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The people roar their encouragement and I continue on, my voice getting louder by the second. “We will end her and we will take back what is ours. We will not fall under her hold. Dynasty will not perish. We will forever thrive.”
“KILL THE BITCH,” comes from a booming voice in the crowd, making a wicked grin stretch across my face.
“That’s exactly what I intend to do,” I tell them, looking across the front row of bodies to find Cruz’s mom wiping her tears and standing proud. “As for now, we celebrate another victory because tomorrow, when she realizes that my body is not rotting ten feet below ground, the real war begins.”
CHAPTER 14
“We should never have been kept in the dark,” Harlen Beckett demands, his hand slamming down on the table in the council chambers.
I take a deep breath, remembering my resolve not to be so reckless and to think things through before going off on these assholes. “If there was a need to tell you all, I would have. However, it was a split-second decision. We had less than a minute to act and we did what we had to do,” I say, not ready to admit that I was left in the dark as well, but the truth of that will die with me. Besides, I’m not about to throw the boys to the wolves when I haven’t even finished clawing at them myself. “Sure, it was messy and we took risks, and before you argue that they are your children and that you had the right to know, I completely agree, but we made the call to keep it quiet. Paris needed to believe I was dead and to do that, we had to have all of Dynasty believing the lie, mourning and making funeral preparations until the last minute.”
Harlen slowly nods, the anger still clear on his face, but he turns his attention toward Ember who stands in the corner of the room with Cruz at her back, her hands bound. “This conversation is not over, but speaking of not letting Paris in on the secret. What do you suppose we should do with her offspring?”
My gaze swivels around the room until it lands on Ember’s pissed-off stare. “If it were up to me, I’d have slaughtered her just like her father, but apparently we have to allow her to plead her case and take a vote.”
Earnest Brooks nods beside me and I hold back a gag, unable to stop picturing him in adult diapers with a prostitute breastfeeding him. “That is true, Miss Ravenwood. If the girl has been accused of wrongdoings and holds a seat on the council, she must be rewarded the opportunity to plead her innocence.”
Ember fights against Cruz’s hold. “Wrongdoings? I haven’t done anything wrong except being related to her. You can’t do this. Stop being such a fucking bitch. What are you even accusing me of doing?”
“Aiding and abetting a known fugitive,” Carver throws back at her, leaning back in his seat like he was watching a movie play out before him. “Intent to cause bodily harm. Corruption. Or how about just being a shitty person?”
“Intent to cause who bodily harm?” she spits. “I haven’t hurt anyone.”
I scoff. “Well, I have a war coming down on me, so I don’t exactly have much time to sit around trying to figure out what you did and didn’t do. I think we should just throw you in a cell until we can squeeze a trial into our busy schedules, though you should be warned, our schedules are really packed at the moment. It might be a while before you can get in to settle this.”
“THAT’S FUCKING BULLSHIT,” she roars, thrashing against Cruz.
I fly out of my seat, unable to hold back my reckless nature. I storm across the chamber, practically running at her. My hand curls around her hair and I tear her head back before pressing my knife to her throat. “YOU KNOW WHAT’S FUCKING BULLSHIT?” I spit, my throat hurting from the deep growl of my tone. “THAT I CAN BET EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE THAT YOU KNEW PARIS WAS KIDNAPPING THOSE KIDS. YOU FUCKING KNEW WHERE THEY WERE AND YOU DIDN’T SAY SHIT.”
“I DIDN’T.”
I scoff. “I don’t fucking believe you.”
“I … I …”
“You were at that party, right where all those kids were. How the fuck did they get kidnapped, huh? The only thing that makes sense is that you had something to do with it.”
Mr. Danforth stands, his jaw clenched as fury burns in his eyes. “IS THIS TRUE? DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS? SPEAK NOW, GIRL.”
“I … fuck. Okay. I unlocked the door. I let them in, but I swear, I didn’t know they were going to kidnap those children,” she says, her eyes wide with fear. “If I’d known, I never would have done it. I didn’t know. You have to believe me. Please, Winter, come on. You know me better than anyone else here.”
