Page 74 of King of Wrath

I hold up my hand. “She was not your wife when little Anthony held a gun to her head.”

“I know. And that’s why we’re here. Because Toni needed to be stopped.”

“We’re also here because you put out the call to protect Kim and we all answered,” I remind him.

“What are you saying?” Mason sets his glass down and stands. “Are you putting out the call for us to protect Antonia?”

The room goes silent.

I feel my chest puff. Fuckers. “You aren’t going to answer if I do?”

Mason shakes his head. “She’s Toni’s daughter,” he starts. “She isn’t like Charlotte and Kim.”

I scrub my hands down my face. “You’re right about that. She’s much worse off than either of them.”

Silence meets my words.

“Taking her into our family will cause far more problems than putting Toni in prison solves,” Luke adds.

My mouth drops open as I look from man to man. I don’t even know what to say to them. I knew they’d resist, but they haven’t even asked a single question. They were all there when Toni tried to suffocate Nia with a pillow.

I turn around, stomping out of the library. “Where are you going?” Mason calls but I don’t answer.

Opening the door to Nia’s room, I stop, watching her sleep. “Baby girl?”

She doesn’t move.

It’s been shit day, I hate to wake her. So instead, I close the door behind me and walk over to the bed.

I was going to have her come plead her case, but I can’t do it to her now. Afternoon sun tilts through the windows so I close the blinds and then slide into the bed next to her, place my hand on her hip.

I close my eyes too.

Those fuckers can wait.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Nia

I waketo find that it’s dark outside. Jake is next to me in the bed, and I smile to see him. Somehow, him being here, next to me, is some confirmation that everything he said is true.

I stretch and push up. There is a bathroom attached to the bedroom, so I slip out of the bed, toss my clothes on the bathroom floor, and go to turn on the shower spray. Sliding open the glass door, I do a quick check.

Then I smile. That snake sure left an impression.

I let out the tiniest laugh because…well…I smiled. Today is un unlikely day to be happy, but all those tears have cleared out my soul.

And Jake stayed by my side all through the crying and after too.

I wash my hair and soap up my body, feeling a million times better as I turn the spray to cold and plunge my swollen face under.

Finally, feeling like myself, I step out and wrap up in a towel.

But that’s when I notice, my clothes are gone.

“Jake?” I call out, my brow furrowed. “Did you take my clothes?”

“They were disgusting,” he answers, poking his head into thebathroom with a half-smile. “Tomorrow, I’ll get you more clothes but I thought for tonight, you could use my shirt and I could get your stuff clean.”

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