Page 162 of Ink Deep Devotion

“Did he believe you? I need to know Dash will kill Avery.”

“Yeah!”

“So, why did he leave you alive?”

Blaze hesitates.“Sorry to disappoint.” He’s suspicious now.“I did everything you asked. I put up a fight and then told him who Mila was talking to. Leave me and my family alone now!”

I become nothing but a knotted ball of dread. Something is wrong. Whoever is on that phone not only wants me to kill Avery, but they want Blaze dead by my hands.

“Things of no value are useless to me, and I hate clutter.” The voice on the other end has an unmistakable grin.

“Fuck!” Leo hisses.“Anders is going to be too late.”

Boom!

Neither Leo nor I jerk. Nothing phases us anymore. Car alarms echo the blast, and smoke fills the air. The strong wind from the north makes us smell the explosion within seconds.

Leo grabs a tactical comm from his pocket and shoves the earbud into his ear.

“Anders?” I question.

He nods.“Anders is fine.”

“And Blaze?”

Leo shakes his head.

I find my eyes looking up at the stars. For the first time since Mila left, I’m happy she isn’t here. She just lost another person she knew, a man she called a friend—a term she gave too freely.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on?”

“You have a lot to catch up on.” Leo taps his nose.“Do you smell that?” He tilts his head back.“It’s the distinct smell of war, brother, and it’s coming to claim us.”

Thump, thump!My heart tries to break free through my ears.

“Someone is trying to sabotage us. Do you remember when Anton said we have seats of power, but that power is watched and judged by a council?”

“I don’t have a seat. Titan does.” I correct him.

Leo’s eyes look bored.“I know Titan, and that seat he has will be shared equally with you, Damian, and Nova. I consider them all rulers in the same right. You’re equal, not less or more, brother.”

I can’t meet his eyes.

“Someone who may or may not be on the council is trying to fuck us over. You blew up Blaze’s family warehouse, and now it looks like you just killed him and his brother in an explosion. His family will want blood in return, which will keep you busy and prevent you from being close to Titan or Damian. The person Blaze was talking to also wanted you to kill Avery because they wanted to frame Titan. You’re his eyes, ears, and hands. Avery is the daughter of Royce, who is a council member. If you killed his daughter, it would look like Titan was trying to intimidate or kill off the last few remaining council members. It would give them a reason to kill the entire King line for good this time.”

“What do you mean by thelastfew remaining members?”

“Remember when I said we were given targets to kill as our last rite before we got our ruling seats?”

I don’t like where this is going. I nod.

“We studied the targets, and then Anders, Dante, Cillian, and myself each finished them. It was simple. But what we didn’t know was that the targets we were given were not who we were meant to kill. Someone set us up, hacked the files, and sent us the wrong target to kill. We were sent council members as targets.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” he shrugs,“Now, it looks like we were offered power, then said fuck you to the council and tried to kill them off. But since the council members identities were kept from us, we didn’t know until it was too late. Anton noticed first and then alerted us. He met with the council, and he connected the dots when other council members started to report the others as killed or missing. It happened the same time we were finishing our rites.”

“I thought you didn’t like Anton.”

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