Page 109 of Pretty Vengeful Queen

“I…” His fingers tremble against my mouth. Then something shifts in his gaze, and a fierce intensity overtakes him. “I love you too.”

The hot sting of tears prickles behind my eyes, and I suck in a sharp breath, shocked despite myself.

I know he loves me. I do know it. But he’s so much more closed off to his emotions than his brothers are—and with good reason—that I never truly expected to hear it.

He watches my reaction with the intense focus he always has on me, then the secret smile I love so much slowly spreads across his mouth. He uses his hold on my hair to tug my head back, then leans down and kisses the corner of each of my eyes before the tears get a chance to fall.

Then he takes my mouth.

“I love you, Riley Sutton,” he whispers against my lips, delivering the words with the unique combination of tenderness and pain that only he can give me.

I smile as he kisses me, my heart swelling as I pull myself against him and let this one perfect moment of something good edge out all the fear and worry I’ve felt lately, all the fear and worry he just fucked out of me, and hold it at bay for a while.

I never meant to, but somehow, I managed to fall thoroughly and completely in love with three men, and despite what’s waiting for us outside these doors, I refuse, utterly refuse, to let any of them die.

They’remine. And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them.

34

RILEY

“What’sthe status of that shit Isaac’s handling for us?” Maddoc asks Logan a few days later, his back to both of us as he sets up the new coffee maker one of the lower level gang members delivered to the house today.

Logan’s lips tighten. He’s plating the food he just cooked for all of us while I sit at the counter cleaning a gun they’ve started insisting I have on me at all times now. “Isaac has run into a few setbacks.”

When he doesn’t elaborate, Maddoc gives the new coffee maker a frustrated thump, then turns to face him. “What does that mean?”

I need my caffeine, so I set the weapon down and go nudge Maddoc out of the way to figure out how the damn thing works as the two men continue talking about all the ways McKenna is fucking with us.

“He’s doing more than just hiring mercenaries to go after us,” Logan says. “He’s clearly fucking with our suppliers behind the scenes too. Maybe we should ask Dante if he can find out—”

He’s interrupted by Maddoc’s phone.

We all tense up, recognizing the custom notification Maddoc set up. It’s Dante. He hasn’t been able to communicate with us very regularly, but whenever he can sneak a private moment where he’s certain he won’t be watched, he takes the chance to reach out and get us up to speed.

“Report,” Maddoc says as soon as he answers the call, not wasting any time with niceties. “We’re all here.”

He puts it on speaker so Logan and I can hear as Dante starts talking. We never know how long we’ll have. More than once, Dante has had to abruptly drop a call mid-sentence to preserve his cover.

“Shit’s going well over here,” he starts off, his voice strained and a little muffled as it comes through the speaker. “I’m working my way into McKenna’s inner circle pretty quickly.” He snorts. “Not like back when I first came to the Reapers.”

Maddoc’s lips twitch for just a second. “You know I don’t trust easily, but you got in faster than most.”

“I guess it’s a good thing McKenna ain’t as cautious. I’ve been acting like a fucking sycophant over here. Praising everything the fucker does. You wouldn’t have fallen for that bullshit, Madd, but he’s eating it up.”

I nod. I can hear the disdain in Dante’s voice, and it definitely checks out with everything I saw while Austin had me captive too. Then Dante’s tone switches to a more serious one, with a hint of exhaustion coming through.

“He pulled me in as part of another attack on Reaper territory yesterday. I’m pretty sure it was a test to see if I’d really turned.”

“The packaging plant?” Maddoc asks grimly.

I blink. I hadn’t realized there was an attack yesterday, but it doesn’t sound like it’s news to Maddoc.

“That’s the one.” Dante sighs. “I know what that’s gonna do to our finances, but I had no choice. It won me McKenna’s trust, though.”

“You did good,” Maddoc says, exchanging a look with Logan. “We didn’t lose any people. That’s what matters. I thought it was luck, but it was you?”

“Yeah, I managed to convince McKenna to time it so it was off shift for our crew, but the bastard went in a little early, so we still had a few trapped in there. Jay, Kieran, Greg… a few others I think. Luckily, McKenna doesn’t know the layout like I do. I was able to get in and get word to them so they could escape before shit actually went down.”

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