Page 131 of Queen of Diamonds

Evidence of what it meant…

Revenge.

I couldn’t help myself, drawing them out and laying them on the counter as if they could offer me confidence in the decision that was quickly turning sour. As I picked up the first, I flashed back to the moment I’d claimed it.

The Alpha was limp, head lolling weakly in the chair he was bound to. His death would be silent. He wouldn’t feel fear, even though he should.

That fear would give me away—would alert Ace to what I was doing before I could carry out my plans in full.

I’d been quick to find him, and found no thrill in execution now that he was out cold. I fixed the obscene, gilded crown to his head, knowing the drugs in his system would keep him knocked out until morning. By then, he would be dead.

I stepped back, examining my work, taking a picture with my burner phone. It was a risk in itself, but I needed to remember the image Ace would also see.

I had two hours.

Two hours before the toxins on the metal crown would have burned through his skin and my brother would know what I’d done.

In the kitchen, I reached for the second finger.

Kill number two.

More depraved, a fall far further into a past I’d spent so long running from. But if reclaiming it meant protecting her, I would do it without hesitation.

This Alpha was tied up, and awake, low whines sounding from his chest.

He struggled weakly against bindings that tied him to the chair, the gag at his mouth stopping him from speaking. I was seated on the bed beside him, propped against the headboard, arm resting on my knee as I waited.

His terror seeped into the room, the scent of mist and oak souring with every passing second.

His death was inevitable; it was just a matter of time.

I tapped on my phone.

Ten minutes.

“There’s no way Ace chose a pack with Alphas he couldn’t trust to be as twisted as he was.”

I’d found evidence of that.

“You use your own product for a quick fuck when you’re bored,” I said. “Doesn’t seem to matter to you that you have a scent match with my brother back in Vegas.”

There was no lack of money to be found in trafficking. The places Ace had extended an arm, branching the Brotherhood, were into territory that even my father hadn’t dared venture.

And this Alpha. He was the key piece of that puzzle.

Cities away from Vegas, he ran trafficking operations that were now making the Brotherhood millions more. Ace had packed up for political gain.

The other, the one with a crown on his head that was slowly killing him, was the kingpin in a drug trafficking ring with reach halfway to Brazil.

Money and control.

“Though, I hear you return to your scent match for heats,” I murmured. “Thistle?” I asked. “That’s her name, right?”

An Omega unfortunate enough to match Alphas like these.

The Alpha struggled again, eyes wide and terrified. I’d given him a sedative, too, but that was working slowly. Slowly enough that he would know what was happening.

My phone blared an alarm through the hotel room, making the Alpha jump violently.

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