Page 95 of Pretty Vengeful Queen

Riley pokes her head around the corner. “Oh god.”

“It’s fine now,” Dante says, tugging her closer. “He’s dead, princess.”

“Fine? This isn’t fucking fine!”

She’s right, but the way she immediately stops herself, taking a deep breath and shutting down her freak out, makes me admire her even more.

She stares at the body for another moment, then dismisses him, taking the three of us in instead. “Are you all okay?” she asks, trapping her lower lip between her teeth as she looks at the bullet graze along my hip, then reaches tentative fingers toward Maddoc’s bloody chest.

“Nothing a few stitches won’t take care of,” Maddoc says, his eyes softening for a moment as he captures her hand before she can touch his wounds. “Don’t worry about that, butterfly. We really are fine.”

She nods, her eyes skittering back to the assassin and then away again. “He died before you could get him to tell you anything, didn’t he?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

She looks up at me. “Of course it matters! He was trying to kill us!”

“He was trying to kill Maddoc,” I correct her. “That alone tells us everything we need to know.”

“McKenna sent him,” Dante says, rage washing over his face for a moment. He springs to his feet, then lands a vicious kick against the corpse’s ribs. “That piece of shit tried to take Madd out.”

A grim cloud settles over the kitchen, and Maddoc breathes out a quiet curse. “He’s getting bolder.”

I nod, tightening my hands into fists to contain my rage about that.

“He’s not just picking away at your territory anymore,” Riley says, wrapping her arms around her middle as her body starts to shake. “He’s cominghere.”

Dante pulls her against him, kissing the top of her head. “Heain’t coming here. He’d never make it this far. But yeah, princess. This was an open, direct attack on our leadership. This was personal.”

Then he smiles.

Maddoc’s eyes sharpen, and a calm settles across the violent fury boiling in my soul.

“What is it?” Maddoc asks, clearly recognizing the dark hum of ferocity behind that smile just like I do.

“It’s a fucking opportunity,” Dante says. “Could be exactly the one we need.”

“Maddoc almost dying is an opportunity?” Riley spits out, turning on him with rage in her eyes. “What thefuck, Dante?”

“I didn’t almost die, butterfly,” Maddoc says with a smirk, pulling her away from our brother and tucking her against his side. His body language becomes a little looser the moment she’s in his arms, and I allow myself a small smile, a warmth in my chest from the sight that not even the grim circumstances can extinguish.

“You fucking did,” Riley grumbles, ducking her head and dashing at her eyes. Then she punches him in the chest, his blood smearing on her knuckles. “Don’t do it again.”

“Okay,” he promises, holding her even closer. He tips her chin up. “I love you.”

She glares up at him, then sags against him. “I know,” she whispers. “Don’t let him take that away from me.”

“Never gonna happen.” Maddoc looks back at Dante. “What are you thinking?”

“We need proof that Austin is gonna go up against The Six, and the best way to get that proof is from the inside.” He pauses, making eye contact with each of us. “This could be our chance to do that.”

“This… dead guy?” Riley asks, her forehead crinkling in confusion. “How?”

“I’ll use it to get in with McKenna myself,” he says. “He wants Maddoc dead? We’ll give him that. Except I’ll pretend I’m the one who did it when his assassin failed, and the piece of shit will buy it, because he doesn’t fucking understand loyalty.”

I blink. Dante was trained as an assassin too. Except he wasn’tjusttrained as an assassin. He was originally sent here to infiltrate the Reapers, and he almost succeeded because his training also taught him to be ruthless, deceptive, and strategic.

“McKenna will think Dante made a power grab when the opportunity presented itself,” I say, the pieces falling into place in my mind.

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