Royal turned on him. “Because if those shits cared about their children, they wouldn’t have abandoned them to us. The aunt and uncle took them in. They care enough to keep her off the street. They’ll care enough to keep her alive.”

  I couldn’t see Rio’s face. I imagined it reflected little as he considered his son’s plan.

  It’s my hope that he’s considering.

  “You say your patience is out on being forced to handle business yourself,” Royal went on. “But you’re the one who dragged us down here for no fucking reason. You want me to step up, Dad? Get out of the way. I will deal with my crew and I will get Gran’s money. If I fail, you can shoot me.”

  My eyes bugged. What the hell was he saying?!

  “Is that right?” Rio laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. No one will hurt you. My boy. My only son.” He grasped the back of his neck. “But I will concede I did not give you the chance to correct the matter yourself.” Rio’s gentleman persona was sliding back into place. “Go to the Estate. Make clear the situation. Tell me the time of the drop. We’ll be there.”

  Royal didn’t move. “When it’s done, Clay and Cas will be forgiven.”

  “I will agree to that,” Rio replied.

  “And Hiro goes to the doctor. Now.”

  Rio came fully into view, moving to the side. “Damien.”

  I heard movement. A grunt. Then the door opening and closing.

  “There,” said Rio. “Any other requests?” His father sounded amused.

  “No one touches her while I’m gone.”

  “Who are you speaking to? Young Ember will remain untouched while you handle the matter. I’m stepping out of your way, son.”

  I inched my foot forward, touching my boot to his heel.

  “One last thing, Ember’s done with the Horsemen after they make the drop. I’m taking her back to the academy and then we’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”

  Rio’s eyes sharpened. “You have some attachment to this girl?”

  “None,” he said clearly. “Do you agree?”

  “Yes,” he responded after a beat. “Go on. I expect word by tonight that our money is incoming.”

  “Right.”

  Royal lingered. He pushed back on me ever so slightly, and then he left.

  My eyes shut on the click of the lock.

  I was going to die.

  Royal bought me time and nothing else. My aunt and uncle would not pay. Their first call would be to the police and their second would be to their conscience to let it know they were satisfied in doing what they were required to do.

  I was threatened and Uncle Harrison wasn’t moved to release my money. Eli was beaten and neither one called to ask if he was okay. Short of kidnapping and ransoming Aunt Violet herself, my uncle would not be giving the Horsemen a cent.

  I jerked as fingers brushed my wrist.

  “I’m certain you won’t be any trouble.” Rio’s velvety voice tickled my ear. “Let’s do away with these.”

  Freed, I bolted out of the seat and ran to the triplets. “Clay. Cas. Are you okay?” Rio’s man didn’t react as I pushed him out of the way. Straddling Clay, I gently cupped his battered face and kissed the only part of him not swelling. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

  “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

  Clay placed his hand over mine, pouring waves of comfort into me though he was the one hurt. He warned me no one could know they were covering my debt. I never imagined this would be the retribution.

  His healing split lip cracked, dripping blood as he offered me a grin. My heart ached for so many reasons on top of that smile. Since the day the Angels came into my life—the day Clay Walker stole a kiss—electricity singed my blood like I’d stuck my fingers in a socket. Wild. Dangerous. Reckless. But sleeping with Cassius, being near Clay, and battling Royal awoke a soul that died thirteen years ago.

  Unheeding of those watching, I pressed a feather-light kiss to his weeping lips. A touch so gentle and it rattled my being. Clay claimed the last of my strength, drawing it through our kiss, relinquishing me to trembles and a begging need to cry.

  “What was that for?” he asked softly.

  I would die today. My last request from this world was a kiss from Clay. It was the least heaven owed me.

  “Do I need a reason?”

  Moving over to Cassius, I cradled him against my chest. “Are you okay?”

  He burrowed into my bosom. “Better now.”

  The urge to laugh, cry, and smack him battled for dominance. I settled for holding him closer. “You look even worse than Clay. I don’t have to ask if you mouthed off.”

  His chuckle rumbled my chest.

