Page 3 of Savage Assassin

Something about the way he says it makes me feel more upset than before. “No one is making you,” I snap back, retreating further into my room. “I’m sorry I asked.”

He turns away, but before he does, I hear him mutter under his breath.

“Spoiled brat.”

I’m at the door in an instant, shoving it open wider as I glare at his back. “I heard you,” I snap accusingly, and I see his shoulders shake for an instant, almost as if he’s laughing–or as if he’s very angry.

Slowly, he turns around, his expression dark and hard. “I don’t care if you heard me,” José says evenly. “In fact, I’ll say it again. You’re a spoiled fucking brat, and your father should have handed you over to Diego Gonzalez long before this.”

I can feel myself start to tremble, a fine shaking spreading through me, but I tilt my chin up, staring him down. “I’m sure he’d love to hear you say that to his face.”

“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I feel that way, if I did.” José steps closer to my door, his muscled bulk almost filling the doorway. There was a time when I would have felt my pulse leap at him being so close, but now I just feel afraid. It’s clear he’s angry, and I don’t entirely understand why.

“My brother died in the fight with the Gonzalez cartel when he took Isabella,” José says evenly, his every word tight and harsh. “All to protect the Santiago princesses. And I’ll be expected to do the same, if it comes to it. While you face no consequences for not doingyourduty.”

He glares down at me. “Your sister should have married Diego like she was supposed to, and none of this would have happened. If she’d done her duty, my brother would be alive. There would be no war going on. And you–”

His gaze slides up and down me, in a way that feels far too personal for who he is and who I am. “You wouldn’t be in danger of following in her footsteps.”

The words are low and threatening, and he smiles tightly down at me, his eyes still hard and cold. “Goodnight,princesa,” he murmurs. “Sweet dreams.”

I manage to stay upright until he shuts the door, harder than he needed to. I stumble backward, feeling my pulse pounding in my throat as I sink down onto the edge of my bed, feeling that same terror that I’d felt earlier, threatening to overwhelm me all over again.

Diego Gonzalez is coming for my family. Forme, just like he had my sister.

Isabella had Niall to save her.

Who is going to save me?

Levin

“We owe them the men we promised.”

Liam is standing at the head of the table, next to Connor, and the tension in the room is palpable. It generally is, in times like these, when all the heads of the various members of the families are assembled for a crisis. The entire table of the Kings is present, including Jacob, Connor’s right hand, who is now a member, the same as Niall is for Liam. They sit on either side of the two men, the rest of the Kings flanking down, with seats left for Viktor and me, and Luca, who is short his right-hand man for this meeting.

They’ve all been talking now for a long time, in circles, as men like this are often to do when they don’t have an answer for the problem they’re trying to address. This time, the problem is the alliance with the Santiago cartel, and the deal that Niall had made in exchange for trade with them.

“We agreed that I’d rescue Isabella and that we’d send men for backup,” Niall says sharply, his voice rising. “I accomplished the first part. The Santiago cartel has opened up trade with us. We’ve been doing good business. So now we need to do the rest of our part.”

“There won’t be any fuckin’ trade if the Gonzalez cartel decimates them,” one of the older Kings says, slapping his hand down on the table. “I say we wait and see what happens.”

“The entire point of sending men is to ensure that doesn’t happen,” Liam retorts. “We’re supposed to be men of our word. We’ve waited too long already.”

“We sent men. Half of them fuckin’ died–”

“We sent a handful. A few from the Romano mafia, a few from the Kings, a few from the Andreyev Bratva. Nothing close to what we agreed. It’s been too long–”

“Seems like a shit deal,” another of the Kings speaks up. “Niall made that deal because he wanted the woman. He got what he wanted, and the rest of our men get what? Sent to their fuckin’ deaths?”

“I made the deal to save her,” Niall says tightly. “I didn’t do it to make her mine. I wasn’t interested in that, then. But her father wanted her saved, and Liam and Connor wanted an alliance. So I made that happen. Now you want to renege on our word, like Liam is saying? Onmyword?”

I feel Viktor glance at me, and I know what he’s thinking–likely the same thing that I am. There’s not likely to be an easy resolution to this. The only way that there will be one at all is if Connor puts his foot down as he so often does, and reminds the table that while his brother Liam might still prefer to run things as a democracy, he does not. He might not be the sort to favor men with money or family names to sit at the table over men who he feels have earned it, but he’s also not a man to have his voice overruled if he decides he’s come to a decision.

“Look,” Liam says, his voice tight with an irritation that’s rarely there in my experience, and speaks to the fact that he’s also getting exhausted with the entire ordeal. “We have information that Diego Gonzalez is demanding Elena Santiago as payment. Her father is refusing. I don’t think there’s a man here who isn’t aware of what consequences that’s likely to have for the Santiago family.”

“And that’s our problem?” Another of the Kings speaks up sharply. “We’ve got our own families, too. If the Santiago cartel falls and the Gonzalez family takes more power, it’s better if we’re not on the losing side. What does that girl’s marriage have to do with us? That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“That girlis my sister-in-law,” Niall growls. “So I’d say at least someone at this table has a vested interest in what happens to her.”

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