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But at the top of the stairs we bump into a wall of masked men in black, all of them holding guns. I flash in front of Sirenna, ready to be her human shield when a strong voice rises from the black crowd.
“Hold!”
A few seconds later, Declan Santori snakes elegantly among the men to the forefront, arranging the cuffs of his fitted suit, followed by the unmistakable bulk of Jax Vaughn.
I frown, the computer in my head misfiring.
“The two of you? Here?”
Declan approaches us, while Jax watches from the background, a mountain of threat, his green eyes creating a blood-chilling effect combined with the red eyes tattooed on his throat, peering through barbed wire.
“With two spots empty on the Blood Fist Triad, Jax here was left to lead it,” Declan says, brushing invisible dust off his perfect suit. “So, he took it upon himself to assign one of the positions to me. He’s known me long enough to trust me.” His bottomless black eyes move up and down my frame, assessing me like Lucifer recruiting a new warrior. “And I know enough about you to consider you best suited to take the third spot.”
It dawns on me. Of course it was them. No one else could have commanded that kind of sound except the military. There’s very little they can’t do with the Triad in their hands now.
My eyebrows dip. As powerful as Declan Santori and Jax Vaughn are, I am a powerhouse, too.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I growl. “In your circle, you always said that I was volatile to them. Impossible to control. That I shouldn’t be trusted.”
“You forget,” Declan says, his voice a sea of murderous calm. “I’ve been inviting you to The Rite for five years now. I know more about you than I let others see.” His eyes flick over to Sirenna, but he’s wise enough to avert them just as quickly. He looks into my eyes with understanding, as if he knows exactly what it feels like to be so intensely fixated on a woman.
“This year, you spent a remarkable amount of time watching Sirenna.” He pauses, reading the question in my eyes. “There are cameras in more places than you’d expect at The Rite. I use the yearly event to, you know–” he shrugs elegantly, “–gauge my peers’ strengths and weaknesses.”
“So you decided to save my life today and make me part of the Triad because you know my weaknesses?”
Sirenna steps next to me, holding my hand, and I don’t try to keep her back. At least of one thing I’m certain–she has nothing to fear from Declan or Jax.
“Please, don’t take this the wrong way, Zayne,” she pleads. “Declan and Jax are here to help, and thank God for that.”
Declan looks at her again before he says, “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Thorngren. So has the Triad, you must know that. I’m sure you would have kept an eye on someone like yourself, too. As for Jax, he didn’t do it because he wanted someone like you in the Triad. On the contrary. You were a danger to take seriously. To watch out for. But now, with this one single tweak, it turns out you became the best thing that can happen to it.”
Steps start hammering along the basement hallway where we came from, but before I can turn around, Declan and Jax’s men spring into a march down the stairs to intercept them. As soon as we can hear each other again over the drumming sound, Declan continues.
“All because you fell in love.”
I knew that this devil was a lovestruck puppy for his fiancée, Mia Rogers, but something feels seriously off to hear him actually talk about love.
“We need a ruthless third member for the Triad,” Vaughn’s baritone rumbles behind Santori, those beastly eyes not faltering for a second. “Someone who wields power and influence that could shatter governments. Someone without morals, but with a heart.” He gives me a once-over, an assessment of his own. “So, welcome to the team.”
“What if I don’t want the job?”
Vaughn shrugs, but the gesture is devoid of nonchalance. “You could always go back to The Order, I suppose. The people who tried to get you and your lover killed.” Murderous ability flashes in his glassy eyes. “If anyone did that to Adalia, I’d skin them alive one by one.” He says that like he knows that’s exactly what I’m planning to do.
Sirenna throws herself into my arms, covering my chest with feverish kisses, not stopping even as two men return up the stairs dragging her still-husband by his arms. He’s a shell of what was once Joseph Carter, now inhabited only by frustration, bitterness and self-pity.
“First things first. How about we see to those divorce papers?” Declan says, his black irises twinkling sharply.
***
Sirenna
JOSEPH SIGNED THE DIVORCE papers without much ado because of course he did. Surrounded by lawyers, Zayne watched him with eyes that could rival guns. Sweat broke out on my back as my gaze flew from one to the other, certain that those ice-blue irises could put a bullet through my ex’s temple any second.
When the final paper was signed, and Joseph slumped in his chair, looking beaten and dejected, a ball of pity formed in my chest. I’d intended to walk over to Zayne when he was done, and straddle him right in front of Joseph. I’d planned to take that powerful jaw between my hands and slide my tongue between his lips, but instead I just took a comfortable seat on my fiance’s thigh.
“Now you’re mine,” he growled, looking hungrily up at me, not minding that Joseph was still there, watching us with defeated eyes. “All mine. And you will get the place that you deserve in the world, namely as queen of New York.”
Love flooded my heart, but also something else. A slightly uncomfortable feeling. I only responded with a smile but now, two months later, as I lean against his chest in the ocean breeze, I tell him the truth.
