Page 29 of Savage Little Queen

“I know,” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Dom seems shell-shocked. How was Levin?”

“Won’t fucking acknowledge my existence.” Stefan frowned. “I know he gives a damn. He wouldn’t have come to help if he didn’t, but he’s stubborn. He’ll need some time.”

I nodded and looked to Natalia, who sat beside Stefan.

She gave me a sheepish smile. “Fallon is still upset with me over everything.”

“Yeah, well, you fucked up too. None of us are saints,” I said.

She looked down at her hands. “They’ll all come around. Eventually. I hope.”

Stefan squeezed her hand. “What about Bianca? How’s that going? She gave you a hell of a shiner.”

“Fucking yeah she did,” I muttered. “Bruised my dick also.”

Stefan chuckled. “So, what’s the deal? You letting her go or are you going to risk your life to slide in there with the kings?”

I shrugged. “It’s ultimately her decision. Pretty sure I’m out though.”

“Are you?” Natalia asked, giving me a sad look.

I was silent for a moment as I tried to get that shitty feeling in my chest under control. “I guess I have to be. She’s home with the kings now. She has enough to deal with. She made it known how she feels when she slammed her fist into my face.”

“She cares about you,” Natalia said gently. “I could tell when you were with her. She smiled when you were there.”

“Yeah, well, she’s smiling again now, I’m sure. Besides, shit’s complicated. I have to let her go. Not that I even had her. But you know.” I shrugged. “Plus, I’m doing all this Matteo shit and will be in and out. I want her to be safe and am smart enough to know that her plus me doesn’t equal safe. So, it’s whatever.”

“You’re a liar,” Stefan said. “And not a very good one. Might want to work on that.”

I blew out a breath. “There’s nothing I can do.”

“Talk to her,” Natalia urged. “At least put it out there.”

“I did,” I said. “She told me she was going to strangle me with my rope, then she proceeded to kick my ass in front of everyone.”

Stefan smirked. “That was pretty funny. I’m proud of Levin for getting such a great girl.”

I rolled my eyes. “It didn’t feel great. In fact, it hurt.”

I didn’t want to say what it hurt, but it fucking broke my damn heart. I’d really thought she’d be glad to see me.

“Besides,” I continued. “Dom and the kings aren’t going to let her out of their sights. You know that. I won’t have a snowball’s chance in hell at getting her alone to talk.”

“So that’s it?” Stefan asked.

I nodded. “That’s it.”

It fucking hurt too, but that was life. You win some. You lose some. At the end of the day, as long as she was happy, that was all that mattered. And safe. It didn’t matter if I got my happy ending. Hers mattered more to me.

Plus, I was smart enough to know when to cut my losses.

There was a creaking outside the door, and we looked to it. Fallon stepped into the room.

“Hey,” I greeted him, wondering if he’d heard what we were talking about.

He offered me a smile and didn’t look like he’d heard anything. “Hey, uh, Bianca needs to get to Doctor Farris for an ultrasound. It got put off yesterday, but we’re looking for some extra manpower and were wondering if you’d like to come.”

“You were?” I crinkled my brows.

---