With another huff, then a chuckle, she stands and anchors her arms under her breasts as if she wants to emphasize them. “What’s in this for me? Your five come after me if I kill you, and then you come after me if I don’t. Where does the negotiation come in?”
“Let Valentina live. Let her take over the Doubeck and the Novak holdings, and before you kill me, I’ll ensure the five don’t come anywhere near the council for it,” I say.
It’s a bold move to threaten them and then try to mitigate my own threat. It’s only by the reputation of my men that she’s considering it. Many in society fear them, as much as they want to steal them away for themselves.
I can see the gears turning in her little mind. It’s worth it to her…she’s going to ask for proof that I can keep them tethered even after my death. I don’t bother sharing. I won't need to. The second I die, their duties will fall to protecting Valentina and my heir. Not a single one would fail to heed that dictate or else Kai would ensure they learned their lesson the hard way.
As if he knows I’m thinking about him, Kai rolls over, his face swollen and bloody, and struggles to his knees. The guards immediately move in and secure his hands to another loop in the floor.
Excellent job decorating these assholes have done.
I turn my attention back to the councilwoman, who doesn’t seem the least bit concerned by Kai’s rousing. It’s time to press her into a decision, and hopefully one that doesn’t have me playing horse to her rider. The very thought makes me want to gag. Death might be preferable.
“What do you say, Councilwoman? Do we have a deal? I’ll want it in writing as well, as long as I’m being clear about things.”
Her eyes narrow, and she stares back and forth between us. One by one, she looks, and she sneers, “I’m tired of these games. You’re only stalling for time and making things worse for yourselves. From where I stand, I’ll just kill you all and be done with the entire Doubeck and Novak lines. It will save me a lot of trouble and a lot of money once I bid on your holdings after your deaths.”
I file that little nugget away to the back of my mind and scramble for something else to offer her. Something that will give me enough leverage to save Valentina and our child. Kai and Andrea brought themselves into this room, knowing my main priority would be my wife. Their fate is on them now. Luckily, I won’t be alive to mourn my failures.
“Councilwo—” I begin.
She snaps her hand closed like a sock puppet. “I’m tired of listening to you speak. We are done negotiating.”
A deep, ragged voice comes from behind me. “Then maybe you’ll negotiate with me,” Kai says.
I hang my head, cursing him. Why won’t he stop when he knows he’s lost? It’s always been a flaw of his. No matter how hard he’s hit the mat, he never stops fighting unless he’s unconscious. I don’t appreciate it right now, especially if it gets Valentina killed.
“Will you shut the hell up and sit there? That’s an order.”
Kai ignores me this time and directs his attention to the councilwoman. “You can put these individuals on trial if you want, but anything they confess is a moot point. I’m the only one in this room who knows where to find the bodies.”
A liquid cold chill races through me, and I glance back at him again. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Valentina struggles from her chair, her eyes filling with tears, locked on Kai. There’s something they aren’t telling me, something they planned, like this coup, that is about to get Kai utterly condemned.
“You forget, I can just kill you along with all your little friends.”
Kai clears his throat heavily, coughing up blood. It dribbles over his lips and down his chin. “Well, considering I’ve been streaming this entire meeting to the society internet forums since I got here, I suggest you take my confession as a win and let Mr. and Mrs. Doubeck go free.”
Her mouth pops open like a fish, and she stares at Kai for too long. When she gets her voice back, she stutters, “You l-lie. There’s no way to get a signal into this building. You were searched for weapons; the guards would have found a camera.”
Kai shifts forward and tilts his head down to one of the buttons on his shirt. “Not if they weren’t looking at it the right way. I also happen to be good at getting signals in and out of places where they shouldn’t. Test me, Councilwoman, or take my confession, lock me up, and give the Doubecks the courtesy they deserve as the reigning heads of two of society’s great families. Or else…when it comes time to vote for council member seats again, you might have a little trouble getting nominated, no matter how many you take out of the running with your bullets.”
Again, she flops her mouth open. The rest of the council is sitting up a little straighter, each casting their eyes around as if their invisible audience is in the room with us. Fucking Kai and his goddamn toys. I should have known he would plan something like this.
The sad part is, I can’t even hate him right now. As much as I want to, this plan gets Valentina out of here. That’s all I want. If I can get her to safety and keep her there, then I can come back for him later. With the five at my back, we are invincible. No one in society will stand up to us at our full strength.
“Kai,” I whisper. “Are you sure about this?”
The guards are already releasing my zip ties and hauling Valentina out of her chair. Kai is stripped from the waist up and then resecured to the loop in the floor they used for me.
I jerk my arm from the guard’s grip and stare down at my second in command, the man who always has my back. “Are you sure about this, Kai? If I can’t get you back out of here before…”
“They won’t execute me until they finish the trail. Thanks to my camera, every single one of these dicks will be on their best behavior from now on. You’ll have a little time.”
I nod and kneel, despite my bruises, and cup his face in my hands. He presses his bloody forehead to mine and nods. “If I don’t make it out of here, though, you have to promise me one thing, Boss.”
I nod, my throat too thick to speak now. “Anything.”
“She’s in the green safe house. She’ll need to be moved since I don’t know how much interrogation I’m in for. I can’t risk her. I promised I’d keep her safe, and I have, but you need to go get her so she isn’t taken by these assholes.”
It takes everything in me not to glance to see if Valentina had been listening to what he said. Instead, I nod once and pat his swelling face gently. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry. I’ll take Rose home, where she belongs.”
EPILOGUE
BOUND TO DARKNESS
Kai
It’s quiet in the dark. Fuck, I haven’t had this much silence in my life for years. It almost makes my ears ring. Every heartbeat seems to pulse in that noise until I take a long deep breath and let it out slowly. This isn’t the first time I’ve been cornered, and it won’t be the last.
My cell is concrete. The solid, thick kind that there’s no getting out of unless released. So I wait. Adrian and Valentina won’t let me rot in here. For all the things I’ve done, I trust them both with my life.