  “You,” I said to one of the brutes. “Get me a first aid kit. There has to be one around here.”

  The man didn’t move, of course, cutting eyes to Rio.

  “Give it to her, Jay,” said Rio. The gang leader swept off his coat and draped it over the desk. “We’ll be here a while. Might as well get comfortable.”

  Jay rescued the kit from the desk drawer and handed it to me without a word. Rio’s men stood silent and intimidating, watching over us with guns aloft as I treated the results of their handiwork.

  “Where else?” I asked, pressing the gauze to the cut above Cassius’s eye.

  “I’m fine, Em.”

  “No, you’re not.” I probed his torso. “You’re favoring your left side.”

  “Jay deals a solid punch to the ribs,” he admitted. “But I can take a beating.”

  “Are you sure it’s not broken? Hiro—”

  “Hiro said some choice shit to Rio when he tied you to the chair. He got worse for it.”

  I quieted. Hiro warned me of the consequences of disrespecting Rio and the sharp-tongued, fiery-eyed Angel broke them for me? And for me he was beaten, offered up to die, and shot.

  Please let him be okay.

  Reaching for Clay, I was stopped by a hand on my forearm. He took the gauze from me and dabbed my temple. He cared for my wound and then pulled away when I tried to do the same, jaw stiff and eyes blank as he firmly closed the lid.

  Clay had been the one to take care of everyone since he was seven. Protector. Fighter. Weathering the cost without protest.

  I settled between the boys and laced my fingers through theirs.

  “Interesting.” Rio zeroed in on the hands clasped on my lap. “I suspected Cassius and Clay’s lapse in judgment had to do with this.”

  “It was about nothing more than Camila,” I snapped. “You’d think someone who loves his mommy as much as you would appreciate where they were coming from. They paid you with money they earned, and you threatened a grieving, harmless teenage girl. We can spread the poor judgment around.”

  Jay bore down on me and the triplets surged forward, snarls leaking through their teeth.

  Rio stopped it with a wave of his hand. “Calm down. I agree unfortunate circumstances brought us here, young Bancroft. My son intends to put it right, I’ll allow him to do so while we wait in silence.”

  Rio leaned back, crossing his feet at the ankles, and closed his eyes. He was the serene father of Adonis—relaxed in the face of the acts he committed that day and those still to come.

  I decided not to test Rio’s demand for silence. The triplets and I were glowering ornaments on the couch—radiating resentment for the leader of the Horsemen and the hulking masses of brutality ready to do his bidding.

  The office was windowless and a scan revealed there wasn’t a clock. All the same, I felt the hours passing in the stiffness of my joints and the ache in my stomach.

  My phone sat unused in my pocket. The knowledge that they didn’t bother to take it from me burned. From the outset Rio didn’t fear I’d use it to call for help. He knew he’d kill me before I touched the screen.

  The need to text Eli pulsed a rising yearning in my heart. I’d be dumped in the trash somewhere. Far from Horsemen territory, but with the mark of savagery that revealed my killers. Rio’s gang sought to own the entire OB and they killed the other gang members that dared to oppose them. Somehow, I had ended up on that side. The lone girl to deny Rio what he deluded himself into thinking was his. And he’d repay by throwing me out like trash.

  “Jay.” Rio spoke without opening his eyes. I thought he was sleeping. “Go out and get dinner. What would you like, Ember?”

  I licked dry, cracked lips. “Serving up my last meal?”

  “Why would it be your last?” The statuesque mold of power and man neither stirred nor raised his voice. “Is it my son you lack faith in or your family?”

  My throat closed. I hated to say it was my family. That once more they’d push me onto the ledge and Royal would be my sole hope of coming down. I hated to say it because this time he would fail.

  “How are you Royal’s father?” I asked instead.

  “I’m certain you’re well-versed in human reproduction.”

  His men snort-laughed. Rio was quicker, smooth, and unburdened by conscience or the range of human emotions. I was not about to trip him up.

