Page 136 of That Sik Luv

“Not true,” Saint retorts before reeling in pain as his hands move beneath the items pinning him. “Whatever he did was on his own!”

“In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I remembered.” She leans closer to Saint while her eyes stay focused on mine. “Some of Jacob’s last words were that he couldn’t believe a girl as calculated as me got it all wrong, and thathe, meaning you, said I’m not supposed to mess up your face, but I will if you give me a reason to.”

Saint sways on his feet, a look of pure, cold-hearted hatred emitting from his eyes.She got him.

“Aero killed him! Murdered him!”

“Before he could kill me,” she counters. “You just couldn’t get it done. Not with your buddy Jacob, not by yourself in your attempts to incriminate me in my bedroom. Poor Saint couldn’t prove to daddy he was more than just a piece inhischess game.“ She clicks her tongue. “A true tragedy.”

Briony pushes off the table, slowly prowling in her sexy little outfit towards where I’m seated. Alastor presses his gun into my temple again at her proximity.

“Another step and it’s over for him,” he warns, distress in his shaky tone.

Her eyes light up with amusement and she tips her head.

He fears her. She’s feeding off it. My sexy, disturbed little doll.

“I know who you are.” She shakes her head with repugnance, looking at him from head to toe. “Margaret Moore was my real mother. You tried to erase her from existence because she got pregnant and chose to have me.”

There’s only one way she’d know of that name. The missing documents from his safe. The documents she’d discovered at my place after I’d forced her to steal them. The names. I admitted to her in our little knife game in the woods that Veronica Fields was my mother. She pieced the rest together herself. I guarantee Alastor’s expression is revealing every trace of his fears coming to life.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alastor denies. “I have no idea who that is.”

She stares at him for a moment, the silence clearly eating away at him.

“That’s funny you say that. Am I not the eternal stain of condemnation ofyourpast?”

I hear him swallow above me.

“Cut the cords that hold us back,” Briony continues. “Did Alastor a real favor with that one. That woman was ready to risk everything to bring him down for their baby.”

“Fuck,” Callum curses from across the room, hitting himself with the end of his pistol.

She’s quoting him. She must’ve heard this conversation of Callum’s about the set-up to have me framed for murder, and now she’s doing exactly as I’ve taught her, staring down the man before her, studying his face as he lies.

“It’s over for you, darling,” Alastor interjects. “Your fun ends here. For you and your sick little lover.”

“The truth is undeniable,” Briony continues. “And now, thanks to Saint, the very institution you’ve worked tirelessly to control is crumbling around you. You’re not needed anymore. No money. No power. No votes.”

“Truths are what we men in this room make them. You can only get so far in our world before we cut you out.” Alastor laughs, hitting the side of my head with the gun again. “Impure blood limits your future, no matter how hard you fight it. Ain’t that right, Aero.”

“Touch him again,” Briony says calmly, raising the gun in an outstretched arm aimed at Alastor’s head.

The men exchange nervous glances around us.

“C’mon, touch him again,” she urges. “Give me a reason to take off the top of your skull.”

Briony’s grin is as wicked as they come. She’s playing a dangerous game with him. I bite down on my bottom lip, the smirk spreading across my face at the familiar words I’d used protecting her in this very club.

There’s a certain confidence she holds in our fate. One I’ll blindly trust her with.

We’re crazy, psychotic, and filled with a disturbing desire for the fear these men built and are now being subjected to. This is our game now. They’re in our court, receiving their atonement.

From the corner of my eye, Alastor looks down at me before facing her again, his hand shaking as the gun pushes my hair around. He presses the barrel against my head and pulls the trigger, and I hear the silent click against my skull.

Briony’s smile drops. “You actually did it.” Her gaze falls to mine, and my haunting laugh cuts through the silence. “You fucking touched him again.”

“You emptied it?!” His terror-filled tone brings out Nox’s devilish laugh from the corner.

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