Page 188 of Lethal King

“Don’t you dare leave Mel alone,” I order. Another sharp turn sends me careening onto a slightly more crowded avenue. I weave between the cars, my mind racing with possible solutions to our big fucking problem.

Still, in the back of my mind, I see Rozalia.

She stands there in her elegant red dress, a blank look on her face. I can’t stop trying to decipher that fucking look.

Did she use me? I haven’t been able to decide yet. And my heart won’t cooperate with my brain.

“I’ll do whatever you say,” Maksim assures me. “But if you want my advice, it’s this: stem the bleeding immediately. We need to do whatever we can to stifle this story before it gets out. It might be too late to keep the underworld from knowing what’s just happened, but there’s still hope we can keep the Kilpatrick name out of the news cycle. If we do that, then at least your father has—”

“Have you talked to my father yet?” I interrupt, blasting by a pair of slow-moving cars.

“No. And I’m not sure I should. The last thing he needs is for me to tie him to this incident with a phone call.”

“A phone call is the least of our worries,” I think out loud. “Whoever did this isn’t worried about how it will affect Dad. They only want to embarrass me. Why else would they strike a union stronghold?”

“The implication is obvious,” Maksim agrees. “They want everyone to remember why you got exiled. They want people to doubt that you’ve changed. They want our allies to question their loyalty to you. They want our empire to crumble from within.”

With my speed-o-meter nearly topping out, I swerve onto the highway.

“We both know who wants to do that.”

For the first time since I called him, Maksim hesitates to speak.

“… We can’t do anything without evidence,” he finally mumbles. “Not this time. Not with the whole world watching, waiting for us to fuck up.”

My gut lurches at the accusation. Maksim doesn’t know what I just learned from Rozalia. But even if what she said was true, it doesn’t change much—at least, not externally.

For anything to change, Rozalia’s going to have to help me present proof. But that’s the least of my concerns right now. For all the shit that’s just popped off, there is one silver lining.

I trust my gut again.

I wasn’t wrong. Those union fucks were going to betray my family. They deserved to die. I needed to send a message. It didn’t save my family, but it sure as fuck bought us a few months to prepare for the storm to come.

We needed all the time we got.

“I’ll find the evidence we need,” I growl. With a quick glance down at my dashboard’s IVI screen, I take note of a blinking red dot and its ever-changing location.

That’s what I’m trying to catch up to.

“Be careful, it could be another trap,” Maksim warns.

“If they kill me, I want you to nuke the entire area,” I foolishly demand.

“You know I won’t do that,” Maksim wisely responds. “We’re already walking on thin ice. Hell, I don’t even think it’s a great idea to send back-up.”

He’s right. A firefight could make this mess a whole lot worse and way more public.

Fuck.

Speeding towards an exit ramp, I try to calm myself.

But even as one wave of fury fades, another grows.

I can see Rozalia. That red dress drifts across a black void, revealing her pale thigh… and holstered gun.

I bite down on my tongue. There’s no figuring that girl out. Is she on my side? Is she playing the middle? Or is she just playing me?

Does it matter?