Page 7 of Heartless Enemy

Yes. Because he was so dangerous and so fucking difficult to kill that the only thing I could do was to make a deal with him.

But I couldn’t admit that to Mrs. Fern, so instead I simply confirmed, “Yes.”

Another wave of pain washed over their features as they looked up at me helplessly. Then, as one, they all lowered themselves to their knees.

I wanted to snap at them to get up, but I still had an image to maintain so I just remained sitting on my throne, watching them.

“Please, Mr. Arden,” Mrs. Fern said while all of them stared up at me with pleading eyes. “We want Christian White dead for what he did to our loved ones. So please, we’re begging you to help us get revenge.”

A sharp jab speared through my chest. Their family members had died while they were under my protection. I was supposed to keep them safe. That was my end of the bargain. They gave me their loyalty and their lives, and I was supposed to make sure that no one messed with them in return. But I had failed. And I hadn’t even avenged them afterwards either. Instead, I had just let their killer go back to his damn castle.

Rage burned through me. I wanted revenge too for everything that White had done. No one came into my city and killed my people and abducted my spitfire and got away with it. But the problem was that White was too fucking dangerous. If I tried to get revenge, I might just draw his attention back to Malgrave, and then everyone would suffer.

But still…

“As you no doubt know, the white boots are planning an invasion to reclaim the south side,” I said. “First, I need to deal with that threat. Then I will see what can be done about Christian White.”

It wasn’t a promise that I would journey to the north and kill him. It was just an acknowledgement of the problem, and a confirmation that I shared their feelings on the subject, but also a reminder that I couldn’t divert attention to it right now since we were still in the middle of a war.

They seemed to understand that, because they all nodded before climbing to their feet again.

“Thank you for hearing us out,” Mrs. Fern said.

I nodded in acknowledgement.

A whole slew of emotions twisted inside my chest as I watched the group turn around and make their way back out. I had finally wiped out all the other Houses and taken control of the entire south side, but things were far from over.

The white boots were planning another invasion, Eve had been betrayed by the person she had considered her uncle for years, the people I should have protected had not even been avenged, and that slimy fucker Christian White had gotten everything he wanted.

Raking a hand through my hair, I forced out a deep sigh.

There had to be a way to settle all of those scores without getting everyone killed in the process.

Chapter4

My former colleagues cast uncertain glances at me as I walked past their shared space and continued down the corridor towards Captain Wright’s office. I gave them a little wave. They started and then hurriedly returned it before snapping their gazes back to their own desks.

It had been a week since I was demoted to archives duty. And while my soul was slowly dying down there in that dusty and gloomy room full of stale air and unorganized files, I had been forced to wait and bide my time since it would have raised suspicion if I tried to grovel my way back too soon. A week was still a bit on the short side, but it was the quickest reasonably acceptable time frame. While Levi and I had used this week to plot out the rest of our plan fully, we really needed to get started now before it was too late.

Stopping in front of the closed door, I took a moment to compose myself. I used to be angry whenever I saw Wright in Ulric’s office. But now, I just hated this entire office altogether. There were too many memories in it. Memories of late nights spent working on various cases with Ulric while we chatted and drank coffee to stay awake. Memories of his fatherly talks as he tried to help me through whatever problem I had run into.

Now, all those memories were polluted. Ruined. Tainted by the truth. That Ulric had killed my father and then lied to me about it for the past sixteen years while he tried to force me to become the person he wanted me to be.

I wanted to burn this whole room to the ground, and I had to flex my fingers and shake out my hand to stop myself from doing just that.

Drawing in a deep breath, I pushed all of that rage aside. I had another mission now. One that I would require all of my restraint to get through.

Captain Wright was exactly the kind of person that I loathed. Petty. Spiteful. And the kind who loved to lord his power over people when the only reason he had any power at all was because someone else had written that on a piece of paper.

Power wasn’t handed out like confectionary. It was taken.

Amusement pulled at my lips as I imagined putting Wright in a room with Levi. Then that pompous fool would learn very quickly whatrealpower was.

Feeling more in control of myself again, I drew in a deep breath and then schooled my features into a mask of submission. Then I raised my fist and knocked.

“Come,” Captain Wright barked from inside the room.

This was truly going to suck. But it needed to be done.

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