Page 84 of Pride: Kneel Before None

As fate would have it, I wasn’t left to dwell on it much longer. My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Retrieving it, I saw an incoming text appear on the screen from one of my security contacts I’d tasked with making sure that Rip never set foot inside Sevenfold again.

FELIX

Boss, have you heard?

ACE

Be more specific.

FELIX

Brace yourself.

The phone remained clutched in my hand as I waited, my eyes never leaving the screen. Anticipation hung in the air.

When the next text arrived, it changed everything. Two words, and the game would never be the same.

Rip’s dead.

CHAPTER 26

The last twenty-four hours had crawled by painfully. Ignatius had done his duty and escorted me back to the penthouse like I was a scolded child.

If Ace felt any sort of regret, he hadn’t shown it. He spent the day doing god-knew-what somewhere within the depths of the casino.

As for me, I had spent the day in the luxury of my bedroom. Locked the door—a silly notion, because I knew damn well that Ace likely had a key. Not that I pictured him using it. No, he’d be more likely to kick the damn door down.

His words played on a loop inside my head.

“You’re the fucking crown.”

Of course I was. I was the crown, the scepter, and the damn throne.

What did that make Ace? A knight-turned-king of his own self-made empire?

The question floated in my head while I soaked in the bath. Fragrant salts and oils filled the air, bubbles floated on the surface, and the steamy water surrounded my body.

I closed my eyes, resting my head back against the edge of the tub. It wasn’t easy being me. My life had gone to hell in a handbasket the second I walked into Sevenfold. I had gone from being a short-range precognitive demon to an echo succubus with increased range of my mind’s eye.

Oh, and claimed by a Knight of Hell with a pathological possessive streak.

Temptation crept in to take a peek into the future to see if Ace would ever apologize. I snorted quietly and knew I’d never hear those words from him.

Stubborn, arrogant, infuriating, son of a⁠—

A knock sounded on the bedroom door, firm enough to be audible even from inside the ensuite bathroom.

“Eve. Open up.” Ace’s voice was blunt, the deep timber easily passing through the door and reaching my ears.

Ace couldn’t even be bothered to make it sound like a request.

“Busy! Come back next century!” I called out, sinking another couple of inches into the bathwater. A few strands of my hair fell free from the messy bun piled on top of my head, getting wet and sticking to my neck.

Enough time passed in silence that I thought maybe he had walked away.

That was until I heard the click of the lock turning.