Page 34 of Revenge of a Queen

I stand gripping Elle and taking her with me and she squeals slightly, and it makes me smile. How? How can she still smile and laugh and just live her life after what they did to her? Cassie. That's how. She took the worst thing that could ever happen to her and turned it into the best and she did that with the help of Asher fucking Donovan.

Fuck. Asher Donovan, the little prick I have always loved to hate, saved my girl. Saved her when I couldn’t and has been continuing to save her every day since. He stepped up and not only risked his life to allow her to escape but puts himself at risk everyday by being a father, to his sick fuck of a brother’s little girl. Fuck if I can’t feel anything but respect for him at this moment.

“Thank you for telling me, baby,” I finally manage to croak out.

She shrugs like it isn’t a big deal, when it is the biggest fucking deal in the world and then smiles “Figured it was the least I could do before Jace punched you again,” clearly, she is aiming for a joke but the memory of what I said to her hits me. Jace was right. Now, I know the truth. I do wish he would have done more.

I push my forehead against hers and scrunch my eyes closed tight, like that will help me erase what a prick I was, “I’m so fucking sorry, Ells. Fuck, how can you even forgive me after the things I have done and said?” I puzzled.

“Easy. You’re my River,” she says, reaching up and stroking a hand to my face. I open my eyes to lock my stare on hers, “Everyone who isn’t us is insignificant,” she adds, repeating what I said to her a few weeks ago. I smile and nod because I can’t say anything else.

I drop Elle to her feet and start to take a step back, but she stops me, “I have a plan,” she says simply. “I’m different, stronger, and I am going to make them pay.”

“Let me be strong for you,” I plead with her, but she is already shaking her head at me before I even finish my sentence.

“No. They took from me, Marcus, stole from me. Stole something I can never get back and trust me when I say, I am not the only one. I don’t need a knight in shining armor. You don’t get to ride in here on your white horse and slay all my evil dragons. I’m not the broken little girl they ruined. I’m their worst fucking nightmare and they will bleed at my feet, no one else’s.”

Fuck if I’m a sadist because her words make my blood run hot through my veins. My beautiful little King is a fierce fucking warrior. If she wants to make this town burn, then I want to be the one to hand her the match.

“Ells, I would lay down my life for you without blinking, if it meant giving you justice,” I reply honestly.

Her stare turns hard, “No more Riviera blood is going to be spilled on my watch.” I can feel the love she had for my father shining through. She misses him just as much as I do.

We both straighten and I sense she needs a moment to collect herself. I take a step back and nod towards the door, “I’m just gonna go chat with the guys,” I say, and she smiles and nods allowing me to turn around and walk out.

Chapter 20

LINCOLN

We left the room silently to give the two of them some time to talk. Keeping Marcus in the dark for so long has been hard. It’s caused cracks to show in our group for the first time ever and I didn’t like feeling so out of control. I guess we are a lot like real brothers in that sense, we have to fight sometime. I think about what he must be going through right now. How he must be hurting. For himself, for her. Hell, I’m hurting for her and I have only known her a couple of months, the pain he must be enduring is surely astronomical.

Jace and I are leaning on the wall opposite to the door we have just come out of. I can feel the tension rolling off him from here. I turn my head slightly to take him in. All I can see right now is pain and grief, for Elle, for Rachel. There is barely a trace of the usual flirty and easy going Jace I love. No, in his place is the dark Jace, the reckless Jace. The one who smokes too much and parties too hard. I wish there were something, anything I could do to help him, that won’t end in him numbing himself with the drag of a joint and a warm female body. But that's just him. A pure soul. A soul that is bleeding, bleak, and broken.

Then there is Donovan. He is pacing the short corridor in front of us. Back and forth, back, and forth. His face the perfected blank mask. His stare cold and predatory. He looks to the outside like he doesn’t have a care in the world and the only reason for his pace, is that he simply wanted to move. But I see it differently. The more time I spend with him the more I pick up on his little tells. I watched his eyes darken when Elle mentioned Greg, I saw his knee bounce ever so slightly when she talked of her escape and now, I see the slight tightening of his shoulders beneath his jacket. All giving me a glimpse of the emotions he feels whenever he thinks about that fateful night.

He is just as dark and broken as the rest of us. I know he is fighting more demons than either of us right now, but his pacing is putting me on edge.

“Can you not?” I snap at him before I can even think about it and I feel Jace chuckle beside me.

He halts and looks at me, “Can I not what?” he asks.

“Quit fucking pacing,” I respond, and Jace laughs out loud next to me.

“Yeah, chill out, Donovan. They are probably gonna end up fucking in there, nothing to worry about,” Jace unhelpfully adds.

His head snaps his way, “What have I told you about that fucking mouth, Conrad?” he seethes at him but Jace just laughs again.

“I don’t remember, maybe we can ask Elle what she thinks of it?” he preens, wiggling his eyebrows at Donovan.

“Don’t make me fucking hit you,” he snaps in response, taking a step towards him and I lean up off the wall taking a step forward too. He allows his gaze to shift to me, then back to Jace before settling back down again like he can tell that I am the bigger threat. It’s ridiculous really that he would think that same as the way people think Marcus is a bigger threat than me or Jace. He’s not. I’m not. We are all lethal in our own right and to dismiss one of us is a deadly mistake.

“What, Blackwell? You think you can take me?” he says with that signature sinister smile.

I smile back at him pushing out my chest and broadening my shoulders, “I know I can.”

He takes another step, “Now listen here, you fucking piece of --” he starts but Jace cuts him off.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, will you give it a rest? We are all on the same fucking side here, Team Elle! So just play nice and suck each other's dicks or something to relieve all this tension,” he says casually, as he gestures around us with his arms.

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