Page 92 of Corrupt Princess

Toby’s hand lands on my shoulder as I pass, and I feel his support right the way down to my toes.

“The Italians have taken the bait. They’re currently planning to ambush our warehouse where they believe we’re hiding Daemon and Anthony. Enzo has confirmed. We’re just waiting on a time,” Damien says, corroborating what Theo alluded to in his vague phone call.

I nod as my fist curls on my lap. But when I open my mouth, very different words fall out from the ones I was expecting.

“The girls need moving. If we’ve got this wrong again, they could be in danger.”

A beat of silence fills the room as the tension turns heavier.

No one says anything, but I feel their agreement.

Finally, Damien nods.

“Agreed. Get it done. I’ll send you an address to deliver them to. We’re not losing anything this time. They’ve already taken more than we were willing to offer. This ends. Tonight.”

20

BRIANNA

“You know, ignoring it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen,” Jodie says, and not for the first time, as we climb through the building toward her flat. She’s been trying to get me to talk about what went down in that fitting room since I reluctantly pulled the curtain back to find her standing there with an amused yet curious expression on her face.

“It didn’t happen,” I state, point-blank refusing to accept that it did.

“Bri—”

“No,” I argue as the doors open and we spill out onto her and Toby’s floor. “Don’t give me that tone. It was a lapse in judgement. He caught me off guard and I wasn’t ready—”

“Or you miss him and were desperate for a piece.”

“Whose side are you on here?” I spit.

“Yours. Always yours. I’m just trying to get you to talk. You’ve said nothing about that letter, not in detail, anyway. And now this. I’m worried.”

Her words are like a kick in the gut. “You don’t need to be,” I whisper.

“I won’t let you go back there, Bri. I won’t.”

“This isn’t the same,” I argue, knowing exactly what she’s talking about.

When she and Joanne took me home from the hospital after Mum’s overdose, I completely shut down. I refused to talk to them. To anyone. But what they don’t understand was that it wasn’t about not wanting to open up to them. I did. I was just so fucking scared that I’d be taken away again that it took me a long time to trust that they would stick by me.

This. Nico. It’s entirely different.

I think.

I’m busy juggling takeout coffees and the few bags she allowed me to take off her after her epic spending spree as she presses her hand to the scanner to unlock her front door.

“About fucking time, bitches,” a familiar voice shouts from deeper inside the flat.

We knew they were waiting on us.

Only minutes after Toby called Jodie to tell her they’d been called in, Stella was blowing up our phones, announcing that we were going to have a girls’ night while the boys were out running around the city, trying to kill Italians.

My stomach knots just thinking about them all—Nico—being in danger, but I quickly stuff it down and focus on what’s happening here instead.

“All right, pipe down,” Jodie calls back as she kicks off her shoes.

“Coffee?” Stella spits when we finally spill into the living room. “We’re having girls’ night and you brought coffee?”

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