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“No,” Ryland says finally, his voice heavy in the quiet that’s descended on the kitchen. “He loved his wife. He fuckin’ worshipped her. I don’t think he’d stand for it.”
“Doesn’t mean one of us couldn’t kill her,” Theo says, a bloodthirsty note to his voice.
I nod. “Yeah. Maybe. But it’s risky. I’m sure Luca knows you guys are close. He probably won’t buy that one of you went behind Marcus’s back to kill his wife. He’ll know Marcus was behind it. Victoria changed the game entirely when she brought marriage into it.”
Marcus visibly winces at the word, and it falls from my tongue like a drop of poison. I grip the edge of the island with my hand, fingers digging into the smooth marble.
“What are you saying, angel? What are you getting at?” he asks, his voice low and hard.
My stomach twists. I’m trying to think through this rationally, but I can’t bring myself to speak the words we’re all thinking out loud.
Marcus might not have a choice.
Not if he wants to live.
“I’m saying…” I swallow. “I want to talk to her. Just me and her.”
“What?”
“Fuck, no!”
“Are you insane?”
The chorus of words comes so quickly that I can’t sort out who says what, but it’s easy enough to figure out how they all feel about my idea. They fucking hate it.
Their barrage of “no” continues for another second until I raise my hand, palm out.
“One of you can come with me,” I say quickly. “You’ll have to. I have no idea where she lives, and I doubt she’ll see me unless one of you gets me in. But I need to talk to her. Woman to woman.”
“She’s not a woman, Rose. She’s a pit viper.” Theo’s voice holds no trace of humor as he stands up, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Well, whatever she is, she’s not like any of the other competitors in the game,” I insist. “She’s got tits and a vagina, and so do I. She’s obviously playing this game differently than anyone else, and we need to know what she wants. Maybe there’s a bargain that can be struck, something we can do to get her to drop this engagement. Because if she forces your hand…” My gaze slides to Marcus, and I let him see the raw pain on my face, for once not even trying to hide my emotions around him. Not like I used to. “I’m not letting you die over this.”
He stares at me for a long moment, his expression hard to read. I can practically hear Ryland’s teeth grinding together, and I know he’s probably regretting the day he let me get involved in this shit at all.
But I meant what I said. Victoria is playing a different angle than any of the men in the game are. She brought her own fucking deck of cards, and I’ve got a better chance of being able to play against her than they do.
Because I get it. As much as I despise her, I fucking get it.
She was thrust into a violent competition with astronomical stakes against a bunch of burly alpha men, and while she’s obviously no weakling, she must’ve realized that her odds of winning are greater off the battlefield than on it.
Her best odds of winning are by manipulating the game itself into her favor.
Marcus is quiet for so long that it makes my skin prickle uncomfortably. I remember my blowup with Ryland over whether or not I should be involved in all of this. I’ll go toe-to-toe with Marcus about it if I have to, but I really don’t fucking want to.
He’s supposed to be healing. And I have a feeling if the two of us fight about this, it’s gonna be long and messy and painful as fuck. I feel like an exposed nerve right now, all my emotions too close to the surface, and I can see the same look in his eyes.
Finally, he clenches his hand into a fist. “Okay. You want to talk to her? Fine. But I’m coming with you, angel, and if she so much as lays a goddamn finger on you, I’ll end her right then and there.”
I nod, my stomach relaxing a little.
He hates it, but he’ll let me try. It’s the best I’m gonna get.
* * *
Theo and Ryland stay home while Marcus borrows Theo’s car to take me to Victoria’s place.
They both wanted to come, but I knew the odds of violence erupting would increase exponentially with all three of them there with me. They’re all fucking pissed at Victoria, and they’ve all been under a fuckton of strain over the past few weeks. They’re on a hair-trigger, and it’s not worth taking that risk.
