Page 88 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

34

River

Julian nods,satisfied.

“Good. Then we have a deal.” He holds his hand out over the table, and Gage shakes it, still looking pretty grim. “I want to move on this quickly, and I assume you do too,” Julian adds.

“Yes,” Gage says in a tight voice. “We don’t want to draw it out any more than we have to.”

I hate how business-like Julian is. And even though I want my sister back, want her free of his clutches, I hate how he’s willing to trade her away as if she’s just some object.

It’s not like it would be better if he was possessive of her and wasn’t willing to bargain foranythingin exchange for letting her go, but this just shows how little he cares. She’s nothing to him. Not a wife, not even a person. She’s just an asset to him, and now that she’s already had his kid, she can do whatever and he doesn’t even care.

“We’ll set a date for the wedding,” Julian says. “Usually, we like these things to be big affairs, you understand. Old family traditions, and everyone will want to be there to see Natalie get married. You can invite whoever you want from your side, so that it’s fair.”

Gage nods, his expression never changing. “Fine.”

“Excellent. You know, I didn’t expect this would go so smoothly,” Julian says. “But this way, we all get something we want.”

His eyes find mine when he says that, and there’s a look on his face like he knows this is all more formethan it is for the guys. Anger flashes through me, and I shift in my seat, agitated. I’m still confused about why Knox and Gage agreed to this, I’m pissed at Julian for suggesting it in the first place, and I’m pissed at Natalie for sitting there, acting like she’s somehow above it all.

I want to get out of here before I say something I’ll only regret if it leads to someone getting hurt. Which it probably will.

Gage can either sense that, or he has the same idea I do, because he gets up and puts some money on the table. It’s way too much, considering we only had water and most of the glasses are untouched, but I guess it’s more about the gesture than anything else. And hopefully Julian will tip the poor waitress who had to deal with this table.

He probably won’t. Because he’s a piece of shit.

When Gage gets up, we all follow him. The guys close in around me again, like they want to make sure Julian’s not going to suddenly decide to lash out at me or shoot me in the back or something, but I have a feeling it’s partly to hold me back from going off on him, too.

My heart is still racing, pounding hard against my ribs, and my thoughts are whirling from everything that just happened.

We get out of the restaurant and into the parking lot before I whip around to look at Knox, finally giving in to that incredulous agitation inside me.

“What the fuck?” I demand. “Just… why? How? What?”

I don’t even have the right words for what I’m trying to say to him. Everything is scattered and disjointed, but it all comes down to the disbelief that he’d agree to something like that.

“It’s not a big deal,” he says, shrugging a shoulder.

“Not a big—” I cut myself off, staring at him. “Not a big deal? Are you fucking kidding me? You just agreed to a marriage! With someone who looked at you like you were trash!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this in the parking lot,” Ash says, putting a hand on the small of my back.

It takes a bit of effort not to yank away from him, but I huff out a breath and let him guide me with everyone else back to the car.

We get in, and I turn to keep staring at Knox.

“What?” he asks, dragging a hand through his shaggy black hair. “It’s fine, River. Marriage is a bullshit construct anyway. It’s just a piece of paper at the end of the day, and it doesn’t mean anything. She doesn’t give a shit about me, and I don’t give a shit about her. And this goes both ways. Marrying that frigid bitch will put me close to Julian. Give us a chance to fuck with the Maduro business and all. Maybe a chance to take them down from the inside. It’s not the end of the world. It’s more like an opportunity.”

He grins, and it’s the unhinged smile that means he already has plans for how he wants to hurt someone. Probably Julian in this case, which I’m all for, but everything else about this just sounds bad to me.

“You’d better be right,” Gage mutters, starting the car. “Because this gives Julian the chance to do the same to us, you know. We’re staking our empire, ourfuture,on this. He’s dangerous, and people don’t try to marry other powerful people without expecting to get something out of it.”

That wipes the grin from Knox’s face, and he looks a bit more serious for a moment. “I know,” he says. “But I had to do it.”

He looks up and meets Gage’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

It’s another version of the look they shared in the restaurant, some kind of understanding passing between them, and it just upsets me more.

---