27
No matter which way I look, there’s an enemy.
A fucker trying to take my kingdom, to take what belongs to me. I have them both for the time being, both Wren and the city but with all this new information I wonder if I can keep them both.
It’s not gone unnoticed how distracted I’ve been. Whilst my men don’t outright say it – they would be stupid to – they look at me as if I’m walking a fine line of completely losing it.
Exhaustion tugs at me as I make the final few steps up to the mansion and when I touch the handle I can’t help but feel some sort of sense of foreboding. I stare down at my white shirt that’s not so white anymore, instead it’s splattered with blood and dirt. I would have usually had Ryker with me today but truth was I couldn’t trust anyone anymore.
I have a mole. In my fucking ranks, I have a fucking mole.
They’ve been feeding shit back to Valentine and the Syndicate the entire time. My plans, business dealings, fuck even how often I’ve been alone with Valentine’s precious daughter.
He wants her back. Bad.
But something still doesn’t sit right.
He abandoned her. Left her to be raised by someone else, that doesn’t tell me he’s a man who cares for her. He wants her for something else. I thought it was to take over the family business but I no longer believe that.
There’s a lot I’ve learned about Valentine and everything tells me he wouldn’t want a woman ruling his legacy. He’s misogynistic, cruel with women and bigoted. He wants her for something else. Something big if he’s ignoring the directions the Syndicate are giving him.
But what?
I open the door quietly, stepping into the foyer. Raised voices coming from the kitchen tell me that’s where Wren and Ryker are.
“Just call it!” Wren yells, frustrated.
“We need to wait for Lex!” Ryker growls back with enough anger to make my blood boil. Friend or not, that’s my woman. Mine. And no one speaks to her like that.
I shut the door quietly, despite wanting to barge in there and knock his teeth out for speaking to her that way.
“Why?” Wren sighs, “just call it! He didn’t give it to you anyway!”
I step quietly through the hall, stopping at the threshold but keeping myself concealed around the corner.
“Just wait, Wren.”
“Wait for what?” My voice startles my little bird enough for her to jump in her seat. She spins around to face me, her wide green eyes first looking at my face and then the state of my clothes. Granted, this isn’t the best way for her to see me, but it is who I am. She’s a part of it now, whether she likes it or not.
“Lex,” Ryker sighs heavily.
“What are we waiting for?”
“Ryker and I took a little trip today.”
The news hits me like a truck to the body. He let her out the house! He knows how unsafe it is for her right now. My anger boils and my blood fizzes in my veins, furious and unrelenting.
“You took her out!?” I bellow. “Are you fucking stupid!?” I should get answers. I should find out why but all I see is red. He put her in danger. He took her out of this house. He could have got her killed or kidnapped. Fuck. I fly across the kitchen, my knuckles meeting his face like a rock to the skull. His head snaps to the side as blood sprays from his mouth.
“Lex!” Wren’s voice is muffled to the rage booming inside my ears.
My fist connects with his cheekbone, and I raise my fist to hit him again but he manages to dodge this one, getting in his own hit. I spit blood onto the kitchen tiles, before taking another hit.
“Fuck you, Lex!” Ryker bellows.
“Enough!” Wren screams, scrambling her small body across the kitchen island before stumbling off of it to stand between us. If either of us want to go at each other again we’d have to go through her. She glares at me, squaring her shoulders in front of Ryker as if protecting him.
Jealously hits me hot and heavy, punching me straight in the gut.