AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hence the meeting today.
“No,” she begins, “We plan to…”
“You know they aren’t coming in because of her, right?” John adds and all eyes swivel towards him.
Luis frowns, “How could they possibly know?”
“And why would us having a woman in here change anything?” Theo adds.
“How could it not?” John comments, and I fix my glare on him, my hand automatically hovering over the knife at my belt. He stands and walks around the table. “They’ll see us as weak if they see a woman leading us and we all know what happened to the last woman in here.”
Fury ignites within me as I realize it’smymother, and Ethan’s, he is speaking about. Without thinking about it I step forward, but an arm stops me. I glare up at Brutus and he shakes his head. I scowl, my nostrils flaring. All eyes are on us and I see a warning in Ana’s eyes. Despite how much I would like to gut him right now, I take a deep breath. With gritted teeth, I step out of the room.
Three
Ana
As I watch Ax leave, I do my best to keep the pity from my face. That was a low blow, bringing up his mom, and I’m sure John did it for no other reason than to piss him off. Ever since the beginning, its been constant jibes at both Ax and I, trying to make us both snap.
My eyes flash and turn to John and I’m pleased to see his widen.
I have had it with this shit.
“Sit the fuck down,” I hiss at him. He narrows his eyes but does what I command. I look over each man at the table, taking a moment to glare at every set of eyes I pass over.
“Are we going to have a problem?” I ask, finally landing back on John. I see his jaw clench, but he doesn’t reply and after a moment, his eyes drop. I have to keep the satisfied grin off my face. Instead, I deliver my best resting bitch face.
“We’re all antsy about the shipments.” I continue, “And as I was saying, we have, are, and will handle it. Is anyone short on necessities in the meantime? Food?”
Everyone around the table shakes their head except for John, who is still sitting there glaring at me.
Whatever.
“You need basics, you come to me. Otherwise, I’ll get the supplies sorted. Now. Do we have any grievances or anything else?” I say, sitting back down.
For the next half hour, I listen to the updates on things happening within the prison. The men here represent a large portion of the population, managing their own sections and overseen only by me. Respect is earned in a place like this and I am fortunate these men, who are well respected, are giving me a chance. I am a bit concerned Ethan isn’t here today but being Ax’s oldest friend, I am more worriedabouthim than about him not being here.
We’re finally wrapping up when the man I know least about decides to chime in for the first time.
“Pit fight tomorrow,” Desmond comments off-hand. He’s currently picking at his nail with a knife in the most cliché fashion, looking bored as hell. I try to keep the surprise off of my face. I know when Ax ran things, all formal battles in The Pit were approved by him. We’ve only had one since my own victory and I helped arrange it.
“Since when?” I ask, keeping the hard tone in my voice.
Desmond shrugs, not even looking at me. I note the uneasy looks from the others in the room. Walking up to his seat, I lean over and slowly pluck the knife from his hands. His dark hair falls into his eyes as they finally rise to meet mine, the uninterested look still obvious. His pockmarked skin and overall seedy aura put me on edge, but I keep my expression clear of any signs of discomfort.
I pause appropriately before whipping my hand forward, slamming the knife into the old wooden table while never taking my eyes off of his. I feel a few of the men jump, but I keep my attention on Desmond. He smirks and I feel my face heat up, embarrassed I can’t get a reaction out of him.
“Since when?” I ask again, this time a quiet warning. Desmond finally drops the smirk.
“This morning,” he replies, and it’s obvious he’s trying to rile me up by giving me as little info as possible. Before I can open my mouth to say anything else, I hear heavy footsteps behind me. I don’t need to turn around to know Brutus is standing there. He may be a bit slow, but even he picked up on the disrespect Desmond is giving off in spades.
“Tell her what she needs to know,” Brutus says in his deep voice. Desmond blinks for a moment before bursting into laughter. I stand there stunned.
“Fuck, princess,” he says through his laughs, “the fact you need a retarded bodyguard to do your intimidating for you doesn’t bode well.”
I consider my options for only a second before pulling the knife from the table and stabbing it into his thigh. The laughter stops immediately, covered by a loud hiss as he reaches forward to hold the blade still sticking out of his leg. Before he can move to pull it up, I wrap my hand around the hilt and twist lightly, leaning in to bring my face closer to his. The sweat covering his face and his gritted teeth give me immense pleasure.
“I don’t need anyone to look after me,” I say softly, twisting again and enjoying his suppressed sounds of pain. “And I’m no princess. As a matter of fact, that’s Queen to you.”
