Page 115 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

Ash snorts under his breath and then pretends to cough to cover it up. Natalie just gets a pinched expression on her face and keeps talking.

“Anyway,” she says, her tone becoming even colder if that’s possible. “Have you taken care of your tux yet?”

“Yup.” Knox nods.

“Good. Have them add a lavender pocket square to the order. We will be doing a black and white affair, with lavender for an accent color. I’ve already ordered the flowers. Carnations and lilies will make up my bouquet and the decorations.”

She goes on about everything from the catering to what the guests are expected to wear, and her eyes linger on me for a long, uncomfortable moment. Clearly she wants me to fall in line too, and I just stare back at her, not responding.

“Sure, whatever,” Knox says as she rambles on, waving a hand. “I don’t give a fuck about those kinds of things. I’ll show up, and I’ll look good. That’s all you need to worry about.”

Natalie looks at him like he’s something nasty she’d find at the bottom of her shoe, letting out a huffed sigh. “Fine. That will do for now. But once we’re married, I’ll have to work on teaching you better manners.” A sneer curls her lips. “Maybe we’ll even get you house-broken.”

I narrow my eyes, my fingers twitching like they want to curl into fists.

What a fucking bitch. If it weren’t for this deal and the fact that this is probably my only chance to get Hannah out of this nightmare, I’d leap across the coffee table separating us and smack Natalie right in her smug face.

I hate the way she looks at Knox—like he’s beneath her, but also like he’s a piece of property. She talks to him like he’s a pet of hers, one she didn’t even want but is resigned to training because it was a gift or something. I fucking despise that.

I don’t even want her to look at him, let alone be in a position where she thinks she has any right to tell him what to do. Just hearing her talk about being married to him makes a raw possessiveness flare up inside me, but I keep it tamped down as best I can, refusing to let it show.

If everything goes according to plan, then at the end of the day, Natalie will be left with nothing, just like her brother. All I have to do is keep it together until then.

I can do that, right?

I’ve done harder things.

“My sister has specific tastes,” Julian says, grinning and shrugging a shoulder. “We’ll take care of all the decorations and the flowers. And the catering as well. All we need is for you and yours to show up.”

“On time,” Natalie snips.

“On time,” Julian allows, chuckling.

“Don’t worry,” Gage replies. “We know how important this is. We’ll all be there.”

“Good.”

Julian opens his mouth to say something else, but before he can speak, Hannah and Cody come walking in. Hannah’s eyes are downcast, and the little boy clings to her leg as they come into the room. He’s wearing a pair of pajamas, even though it’s the middle of the day.

My sister glances over at Julian, and he lifts an eyebrow at her and gestures a negligent hand for her to go sit in one of the chairs off to the side. Present, but not really a part of the conversation.

“You’re late,” he tells her, and the smug tone is gone, replaced by that cold, patronizing voice he seems to always use with her. “I said we were meeting at two.”

“I’m sorry,” Hannah murmurs, and there’s no trace of the fire and anger she had when she stormed into the house the other day and yelled at me. She’s back to being meek and timid, and I hate it. It makes anger boil inside me like lava. I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that soon, she won’t have to worry about any of this anymore.

She’ll be away from here, free and safe. And so will her son.

Julian’s gaze drops to his son for a moment, and he narrows his eyes. “Why isn’t Cody wearing his regular clothes?”

“He didn’t want to get dressed after his bath. He said he was cold, so I told him he could wear these for a while,” Hannah says softly. The little boy leans into her side, hiding his face from all the strangers in the room.

“He needs to wear what you tell him to wear. He should know that by now. He’ll never become a man if you baby him.” Julian’s tone makes it obvious that he thinks it’s Hannah’s fault that their son is acting like a normal kid and not a goddamn robot.

Hannah doesn’t argue back, just nods and wraps an arm around Cody. I glance down at the little boy, trying to see past his obvious resemblance to his father. He looks more like Julian than like Hannah, which seems like a cruel joke on the part of his DNA.

But he’s not just a Maduro. He’s half Hannah’s. There’s half of my sister in there, and she’s the best person I know. Maybe Hannah is right, and if we take him away from this family and make it so he can’t be influenced by their sick bullshit, then he’ll be okay. He’ll be free, just like his mom.

Julian gives them both one more hard look, then goes back to pretending they don’t exist. “How does a week from today work for you?” he asks. He glances at Knox, but the question is for Gage.

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