Page 19 of Take My Crown

This place is shitty and crazy. Nice fucking mix.

The assholes I'm meeting are wearing high-end designer clothes, expensive watches and they actually look clean unlike half the people in this place who stare at them like fucking gods have walked into their bar.

They are close.

We are kings instead.

Declan looks back at me like he can sense my arrival as I walk over and take the stool in the middle of him and Romeo Navarre. We never talk like this, the whole thing is ridiculously awkward but now more than ever we need to meet up.

This conversation has been coming for a long time.

"One beer," I tell the middle-aged bartender with a white long beard and a tattoo on his left cheek. He eyes my thousand-pound designer leather jacket like it's a piece of shit compared to his very worn down one on his shoulders.

"Coming up," he grumbles back, looking disgusted with his new customers.

I might end up liking this place after all.

"Why this dive?" I eventually ask, stretching my arms out in front of me.

"No one will recognise us here," Romeo answers. "Now to business, I want Ivy Archaic. So. Back. The. Fuck. Off."

"Make me, pretty boy," I sneer. "She won't be another notch on your belt."

"We will see," he answers with a cocky grin. I humourlessly laugh before grabbing the collar of his jacket and slamming his face onto the bar. He kicks me hard in the chest, making me stumble and lose my grip, my ass nearly slipping off the seat.

"Calm it down or you all need to fucking leave," the bartender shouts as I straighten up and Romeo climbs up off the bar.

"Why don't we let Ivy choose who she wants?" Declan suggests, looking too pristine as he picks his whiskey tumbler up and downs it in one go. "Now, why don't we figure out where she has been all this time?"

"What do you mean?" Romeo asks, clicking his fingers at the bartender for another drink as he places my beer on the side. I drop a few hundred pounds in cash on the bar for the trouble and pick up my drink, taking a long sip as I look at Romeo. Turns out he is as fucking stupid as his face looks.

Declan laughs. "No fucking way was that hellcat in some posh boarding school all this time."

"Do you think she scratches?" Romeo jests. "Because I could get on board with that."

"I will punch you if you don't shut the fuck up," I warn him and he smirks.

Fucking hate this guy.

Declan clears his throat and steps close to me with a knowing grin. I might not like these fuckers, but we grew up together as kids. Our parents want us to get along, therefore we all went to the same schools and were forced to interact with each other. Eventually we drifted apart, girls and parties being the main distractions. "A little birdy told me you drove her into our little town. Now, are you so sure you don't know anything?"

"I never said I didn't know anything."

"What does Solomon have over your family that is worth helping him with her?" Declan asks me curiously, no judgement in his voice. I narrow my eyes though. The Dauphins do have ears everywhere, it seems.

"I'm going to warn you two just this once, and next time it won't be pretty. Stay away from Ivy," I snap, slamming my glass on the bar and walking away before I start a house war by trying to kill these two.

"If you think you can control a girl like Ivy Archaic, you're mad," Romeo calls after me. "She is too wild for you!"

I shake my head, gritting my teeth as I go outside and breathe in the cold crisp air. I don't waste much time getting on my bike and driving the fuck out of here.

Ivy Archaic was meant to be mine, and Romeo is right.

She is wild.

But fucking hell, I'm going to enjoy taming her.

Chapter Nine

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