Page 61 of Ruthless Kings of Havoc

“Only if I get to sleep with Dolcezza tonight,” Zander announces, as if he was given a bargain that awaits a balanced offer.

Matteo pauses in flipping the page to lift his eyes to Zander.

There’s another silent stare-off.

“Fine.”

He lowers his gaze to his papers once more, and Zander is smirking before he goes to the corner, takes a pillbox from his pocket, and dry swallows two green-purple capsules.

“Done.”

“Really?” Aries and I say in unison as we stare at Zander in disgust. It is insane to witness because Zander hates taking orders from anyone. Only Sweet Canary can get him to be obedient. Domino mostly struggled unless Zander wished to be nice.

For him to easily agree with Matteo ticks me off because what does he know that we don’t?

Maybe that is what’s bothering me.

This level of uncertainty and how unpredictable everything has been since the moment Domino stood back to watch Gemini’s demise.

All the constant changes are giving me a level of anxiety I haven’t experienced in a long time, and I don’t like how off-balance it makes me feel.

“Give me one good enough reason to drop it?” Zander ends up declaring as he side-eyes Mr. Leighton, who lowers his right leg so he can lift his left one, crossing them once more.

The tension isn’t as severe as seconds before, but you can tell Zander won’t stay quiet about this until he gets a worthy answer.

Or excuse.

“My brain is fucked up enough for me to have constant delusions that we’ve yet to discover a medication to tame,” he summarizes as if it’s not a big deal. “To the point where only Iva’s presence can tame my insanity. Despite Eva being a child, she still looked close enough to Iva for me to believe it was her.”

I can see Zander wants to say something because his mouth is half open, but it soon closes.

“Yes, I’m fucked up. I’ve done shitty and shittier things. I’m no fucking saint, but I won’t sit here and act as though I deserve redemption from any of you,” he declares coldly. “When you carry the full burden of being a Ruthless King, you’ll realize we all have one thing in common.”

He pauses to emphasize his next point.

“Insanity.”

I wish I could find some sort of way to argue with him, but I can’t.

None of us can.

“Two things,” Matteo declares, drawing our attention to him. “One. You apologize to her.”

The stern frown on Mr. Leighton’s face proves his disagreement, but he doesn’t argue, encouraging Matteo’s second point.

“Two. From now on, try to act like a decent father to her.” I don’t think any of us are expecting him to ask him to do such. Is Mr. Leighton capable of even doing that? “Let’s not sit here and act as if we don’t know what Eva is capable of. How much power she carries being the future heir of not one but two empires.”

When you think about it, this is the first time we’re addressing it as a group.

“If she wanted to ruin you, she could have… long before she came to Leighton. She could have ruined you the same way she could have ruined Domino when he almost paralyzed her.”

No one can argue the truth of his statement.

“Which means she’s willing to give you grace. The same level of grace she gave Domino… at least until he decided he’d rather watch her be run over by a Zamboni.”

“What?” The way Mr. Leighton and Mr. Prescott say that in unison reminds me of how Aries and I speak in sync at times.

Matteo notices as well but doesn’t comment on it.

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