Page 251 of Enemies

I stomp for the door, but the security guard clears his throat. “He’s gone, Mr. King.”

Lucky for him. God knows what I would’ve done in my current mood.

“Ivanov doesn’t sell at Debajo again,” I tell Leni. “If one of our patrons buys so much as a pill on my property, I swear to God I will fire everyone in that establishment. Do whatever it takes to stop it from happening.”

She hesitates before nodding. “On it.”

Two hours later, I’m back at the villa, cursing my brother and wondering whether Raegan’s lying in bed without me, when the call comes in from Debajo security.

“Señor King, it’s about Leni,” the man says. “They were waiting for her. She tried to stop them...”

I’m in my Ferrari and tearing down the driveway. I don’t look back to see if my personal security is following in their car.

The person who’s stood by me for the last decade is bleeding on a table in the emergency room.

When I arrive at the hospital, I barge in the doors and demand to see her.

“She sustained multiple wounds. She’s in surgery,” a doctor informs me.

The blood drains from my head. “Call me the fucking second she’s out,” I command.

I head out the front doors, kicking a garbage bin on the way.

It’s my fault Leni felt she needed to defend Debajo with the same fierceness I’d defend it with. To stop a deal in progress in the alley, not noticing she was outnumbered or thinking it might be a trap. But she’s not me. And Debajo isn’t hers.

An ambulance pulls up, so I round the corner of the building, more to avoid their eyes than to give them space. There’s a garden, and I grab a tall plant with red flowers by the stalk. I tear it out of the soil.

Another.

“Señor—“

I whirl to face a janitor with his cart. Whatever he sees on my face has him backing down, hands lifting as he disappears toward the parking lot.

Sweat beads at my brow, my neck.

My jacket is the next victim. I drag it off, then throw it in the dirt.

My knees buckle as I brace against the side of the building.

I yank my phone out of my pocket and stare at a picture of the four of us at the villa. Leni, Ash, Raegan, and me. Plus Barney’s head stuck between Rae’s legs.

I’ve hurt them all by knowing them. They’ve all stood by me.

Until Raegan’s words last night.

“I am doing you a favor.”

In my quest to punish the man who caused me pain, I’ve punished everyone I love. I wanted to protect them, and I hurt them instead.

My eyes burn.

An object on the ground glints at my feet. I bend to pick it up.

My mother’s ring.

I’ve been carrying it around. Through everything.

Those words inscribe themselves on my heart with a blade duller than the one Mischa used back in boarding school.

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