Page 44 of Brutal Empire

“I don’t know what’s going on,” she admitted, and I knew that must have cost her. I took her hand, led her to my room, and then shut the door behind us.

“Where is he? You must know that, right?”

“There is no price on your head—yet.”

I didn’t know if that made me feel better, but it was something. I had joked that mine and Daphne’s heads would be in neighboring spikes somewhere in Siberia, but it didn’t mean I wanted that to happen. Then I looked around the room when it felt like she was missing something.

“Where’s G?”

This time, there was something I couldn’t decode in her eyes, but she quickly masked it.

“Damian called for him.”

Fuck.

My face now mirrored hers. This was no coincidence. Damian had made a move. We always knew he would do it as soon as he had proof of Daphne’s betrayal, but we had been so fucking careful.

I could almost snort because the one reckless thing Daphne ever did was save Cam—and fall in love with Gideon. Even if she never admitted that was what it was. You did not change your revenge plan for someone unless they meant something to you, and it was all or nothing to people like us.

“Roman?” If he had iced me and now had pulled Gideon away, that meant he was trying to dismantle Daphne’s inner circle, and the three were all Damian had to work with—unless someone else cracked.

“With Alexis,” Daphne told me as if that was obvious, and it was so fucked-up that it was. Roman had spent years with the broken girl. I was sure he cared for her more than a doctor should a patient, which was reckless because Alexis was the one thing Damian gave a shit about.

There was silence in the room while I tried to pinpoint the moment we had fucked up. For a second, I felt dread. Daphne was still the executioner, but she preferred it that way. Damian gave her the tasks no one else wanted, so everyone left her alone. When someone wronged Sekten, the last person you had to answer to for your sins was Daphne. A part of me always knew that if she had to kill me to prove to Damian that she was loyal to him, she would do it in a heartbeat. I got it. My life for a thousand was an easy thing to do.

“You couldn’t help yourself, could you?” she hissed, and I knew she was talking about Cam.

My jaw hardened, but I didn’t answer her.

“History has a funny way of repeating itself,” she said humorlessly.

The ball of dread and anxiety that filled me came back in full force.

“Damian is in Chicago,” she said, and my stomach dropped. “Now that he has control of Yoro’s men, he wants to do what Yorovich never could. Take control of the city.”

The kiss Cam and I shared felt like it was ages ago, and that tiny bit of hope I had held on to was fading. I had actually fooled myself into thinking I could keep her.

“I could take her with me,” Daphne offered, and my head snapped to her face. My chest ached because I knew what those words meant. I knew it was her way of giving me an out. It was her small gesture telling me she cared.

I didn’t give her a chance to pull away before I brought her body toward me so I could hug her. Well, as much as a hug as she would allow. Daphne shied away from human emotions. It was what kept her numb and how she was able to be so heartless all the time. To my surprise, she awkwardly wrapped her hands around me. My throat constricted at the severity of this moment. This was her way of saying goodbye to me.

So much had changed from the woman she had been when she found me. I was not that boy anymore, and she wasn’t the same cold-hearted bitch. I kissed the top of her head as a silent thank-you. If it weren’t for her, I would have died the same night as Katia.

“I promised her Yates,” I told Daphne, and her sigh was audible. She pulled back, and those gray eyes looked resigned.

“That will be the final nail in your coffin.”

I knew that already, yet I had no regrets. It was why Daphne never offered Cam a chance to avenge herself. Her hands were tied. Yates bought from the Sekt, and if word got out that cleanup was done from within, all hell would break loose. It was a precarious line to walk because disturbing the balance between the buyers would cause Sekten damage.

“I know,” I whispered, my voice sounding much rougher than I wanted to convey.

“Where did it all go wrong?” Daphne whispered, but it sounded like a soft plea. The closest Daph would ever come to sounding human.

“You saved me,” I let her know. “Don’t feel bad for breaking someone who wasn’t whole.”

Because sometimes we needed to break a thousand times before we could put ourselves back together.

TWENTY

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