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The knife drops from my hand and I rear back, slapping her so fucking hard that my hand stings, the pain throbbing in my palm. She cries out but I don’t wait around to hear her sobs. “You’re right, I do know you better than anyone else here. Which is why I know better than to trust a damn word that comes spewing out of your mouth.” My gaze shifts to Cruz’s. “Take her to the cells. She can rot down there for all I care.”
Ember drops to her knees, her arms sliding out of Cruz’s grip and momentarily taking him by surprise. Hell, I’m pretty damn shocked too. I’ve never been able to slip out of his hold—any of the guys for that matter. So, either Cruz is getting rusty on his hostage skills or Ember is even more slimy than we thought.
“Please, no, Winter,” she begs, crawling along the dirty floor to my feet. “I can’t go there. I’m not cut out for a cell. Please, don’t do this to me. I swear, I’ll do better. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. You can’t … you can’t do this to me. I have rights.”
She grabs my leg, clawing onto me as though that’s supposed to change my mind, but in all honesty, seeing a bitch on her knees begging just makes me feel all kinds of gross. “You’re so fake,” I mutter, kicking her off me as Cruz steps in behind her and hauls her to her feet. “Get her out of here. She’s just embarrassing herself now.”
Cruz nods and starts dragging her out of the room as she screams and fights against his hold, showing the other men around the table just how much she doesn’t belong here. Though, it wasn’t that long ago that I was causing scenes in this very room. Maybe it’s my ego talking, but I’m the leader and that means that I’m entitled to have as many tantrums as I want. I can only imagine the shit that was going through the other council members’ minds. Though, that’s all in the past. I’m stepping up and making my father proud of not only the woman I’ve grown to be, but as the new leader of Dynasty. I’m going to pull my shit together and soar.
The second the door closes behind Cruz and Ember, I let out a sigh and drop back into my seat, glancing around the table and noting that every one of the men who sit before me look just as exhausted as I feel. “Look,” I start, taking a risk, knowing that what I’m about to suggest could come back and bite me on the ass. I meet each of their curious stares. “I know you’re all about your traditions and policies, but what’s it going to take to get this bitch out of here? I can’t sit across this table from her and have her living just down the road for the rest of my life. I mean, can we just vote out the whole Harding line? Is that even a thing?”
Loud sighs of relief come from all around the table. “Thank fuck for that,” Matthew Montgomery says, his tone way out of line for such a formal table, but it shows just a sliver of his true personality, one that I appreciate and would probably get along with if it weren’t for the fact that he’s also a dick. He glances around the table. “I don’t know about you guys, but Elodie is enough drama for me. I don’t want to deal with Harding’s offspring for the next twenty years. I don’t trust her one bit.”
“I agree,” Harlen Beckett says to my left. “The girl is only going to bring us trouble.”
Earnest shakes his head beside me. “I’m sorry, but we can’t. As much as I cannot stand the vile creature, our by-laws specifically state that no founding family line can be removed from leadership unless done voluntarily.”
My lips pull up into an irritated sneer. “So, change the by-laws,” I state. “They were written a million years ago when every family stood as one. My grandfather could not have foreseen what would go down fifty years after writing the laws. Had he known of the corruption and disaster that would have come from his life’s work, he would never have written that. We owe it to him to rebuild Dynasty in his true vision and to turn this sinking ship around. It used to be something great. We truly were a Dynasty, but now we’re just scrambling to keep our heads above water. So, what’s stopping us? Is there some bullshit rule that states the by-laws cannot be ruled against or are we going to allow Ember Harding to sit across from us every fucking day, giving her and her psychotic mother access to our world, to our kids?”
