Page 3 of The Queen
“You think?” I glare at him.
“Just voicing the obvious,” he murmurs.
“Fuck,” Raphael swears, muscles taut with barely contained rage. “Do you know why?”
“Not really. She said she wasn’t after just my dad, but everyone. I don’t know why or who that means exactly, but I guess she went after the one thing that will start a gang war.”
“The bosses’ kids.” Tarquin gives me a look that screams rage and frustration that matches mine.
“Yep.”
“You sure it’s just vengeance?” Oliver asks. “For what?”
“Something to do with your mother?” Raphael asks bluntly.
I shrug, not really wanting to dredge all this up. “I don’t know. She died when she was hit by a drunk driver…”
I blink.
The guys stay quiet, but exchange looks that speak volumes.
“You don’t think…” I gulp back the horror that this revelation is about to deal me.
“A hit,” Raph murmurs.
“Fucking hell, Raph,” Tarq mutters. “Don’t be an asshole right now.”
“No,” I say, holding my hand up. “I mean, no. I mean… fuck. I was six.”
“And you believed what your dad told you. Of course you did,” Oliver says, taking my hand gently. “But it doesn’t look good, Eliza.”
“No, you’re right. You’re right. I should talk to my dad and see what he has to say, yeah? Yeah. Talk to my dad.”
“Fuck,” James whispers and pulls me away from Oliver, wrapping his arms around me.
The silence is heavy, filled with the weight of battles we’ve fought and the ones looming on the horizon. But this isn’t just business; this is personal, and it just got a whole lot darker than just about a power move.
The more seconds that pass as I cling to James like he’s the only thing that will stop me from crumbling, the more it makes sense. My mother was taken out in a gang hit, and Dad didn’t want me to know. Obviously, at six, I can understand why he lied, but now? Why didn’t he ever come clean?
“This is bullshit,” I snap, pulling away from James suddenly. “It doesn’t change fuck all. Lila did this, not just to me and to you, but to every student and staff member here. She doesn’t get to walk away from that.”
“Agreed,” Raph states as the other guys nod.
Aunt Lila may have started this fire, but we’re the storm coming to douse her flames and drown her in her own vengeance.
3
ELIZA
Silence wraps around us,but it’s not peaceful—it’s the quiet of a graveyard, as we stand here, a circle of broken bodies and shattered glass. I scan the wreckage, my heart smashed into a thousand pieces but pushing it aside in a move that is as familiar as breathing.
“She’s made her move. Now it’s our turn,” Oliver says, his jaw set in a hard line.
“Let’s clean up this mess first,” I mutter, stepping over debris, feeling the power and purpose that comes with being the Queen of university. “And then, we regroup. We need to make sure this place is secure and safe for the students. This shit canneverhappen again. Let’s secure our empire. For us, for those we’ve lost today, and for the future we’re going to fucking take back.”
The guys nod and we get to work, even Tarquin, clearing debris with a stubborn determination that could move mountains, or at least the piles of rubble around us. James and Raphael disappear into the remnants of the building to check for any stragglers who might be trapped or hiding, while Oliverbegins coordinating with the surviving security to establish a perimeter.
I straighten my spine, feeling the leader inside me rise to take charge. My dad taught me in times of chaos, take control. “I want a headcount—every student, every member of staff. If anyone is missing, I want them found,” I say to Ollie and the security co-ordinating next to us.
