Page 66 of Reign By Wrath

First, she had to go home, shower, and change, and no, I was not allowed to go with her and step foot inside Burkhardt Manor.

Then, I had to wait hours for her to call and tell me she was ready to talk, but we had to meet in a neutral location with a witness. I got the sense she was still trying to find a way to make everything that happened to her that day my fault. Just in case, she wasn’t about to walk into another ambush.

I agreed and told her we should meet at Katie’s house. After that, I called Katie, and she said we had to wait until Dean left because they were doing things she unfortunately described in great detail.

Finally, after all that, we were sitting down to plates of stuffed, double-smoked salmon and butternut squash gnocchi in the pool house.

Katie had the full setup with bedroom, living room, dining area, and an entire bedroom she turned into a closet. We sat at the dining table, trading tense looks while one of Katie’s staff served us.

“Thank you, Giselle,” I said. “One look and I know it’s yum. Tell Chef to get ready for my incoming proposal.”

Giselle chuckled. “She is always happy to hear her food is enjoyed. Have a wonderful evening, ladies.”

I speared a piece of gnocchi.

“No.” Saylor snatched my fork and my plate while she was at it. “Don’t come in my friend’s place, sleaze on her staff, and act like Chef likes or even knows who you are. This isn’t your turf, and Katie isn’t your friend. She’s mine. You’re just a housekeeper’s worthless cunt droppings.”

I hummed, unfazed. “And you’re a garbage disposal. Feel free to save me time and dump my food directly on your head.”

“You—!”

“Ladies,” Katie sliced in. “Enough. That’s not what you came here for. Luna, tell her everything. She needs to know.”

I did. Starting from the very beginning with two boys that dreamed of becoming Rogues and ending with what I found in her cabin.

“I thought it was just about getting revenge on my father, but Everleigh wants more. She wants everything her father died for,” I said. “The T.O.D. Club was about more than using an army of faceless minions to do her dirty work. The strongest tie is a secret. Everleigh planned to use all the secrets T.O.D. Club collected to make the Royals ditch you and obey her. With the way everyone feels about you right now, they jumped on that all too quick.”

Saylor said nothing, her expression giving little away. She hadn’t spoken through my entire tale.

“I don’t need to tell you the power she has now. In this fight, she’s got every weapon on her side. Even Victor,” I admitted, “can’t help me. With Everleigh now at the top of the Royal line, she won’t enforce anything he says or does to punish people who go against me.

“It was a brilliant move. I don’t know how to counter it, but we have to think of something. She can’t win. I don’t care what I have to do. Everleigh will pay for what she did to my sister.”

Saylor was quiet for a beat. I couldn’t begin to guess what she was thinking. “So, if I’m understanding this correctly, I’m getting roped into the drama of some discarded branch of the family tree. Now you want my help to win a fight that you can’t.”

“If you want to put it like that,” I forced through clenched teeth. “Yes.”

She scoffed. “Obviously, Everleigh, Piper, and Gabriella won’t get away with what they pulled today. Regalia is my town. The Burkhardts own it. As far as I’m concerned, you all are guests who forgot how to act in someone else’s house. I’m more than willing to teach a little respect.”

I resisted an eye roll. She was saying all the right things. Better not to provoke her.

“But.”

“But what?” I said.

“But I’m not doing it for you.” Saylor scooped my food on her plate and handed me back nothing. The petty chick even took my apple cider. “I’m doing it because what Everleigh did can’t stand. But if you think I’m putting myself in this Rogue-on-Rogue revenge bullshit, then you really are insane.”

“You can’t take back the Royal line from Everleigh without getting involved in this Rogue revenge bullshit. Everleigh is doing all this in the name of revenge, and she willkillin the name of revenge. If you come at her with this ‘I own everything, obey me because I demand it’ crap, she’ll just take out a seven-figure T.O.D. hit on you.”

“Oh, please.” Saylor speared a piece of gnocchi. “Everleigh isn’t going to have me killed. And even if she was that crazy, no one in the stupid little dare club would do it. Messing with some Dreg isn’t on the same level as killing a Royal. As killingtheRoyal.”

I bit my lip, penning in a hundred harsh responses. One of them being that a club member did kill a Royal because I told them to. Instead, I took out the note I still carried with me to that day and held it out.

Brows crawling together, she took my sister’s note and read. I could tell when she got to the part about Owen... then Giovanni... Levi... Wesley... and finally, Ashton. It was one thing hearing about it from me. It was another reading of my sister’s torture in her own words.

Saylor refolded the note and set it down.

“I’m warning you, Saylor,” I rasped. “If you say anything heartless about my sister’s last words, you’ll need more than a restraining order. Because I won’t stop trying to kill you until the job is done.”

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