they could still be alive.”

His confession derails my outrage briefly, and I deflate. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“I want you to have justice, Gwen. The man who hurt you … he doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you.”

An icy chill spreads through my limbs. I shake my head in disbelief. “No.”

“You deserve no less,” he says, a determined set to his jaw. “I will never get to see the light leave the eyes of the men who hurt my mom, but I can do this for you.Wecan do this for you.”

Percy reappears from the kitchen, glowering at Lance. When he looks at me, he blinks, uncertainty filling his expression.

“Do you really believe I’d want the two of you to commitmurderfor me? You’d be throwing your lives away!”

“Not if we don’t get caught,” Percy says. “We aren’t idiots.”

Hot rage replaces the chill of realization. “That’sexactlywhat you are, if you thought I’d want this! I want payback, yes, but not at the price of your futures—or the price ofourfuture. Did you even fuckingthinkabout what could happen? I could lose you both if you got caught.”

“You know as well as I do that even if we turn the fucker in, there’s a chance he’ll get off. The justice system is fucking broken, and you know it,” Lance says.

“I am aware, but I will just have to take that chance. I won’t condone you two committing a crime so atrocious for my sake. You’d be no better than him.”

They share a look, and then thankfully, Lance nods. “Okay. If you don’t want this, then we won’t do it. We’ll figure out a way to get him to incriminate himself and turn him in. I hope to fuck it works.”

When I look at Percy, his arms are crossed and he’s clearly disappointed. I reach for his hand, peeling it away from him to hold. My heart is in my throat.

“I don’t need you to do this for me, okay? I appreciate your anger, but the risk is just not worth it. I love you too much to let you compromise your integrity.”

He blinks rapidly, his mouth falling open. He looks startled, confused, then hopeful. “Do… Do you mean that?”

“What? That I love you? How could I not, after everything you’ve done? You’re half of my heart now, Percy. Lance is the other half.”

I extend a hand to Lance, who is observing silently, an unreadable expression on his face. When I reach for him, his eyes light up. He closes the distance.

“I fucking love you so much,” he says, bracketing my face with both hands and kissing me the way he did the night we met.

He releases me just in time for Percy to haul me close, lifting me off my feet to kiss me too.

I wrap my arms around his shoulders, sinking into the embrace, into his kiss, in a way I never have before. He releases me after several seconds, and I rest my forehead against his, laughing breathlessly.

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