Our unspoken exchange could hardly go unnoticed. Wylder frowned at me. “Do you have a problem with the company I keep?”
I blinked. Rowan looked uncomfortable for a moment before smoothing his face to be expressionless. Of course, I meant nothing to him. He had made that crystal-clear all those years ago.
Shaking my head, I pushed any lingering hurt and confusion out of my mind. The past should stay in the past. It—he—didn’t matter anymore. “No,” I said flatly.
I inhaled slowly. Once. Twice. I needed to remain calm and coherent. “Cole Bryant killed my entire family tonight.”
All four pairs of eyes widened. Rowan took a step toward me and then seemed to check himself.
“The Claws are all dead?” Kaige asked, gaping openly.
I nodded. “Everyone who had any kind of authority—my dad, my uncles, their top men. I’m the only survivor. It was supposed to be our rehearsal dinner.” A laugh with no humor at all in it sputtered out of me. “I was supposed to walk down the aisle tomorrow to marry Colt. But it turned out to be a trick to lure us in without weapons.”
The first time I’d met Colt, his easy smile and kind eyes had seemed like a breath of fresh air. He’d spoken to me respectfully and with warmth that I hadn’t received in a long time. And all of it had been a lie.
How long had he been playing me? I’d been so blinded by the hope of the life he’d allowed me to dream of that I hadn’t seen the truth right in front of me.
“Why the fuck would you walk into enemy territory without weapons?” Wylder demanded.
“Both sides agreed, as a matter of honor. Our marriage was supposed to solidify an alliance. We thought we weren’t enemies anymore.”
He scoffed. “Honor means shit when you end up dead.”
I bunched the bedsheet in my palms in an effort to not punch him right where he stood. He spoke so carelessly, not giving a flying fuck that my entire family had been murdered tonight.
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world,” Wylder went on. “Or should I say Knights-eat-Claws. This is a game of survival, and if your father couldn’t protect what was his, then he deserves to be dead.”
None of the other guys argued on my behalf. But why would they? I was some blood-drenched stranger who’d showed up at their door. This wasn’t a fairy-tale, and they were definitely not any kind of Prince Charmings, despite their terribly handsome facades.
But I couldn’t lose hope. I was Mercy Katz, and for all his flaws and torments, my father had honed me into something stronger than he’d ever imagined. I could do better than this.
“Colt went back on his word,” I said firmly. “He betrayed us. And for that he needs to pay.”
Wylder raised his eyebrows. “And how do you figure I come into that?”
“He took down one of the most powerful gangs in the Bend. What if he gets ideas for more? You Nobles are supposed to have all of Paradise Bend at your beck and call, aren’t you? How’s it going to look if you let some upstart get away with shit like that and walk free?”
“I’m not getting involved in some lovers’ spat,” Wylder said, but I had the sense I’d gotten more of his attention.
I fixed him with a glare. “We weren’t in love. It was a business transaction, and more for my father’s benefit than mine—although yes, I was happy enough with what I thought I’d get out of it. Clearly Colt wasn’t. What if he still isn’t happy? He could be coming for Paradise City next.”
“And if he does, he’ll regret it. So far it sounds like all he’s done is removed a weak link. If you think I’m going to jump at the command of some small-time gang princess who came begging for help, you’re sorely mistaken, Kitty Cat.”
I held back a snarl at the nickname. “I didn’t come here to beg. I came to call on you to prove that the Nobles really do rule—that this kind of backstabbing won’t get a pass under your watch.”
Wylder shrugged. “I’m still not convinced the Claws didn’t get what they had coming to them. Look at you, barely making it two steps into my house before fainting from a bullet wound.”
“Bullet wound?” Rowan spoke for the first time and then snapped his mouth shut.
Wylder ignored him. “You’re weak. It’s going to take more than batting your pretty lashes at me to prove your case.”
“I. Am. Not. Weak,” I said, biting out each word. “I’ll be right there with you every step of the way—I want to watch him ground into the dirt. I can hold my own.”
A speculative gleam lit in Wylder’s eyes. “And what if I said I’d need you to prove that first. Follow my orders, show what you’re made of. Are you ready for that, Princess?”
Follow this prick’s orders? Every nerve in me resisted the idea—especially when I remembered how my body had briefly responded to his own pressed against it.
But this was my opening—the only one I was likely to get. I had to take it. There was nothing he could throw at me that was worse than what I’d already been through.
I lifted my chin and held his gaze. “Whatever it takes if it means Colt Bryant burns.”