Page 4 of Crown of Lies

As we head toward the back of the house, I realize where they’re taking me: the basement. It doesn’t get much use these days, but my father used to occasionally conduct interrogations down there.

Guess it’s kind of ironic that the Princes of Carnage are about to use it for the same purpose.

Killian flips on the light, and Atlas carries me down the stairs before setting me down on a chair situated near the back wall.

Atlas glances around, his eyes zeroing in on the shelving to the left. I left this room pretty much as my father left it, and there are a variety of restraints and weapons lined up neatly on the shelves. He seems to eye the collection appreciatively as he grabs a length of rope there.

“Aw, you’re gonna tie me up? Kinky,” I mutter hoarsely as he ties the rope around me, securing me to the chair.

He glares at me but says nothing.

While Atlas busies himself with restraint duty, I glance over to see what the others are doing. Killian has retreated to the shadows, watching but saying nothing as is his usual habit. But even though he’s as silent as a shadow, I can see the glint of his dark green eyes as they study me intently.

I shiver, unable to stop the visceral reaction.

Tearing my gaze away from him, I search for Nico. He’s standing off to the side, his cell phone pressed to his ear as he runs a hand through his dark brown hair, leaving the strands messy and unkempt.

“Let everyone know the active threat is over.” He pauses to listen, his expression hard, then says, “Yeah. There was an attack on the clubhouse. Whole thing was set on fire. As far as we can tell, no one was hurt.”

There’s another pause as Nico listens to whatever the person on the other end of the call is saying, and his eyes cut to me.

“Yeah, we know who did it.”

My stomach tightens into a knot, a chill rushing over my skin. This is it. The moment when every person from the lowest rung to the highest point of the ladder in the Princes of Carnagemotorcycle club will know just who fucked their whole operation into the dirt.

This is my death sentence.

But the words that come out of Nico’s mouth shock me.

“Silas started the fire, but we caught him in the act and killed him. His body is laid out in the woods near the clubhouse. Have someone clean it up and get rid of it—discreetly. And move fast. We don’t need someone tracing his sorry ass back to us.”

I stare at Nico, doing my best to keep the surprise from showing on my face. He and his two best friends taking me hostage was pretty much a given, considering what I did. But them covering for me? Hiding what I did and blaming it on someone else? That wasn’t what I anticipated at all.

As if he can sense my confusion, Nico ends the call and then comes to stand in front of me, his arms crossed over his broad chest.

“You’re lucky as hell, mia cara. If you were anyone else, you’d get a public execution, Carnage style. But we need time to figure out what the hell our next step is going to be, and while we’re working that out, we don’t need your little Enigma friends on our asses.”

My jaw clenches.Of course. He’s not protecting me. He’s protecting himself and his own people.

I huff a humorless laugh, glaring at him defiantly. “So you’re pussies. Good to know.”

Nico grips my chin, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

“While we solve this little mystery about your worth, we don’t need the distraction of your people coming after us, trying to defend their queen. It’s called strategy. Something your father clearly never taught you enough about, or you wouldn’t have done something as fucking reckless and suicidal as what you did tonight.”

He releases his hold on my chin suddenly, and I bite at his retreating fingers as he pulls them away, just to be an asshole.

“You keep that shit up, and you won’t have teeth,” he warns. “Then again, maybe that’ll be a good down payment for what you cost us when you decided to burn our club to the ground. I hear there are psychos out there who will pay a pretty penny for something as fucked up as a good set of teeth.”

“I don’t see why you’re so bent out of shape,” I snap, my anger boiling over. “You brought this on yourselves.”

“We didn’t do nearly the same level of shit as what you pulled tonight.”

“Right, of course not. All you did was betray your vows, spy on me, spill my secrets to some shadow man and use me?—”

“They’re hardly the same thing.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I explode, fuming. “I see it now. You’re not actually a loyal man. You’re just loyal to the people you care about, and I was never one of them.”

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