Page 26 of Vows of Ruin

He’s calm. Eyes sharp and wrong, scanning the room. He sees me, then Wrenley, then the Serpents. Clocking every detail like he’s mentally drawing blood in advance.

He’s got the kind of smile that belongs in padded rooms and locked wards. The kind that makes your stomach twist even before he speaks.

But Wrenley… she’s ice. She leans back, eyes cool, expression unreadable. Doesn’t say a word. It’s her favorite tactic, silence. Let them stew in it. Let them hang themselves. She’s so fucking good at it.

Finally, Sebastian chuckles, low and smug. “Well. I guess by now, if you were smart enough… you’ve figured out who I am.”

Wrenley doesn’t blink. She just lifts her hand, calm and controlled, and pulls the dagger from her thigh. The one that means she’s never alone anymore.

She starts spinning it on the table between them, slow at first, then faster. It catches the overhead lights in silver flashes as it spins. The other man flinches. The woman goes stiff. Sebastian watches it, still smiling, but I see the twitch in his jaw. A flicker in his eye. He doesn’t like not being the one in control.

With precision that makes me proud and my dick twitch, Wrenley slams her hand down and stops the blade. The dagger stands still, it’s tip pointed directly at him. His smile falters. I know this meeting is going to cost us something.

Wrenley’s voice is velvet-wrapped. “Oh, I was smart enough.”

Chapter Twelve

Wrenley

The room is thick with silence, coiled and ready to strike. The kind of silence that crackles, edged with violence and barely veiled contempt.

Sebastian leans forward, eyes gleaming with amusement, and asks, “So, which ones are your husbands?”

I smile slowly. “Take your pick. I love them all.”

The woman beside him scoffs. I don’t spare her a glance. Sebastian says nothing to that statement.

I narrow my eyes at him. “You told my men up front you have something of ours. Enlighten me, what could you possibly have?”

He sighs and reaches slowly into his jacket, making Reaper pull his gun. Every Serpent in the room tenses. But he doesn’t pull a weapon. He pulls out a phone and shows me a live feed. It’s Margot’s mother, sleeping in her bed. The camera angle is professional, almost theatrical.

The sight of her, makes me straighten in my chair. “I should kill all three of you where you sit.” I threaten.

“She’ll wake up soon enough,” he says. “But if I’m not heard from in the next fifteen minutes, she doesn’t wake up at all.”

I let out a long exhale. “Say what you came here to tell me.”

Sebastian steeples his fingers like he’s toying with a chess piece. “You could be so much richer, you know. I offered you something better than this. Empire-level wealth. You’re good, Wrenley. But you’re not untouchable.”

I lean back, the dagger already warm in my palm. My smile doesn’t reach my eyes “And you think blackmail and veiled threats make you powerful? That they’ll make me trust you?”

Reaper’s voice cuts through like steel. “We don’t deal in your kind of filth.”

The other man, twitchy, younger, sneers. “Who the hell are you?”

His answer is low and lethal. “Reaper.”

The name lands like a gunshot. The man swallows visibly, his eyes flicking toward the door. I giggle, low and unbothered, and Sebastian’s attention snaps back to me like a huntsman scenting blood. He drinks in the sound like its wine. That alone makes my skin crawl.

“Do you even understand what I’m offering you?” Sebastian drawls. “You could run half the city, maybe more. Connections. Safety. Loyalty. All I want is a seat at the table. The Ashford’s were on the way to securing it, but Benjamin started squandering that influence chasing righteousness. Don’t make the same mistake.”

I stare at him, cold fury dancing along my spine, “I told you once, you run your world, and I will run mine. We will not be doing business together.”

The woman beside him leans in, lips curling into a smirk. “She’s feisty, perfect for the House of Silk.”

The name is new. But I know what it means. I see it in the way Sebastian’s eyes gleam. Brothel is too soft a word. This is something worse, twisted and controlled. A cage lined with velvet and chains.

Sebastian grins. “We take care of our girls there. They never want to leave.”