Page 79 of The Broken Queen
I nodded again. “Okay.”
“I’m proud of you, Presley. Even through everything, you’re exactly how I always knew you’d turn out.”
With that, he hung up.
My chest felt like I’d just rammed it with a two-by-four. I wanted to scream at him, to fight with him, and tell him to fuck off with his pride and all the ways he envisioned me growing up. Instead, I tucked my phone into my pocket and turned to walk back, only to freeze in place.
“You better explain what the fuck I just listened to, right now,” Gio snapped with thunder in his eyes and devastation on his face.
“Gio.” I stepped closer, but he stepped back.
“You’re not going.”
“I am,” I explained, taking another step closer. “This is the only way to defeat him, Gio. You have to trust me.”
“Trust you to be sent into the arms of another man?” His face twisted angrily. “The only other person I will ever share you with is my twin, and I am barely managing that. I know our roots are joined, there’s no untangling the three of us, but if there was even the slightest chance you could love me alone, be happy with just me, you have to know I would take it. Sometimes I fucking dream of it, Elvis.”
I refused to feel guilty about hurting him. The truth was, there was no way of tearing my heart out of their hands. They each owned a piece. If one returned it, that portion would break, and there was just no way around that.
“Gio, I’m not—” I tried to explain, but he took off walking toward the house, unwilling to hear me out.
I didn’t chase him, but I did return to the house where I knew Gio would tell Kingston what he overheard. Taking my time with my shower and getting things prepared, I wasn’t surprised when Kingston darkened my doorway with his shadow.
“You’re not playing bride to be again,” he rumbled.
I glanced up from where I was cleaning one of my guns. “Never said I was.”
“Gio overheard?—”
Snapping the case for the gun closed, I scoffed before moving to a larger gun. “He overheard shit that wasn’t his business.”
“You are our business, Presley. Everything you do, every breath you take, and every person who threatens you. That’s our business.”
I shook my head. “Don’t you guys get it? There is no way to get ahead of him. There is no outsmarting him, or outmaneuvering him. He will win at every turn because he has no weaknesses. Except two.”
Kingston’s amber gaze narrowed on the suitcase behind me while his nose flared. “You’re placing yourself back on the sacrificial stone for Scotty’s plans. We will not let you do this!” His voice was so loud it made me flinch.
I walked over and immediately wrapped my arms around him. “You have to trust me. I am begging you to trust me.”
It took a few seconds for his hands to come around me, but they eventually did. In a rare, tender moment that Kingston and I rarely shared, he hugged me. The seconds passed by, and his hold on me intensified, squeezing me to him while he rasped near my ear.
“I can’t lose you again. I refuse to let you slip through my fingers and into the arms of another man. I can’t—” He choked back a sob. “I can’t go through it again. Pres. Seeing you break over Adrian. Knowing you started a new page with him when Gio and I were supposed to have been your story still kills me.”
I pulled back, feeling annoyed. “Well, it literally killed him, so rest easy.”
“Pres.”
“You either choose to trust me or you don’t, but trust has to be a part of what we’re doing here, or else it won’t work.”
He tucked a piece of my hair back before finally heaving a sigh that seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. “We’re coming with you on that first initial meet up. Scotty could be setting up a trap.”
I nodded, already knowing they would push for that. “Okay, but you have to remain out of sight.”
With a kiss to my nose, he agreed. With a glance over his shoulder,I saw Gio’s closed door and wondered how long he’d choose to remain upset with me.
I wasn’tsure if the twins had told my father of my plan, but as we drove into the city, the only car I knew of that followed us was Henry’s and the twins’ extra men.
Our windows were blacked out, so it would be difficult for anyone to see who was with me, but as long as it was only me exiting the car, it wouldn’t set anyone off.
