Page 2 of Savage Knights (Princes of Devil's Creek 3)

After we left the vault, I sealed it shut and stood in front of the retinal scanner. Then I pressed my hand to the screen on the wall. Only a Salvatore could access the vault, which required a two-step verification. Alex would have access to everything on the estate after the wedding. That was my father’s one rule I would not break. He didn’t let anyone outside of our family have access to any of our secrets.

On our way down the narrow hallway, my cell phone dinged with several missed calls from Bastian. I turned to look at my brother. “Did Bash call you?”

He checked his cell phone and shook his head. “No, why? Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know.” I stuffed the phone back into my pocket and ascended the stairs that led to the secret passage. “He called a few times in a row. That’s not like him.”

I stopped at the top landing, right in front of the door to the library, and glanced down a few steps at Marcello. “Why would they lock the door when we were right behind them?”

A worried look crossed his face as he reached for his gun. I did the same, keeping my gun at my side as I unlatched the lock and pushed on the door connected to the bookcase.

Inside the library, it was dark and quiet. Not a single sound for miles. I liked this side of the house for that reason. It was easier to think with all the silence.

When I was a boy, I spent hours each day in the library. While inside this room, I didn’t hear the voices in my head telling me to be more like my father, urging me to keep sinning.

This room was my sanctuary.

I could get lost inside a good book and forget about our lives, about all the danger and drama that came with being a Salvatore.

Marcello followed me into the library. At first, nothing looked out of place. Not until I spotted Bastian passed out on the floor a few feet from Damian. I dropped to my knees beside Bastian and checked his pulse. He was still breathing. Then I repeated the same process with Damian. They were unconscious but alive.

What the fuck happened?

I shot up from the floor and glanced around the room. “Where the fuck is Alex?”

“Already on it.” Marcello flipped through his cell phone and gasped when he stopped on a particular clip of security footage. “Savanna Wellington.”

She wasn’t a Wellington anymore. Carl had disowned the bitch after she left my father, ran away from Devil’s Creek, and married Alex’s dad just to spite her family.

My heart thudded in my chest as I looked over Marcello’s shoulder at the footage. A tall man with dark hair jammed a needle into Alex’s neck. She staggered to the side, clutching her neck, and then Savanna appeared.

“Play that back.” I pointed at the screen. “And turn up the volume. What is Savanna saying to Alex?”

He replayed the video.

A man stepped out from the shadows in the room's corner and injected Damian with a sedative. He muttered something, and then hit the floor like a sack of bricks, out cold.

Alex spun around to look at Damian. Bastian pointed his gun at an assailant. Another man moved so quickly I didn’t see him coming, and neither did my brother. The man knocked the gun from Bastian’s hand from behind, stabbed him with a syringe. Before he knew what was happening, his head hit the floor.

Alex screamed.

The injection they’d given her wasn’t as strong as my brothers. She was still on her feet, swaying to the side as her bitch mother moved toward her.

She looked like Alex’s older twin.

The same long, curly hair, the same pouty pink lips, and the same curves that hugged a tight black dress. I used to confuse Alex for her mother when we were younger. Until recently, I saw Savanna whenever I looked at Alex. But she was nothing like her mother. Unfortunately, it took me too long to see that.

I looked at Marcello, eyes narrowed. “How did she get into Devil’s Creek without us knowing? She hasn’t come back here in over thirty years. Why now?”

“She wants the bounty.”

He hit play on the video, and Savanna started talking to Alex.

“Hello, darling.” She twirled a blonde curl around her painted fingernail and smiled. “Did you miss me?”

“How?” Alex muttered, blinking in rapid succession.

“It’s not how you should be asking.” A wicked glint flared in her blue eyes as she held her daughter’s gaze. “It’s why.”

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