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Cash Beckstrom, leader of the Aces, requests your presence this evening for a meet-and-greet. Cocktails and cigars will be served, as well as dessert. One guard for each invited guest is allowed.
Under the address—one of my office buildings, no less—was a handwritten note.
Loved the fireworks, Little Queen. I didn’t think you had it in you.
See you at the meeting. Don’t forget to bring your men.
--C
“It’s a trap,” Nate said when he found me reading it again over an early dinner because there was no way I was eating anything Cash had made.
Nate had woken up reserved, distant. I reminded myself that he was grieving and to give him space if he wanted it, even when my instincts were screaming to keep him close.
“Obviously,” Dominic said, slathering his pancakes with butter. Anxiety fueled me with the urge to cook, but pancakes were all I could make without burning them, and even they had to come from a box.
I set another plate of pancakes in front of Nate, trying to pretend I couldn’t see him stiffening in his seat as I got nearby.
Greyson and Dominic looked at each other and back to me with twin looks of sadness that I turned away from. I didn’t need their pity. Nate was struggling, but we’d work through it eventually.
I just had to be there for him, and I would.
Clearing my throat, I went back to the stove to work on my meal, though I wasn’t hungry. My stomach was tight with nerves. “If he were going to get retribution for the hospital, he’d blow the house up, not invite us to a meeting. Besides, he didn’t just invite us.”
He’d included the head of every other major family in Seattle to my office building. I had to admit, it took balls.
Whatever Cash had planned, he wanted to do it publicly.
“Moore, Tennessee, and I checked the security footage at the office, and there’s been nothing out of the ordinary in the last week. They sent a team down to make sure there weren’t any bombs either. They’ll stay until after the meeting’s over.”
Even if there were, they’d probably be the last ones we had to worry about for a while. Cash’s bomb maker was chilling in the freezer downstairs until I decided what to do with his body.
We finished our meal in silence, the weight of the day heavy on our shoulders. Only when I’d scraped the last bite off my plate did I lay out the plan. “We go in armed and ready for anything. The safe room is prepared in case there’s an emergency, but I doubt Cash is going to invite us all to a bloodbath. There’d be too many people out to get him after to enjoy the spoils of war.”
“Most of the families have rules about avenging their fallen leaders,” Greyson agreed. “Even the ones who want them dead.”
Wasn’t that the truth. I had no doubt that if Cash succeeded in killing me, my uncles would kill him first, then fight to see who would take my throne as their own.
“So, we’re agreed?” Three heads nodded. “Good. Grey and Dominic, get ready. Meet down here in an hour.”
I finished my coffee as they left the room, putting the cup in the sink before turning toward my own shower. It would take every second I had to get ready.
Before I could leave, Nate caught me by the elbow, spinning me around to face him. It was the first time he’d willingly touched or spoken to me since we’d woken up. “I’m coming, too.”
My chest ached when he let me go, that distance between us gaping like a canyon, but I understood protecting yourself from pain. “No, you aren’t.”
“I am.” His eyes glittered with stubbornness, and I didn’t know how to do this. How did I gently tell my boyfriend that his priorities were out of whack? That he was needed somewhere else?
How did I tell him he was wrong?
“Nate, your mom…” was dying. He had to go to see her. He had to spend those precious last moments with her.
I would’ve given anything to meet my mother just once. I wasn’t going to let him destroy his last chance to say goodbye for anyone. Certainly not Cash fucking Beckstrom.
“I talked to her caregiver, and she’ll be all right for a few hours.”
“They can’t know that.” I’d been around death enough to know that things could take a turn in seconds. I didn’t want him to regret this. To regret choosing me.
“I promise, I’ve got it handled and I’ll go right to her after. But I don’t feel comfortable letting you go without me.” He sighed when he saw me gearing up for another fight and wrapped me in his arms, pressing my cheek to his chest. “Mari, I need to do this.”
