Page 78 of Reign By Wrath

“These are just names on a screen. With the army of lawyers a Royal can afford, they’ll have even you and me convinced this site is fake.” Saylor flung back on her pillows, chewing her lip while she stared up at the bed’s canopy. “I can’t believe the things people did for this club. I’ve done some fucked-up stuff, but framing people? Assaulting them? Stalking them?Killingthem? All so their secrets wouldn’t get outed.”

“Or for money,” I reminded. “Some of these secrets aren’t a big deal. The only thing the club had on Gabriella was that she was dating Giovanni. Raven Jennings too. The worst thing they had on her was that she shoplifted a purse once, then felt so bad she took it back. Yet, she took a dare to plant drugs in Natalie Rivers’s car for three grand. She could’ve turned that down without it costing her anything at all. But she wanted the money.”

Saylor inclined her head. This was a record. The longest amount of time we’d gone without insulting each other. I was even sitting on her bed without any cracks about house-training or soiling her sheets.

“Some of these secrets are minor,” Saylor said, “but the majority are life-wrecking scandals. If Everleigh gave the Royals a choice between pledging loyalty to her or spilling this stuff to everyone, it’s no wonder they gave in. They know I can’t expel them all from the Royal line.”

“You having this information can force them to break from Everleigh, which is a start. We have to peel away her layers of protection so she has no choice left but to confess.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

I wasn’t sure when we started sayingwe. It was probably when we nearly vomited at the third revenge rape dare that we realized we were in this together. We both wanted to burn down the system that created these monsters.

“One at a time,” Saylor continued. “We bring it all crashing down around her.”

I slid the phone away from me, shaking with the violation of holding that thing. “What about the second part of our deal? I get to meet my grandparents.”

Saylor made a derisive noise in her throat. The real her was coming back. “They’re not here. Daddy’s getting ready for the campaign, and Grandpa and Grandmother flew to New York to meet with potential donors personally. Grandpa always said the least you can do when asking for money is to ask face-to-face.”

“When will they be back?”

She shrugged. “Tomorrow or the next day. Depends on if they decide to catch a show or visit friends. I’ll tell Grandmother you want to talk to her, but I can’t guarantee anything. If she refuses, don’t think you can come for me and say I didn’t hold up my end.”

“As long as the refusal comes from her. I don’t trust you not to lie.”

“Like I trust you either.” Saylor slid off the bed. “Get out. The phone stays with me.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. There was no risk in leaving the phone with her since I called Wilder from the car and he walked me through how to give him remote access. He knew everything about the members that Saylor and I now did. If she didn’t keep up her end to bring the bastards to justice, we’d do it for her.

Victor was waiting for me at his parents’ house as promised. Together we took a long, twisty route back to Wilder’s hideout. I walked through the door and fell into Rafael’s arms. Victor filled them in for me.

“Leave you alone for one day and you get chased by an angry mob.” Rafael’s touch was soothing on my temples. “I hate that we’re stuck in this fucking place when you need us. Meanwhile, Wilder’s brother has struck again.”

My head shot up. “What? How?”

Rafael led us into the living room. Wilder was hunched over the coffee table, furiously typing on his laptop. “He’s locked me out of everything,” he hissed. “I can’t access the Royals’ HapApp messages. I can’t get into the school database. I can’t even send an email to a Royal. They’re all coming back undelivered. Wolf is protecting Everleigh and all her allies from my cyberattacks.”

I bent over his shoulder, glancing at strings of code I did not understand. “Does that matter now that we have Everleigh’s cellphone? She’s about to lose all of her allies.”

“They switch their loyalty from Everleigh back to Saylor, but in neither situation are they loyal to us,” Lucien said. “Wolf trapped us in this place. Now, he’s taking away our eyes. We’re planning moves, but he and Everleigh are too. He’s making sure we don’t see them.”

I shivered. “If only he’d been this thorough about securing the site. All the protections he added to stop the horrific bullying and worse have come far too late.”

“But he did do it,” Wilder said. “I thought it was a clever manipulation to make you think there was a shred of decency in him before you turned over the laptop. Turns out, there is that shred. The past dares and truths are horrific, but the recent ones have no mention of murder, rape, bullying, etcetera.”

I nodded. I did notice that. Wolfgang held up his end and blocked those dares from going live on the site. This did not make him a good person. A serial killer can abhor rape. A sex trafficker could draw the line at children. Just because Wolf had limits did not make him a good person.

That night, I snuggled between Rafael and Cato—the sweat cooling on our bodies. The sex had been softer lately, the only way I could describe it. As though they sensed the anger and frustration in me and chose to tease it out with gentle fingers and lingering kisses.

This tenderness was a wonder I did not know Cato was capable of. Don’t get me wrong, Cato never pushed me past my limits. He took me to the edge. Danced on the line. Reimagined my body’s possibilities. Took what he wanted without hesitation. There were things I didn’t know I liked until Cato told me I liked them.

His barking, snarling domination was hot in every way, and then there were his stroking fingers, featherlight on my skin. His barely there kisses under my ear. His slow, mind-scrambling tasting of my pussy. None of these were things I was prepared for, and that night, it undid me in every way.

I couldn’t sleep after the Dumont brothers were done with me. I just drifted between wakefulness and peace for hours until sunlight peered through the blinds.

Buzzing drew my attention to the nightstand. I reached over Rafael and grabbed my phone.

Hell Beast: My grandmother has agreed to speak with you, but not at the manor. You’re to meet her at La Perla’s in three hours. If you’re a minute late, she’ll leave and you lose your only chance.

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