  “Did you make him what he is? A knife-wielding car thief chained to a ruthless gang when he could be anyone and go anywhere.” I should probably shut my mouth, but with my death incoming, what was there left to be afraid of. “I’d be an idiot to dismiss you as a mindless thug. You’re a smart man and you must see he deserves more than this life.”

  Rio finally moved a muscle and it was the one that served his smirk. “I thank you for the compliment, but it reveals you are woman in body and child in mind. We deserve nothing. We are owed nothing. My son will build his life on what he’s fought for. Bled for. And ripped away from those too weak to hang on. I would have it no other way.”

  “Do you love him?”

  Slowly, his eyes opened. “What a question.”

  “My parents didn’t love me. That’s obvious to the world by now but I’ve known long before they abandoned me. I was broken by my sister’s death and reformed in their hatred. I can’t deny their actions shaped my life as inevitably as my own. You’re wrong that children don’t deserve anything. Royal is building his life on the cards you’re dealing him. You, Rio, are laying his path, and to choose another, he’ll have to fight you. Make you bleed. And one day, you’ll be the one too weak to hang on.

  “Aurora deserved more than me. Eli and I deserved more than my parents. And Royal deserves more than you.”

  Rio was expressionless through my speech. “I owe you an apology, Ember. You are far from a child. You’re burdened by inexperience, immaturity, and naiveté, but not, it’s clear, by lack of intelligence. The longer I’m in your presence you prove yourself worthy of the title—the first Horsewoman.”

  My stomach growled on rising bile. Three guns and two men between us and still I considered making him choke on that title.

  “Tell Jay what you’d like, dear girl. You must be hungry.”

  He almost sounded like he cared.

  Well, if he’s content to play this game, so am I.

  “I want the portobello mushroom carpaccio from Rosario’s. Hold the arugula and get the dressing on the side. Also, the frozen hazelnut souffle from Chez Lacroix and to drink, Jamaican cream soda.” I smiled. “I’ll let you figure out where to get that.”

  Jay frowned, glancing at his boss.

  “Excellent taste,” said Rio. “I’ll have the same.”

  Jay wasn’t prepared to argue with him. He left and it was just the two of them against us three.

  But is it? Clay and Cas have their reasons for being in the gang and their beating doesn’t change them.

  That they cared about me couldn’t be denied, but there was a more than strong chance I stood opposite Rio alone.

  Rio closed his eyes, signaling the end of our chat. He asked me if I had faith in his son, but I wondered if he did. Was he securely awaiting the call saying everything was handled, or preparing himself to put a bullet in my skull once and for all?

  No clock to back me up, but the ravenous gnawing in my stomach told me hours had passed since Jay went off for food. My fault for sending him all over town. Rio let me leave the room once, escorted by his final man, to go to the bathroom. I returned and resumed the quiet vigil, waiting for the phone to ring.

  Jay eventually stormed in, irritation etched in his face, tossing takeout bags on my lap and greasy wrapped burgers at the triplets. He wiped the annoyance away as he set out his boss’s food on the desk.

  “Do you want some of mine?” I asked Cassius and Clay.

  It was insult to injury to hand them limp meat and soggy buns after what they put them through. Jay couldn’t be bothered to get them a drink. They didn’t deserve to be punished in the first place, so why should it continue?

  “I’m good, baby,” said Cas. “Chino makes the best burgers in the OB.” He nodded at Jay. “Thanks, man.”

  The guy grunted in reply.

  He was thanking him? A plain function of the gang’s dynamic and one I couldn’t understand. Cassius said he could take a beating but who would be doling them out besides the gang. He may even give them back just as hard. Was everyone in this room really going to go on about their lives after today like nothing happened?

  Except for me.

  My favorite meal was sawdust on my tongue. The mushrooms were chewy gum paste. The crunchy, chocolatey hazelnuts gagged me. I barely tasted the mingling of flavors. If anything, this meal was making me sick.

  I sucked it down anyway. Eating took my mind off the internal clock ticking away the seconds of my life.

  Eli is going to be stuck with my aunt and uncle for four years— No, he’ll be stuck in the academy for four years with them taking full advantage of the year-round option. Then he’ll be on his own until his trust fund comes through.

  I should have found a way to prevent this. At some point since I became entangled with the Horsemen, there was a right turn to take me away from all of this and I didn’t take it. I could blame Rio, Royal, the Angels, or my parents all I wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that Eli depended on me and I wouldn’t be there for him. I’d carry the shame of that until I died, which wouldn’t be long now.

  Setting my empty containers on the floor, I leaned onto the thin cushion and adopted the same position as Rio. I was out of distractions. Let the demons pour in.

  “Ah, here we go. Good news for me, son?”

  My eyes snapped open. Rio spoke into his phone, sipping nonchalantly on my favorite drink.

  “Hmm. I see. Why would I do that?”

  I slid off the seat, body drawn to the phone and the boy on the other end, relaying my fate.

  “I will be there,” he said. “Let’s not start that up again. You’ve proven yourself capable.” Rio latched on to me and held me frozen. “I’m told I’m responsible for the man you’ve become and, if that’s the case, I’m proud. I can think of no one else who could have pulled off what you did today.”

  Proud? Capable? No one else could have pulled it off? Did that mean—

  “Up, my dear.” Rio got up and hooked our arms like when I first entered the auto shop. “Time to go.”

  I threw a look at the triplets, half out of their seats and wearing heavy looks that must have matched mine. “I don’t understand.”

  “Your uncle saw it was in his best interest to agree to our simple transaction. He’s got the money and will drop it at Oleander Park just as it closes,” he explained as he led me out of the office and across the concrete floor. “Royal is there now to ensure he doesn’t make an unwise decision to call the cops and try to move them into the park before the drop.”

  My head was spinning. Harrison Bancroft, my uncle, had agreed to pay the ransom and Rio was taking me to the Estate instead of the alley that would be my resting place?

  Digging my heels, I pulled him up short just outside of the garage. The sun abandoned the town of Raven River hours ago, leaving us to fend off the creatures that went bump in the night. “This is a fucking trick to make me get in the car quietly,” I bit out. Yanking on his hold, I screeched, “Get off me!”

  “Easy.” The flickering bulb showed and hid, showed and hid the gun held on me in the gloom. “If that was my aim, I could have easily shot you in the garage and had your body carried out. This is not a trick. Feel free to call my son and confirm.” The barrel stuck in my ribs. “Only my son.”

  I got my phone and dialed Royal. He answered before the second ring.

  “What’s going on?” I asked before he could speak. “Are my aunt and uncle truly paying the ransom?”

  “One hundred grand. Oleander Park. Nine thirty tonight,” he said. “You’re good, Cherry, so don’t make it worse. Rio’s bringing you to the park, the money will be put in the trash, and I’ll get it. Once it’s in his hand, he’ll let you out of the car and it’s all over.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. And whatever you’re thinking of doing—don’t.” I’d never heard him so serious. “You can handle me, Cherry, but you can’t handle Rio.”

  “Your father,” I hissed. “How could you not tell me?”

  “I said there were a lot of things you didn’t know about me.”

  The bastard hung up.

  “A knife-wielding car thief wasn’t enough,” I flung at Rio. “You also had to raise him to be fucking infuriating.”

  Rio laughed, gripping my hand again like we were a couple taking a stroll. “I must admit you’re not what I expected, Ember Bancroft. It would have pained me to kill you. Thankfully, we can set that unpleasant business aside.”

  Reasonable intelligence and the lack of a death wish kept me from socking him in the jaw. His refined gentleman act set my teeth on edge for the costume it was. Rio was desperate to portray himself as no different from a Ravener, but thousand-dollar watches and expensive coats couldn’t mask the deadly, albeit clever, beast inside.

  We didn’t speak on the drive to the gates. Rio’s car was simple, black, and understated on the outside. A car whose description wouldn’t stand out to the police. On the inside, it boasted the sleek finishes of the best tech, touch screens, and plush seats that cradled me in false security.

  Rio rolled to a stop next to the guard station. His gun was stashed in the pocket on the door and his affable smile slid in place in time with the falling window. “Gregory, good to see you. How are the kids?”

 

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