Page 45 of Queen of Diamonds

“What do you think she meant when she said it’s better for us all?” I asked.

He peered back at me, closing one eye like he was genuinely considering that. “That’s a great question,” he said. “I have no idea.”

I didn’t buy it. I might not be able to read Kyan quite as well as Knight, but I knew when he was hiding something.

“Any update on the Brotherhood?” I asked. We were on the back foot. It was far easier for us to track Brotherhood movement than it was for us to know if we’d been found.

“Nothing yet,” he said. “Been monitoring the district cameras, haven’t seen anything suspicious.”

I nodded with a sigh, picking up my own laptop and slumping onto the couch as Kyan’s footfalls echoed across the open living space and he climbed up toward his room. It was a small bunk upon the roof of Glade’s cell, and was surrounded by spray-painted designs and the remains of the huge metal cage he’d dismantled to fit his bed in.

When we’d first arrived here, it had been an abandoned gym that had hosted rut fighting. There were still remnants of that in the wall of the metal cage that reached to the ceiling beside Kyan’s pad, or the climbing wall that spanned the whole place.

The steps were old and beaten up, and the last stretch was just a precarious wooden ladder that Kyan always climbed with far too much confidence.

I mindlessly opened up my usual work tabs but couldn’t focus on them. Using my foot, I nudged the coffee table door open, spotting the gun stashed within. It had been years since I’d been this paranoid, but with Glade in our home, I hadn’t been more than six feet from a weapon—if I wasn’t outright carrying. And it wasn’t a response to the threat she might pose to us. If the Brotherhood discovered us, would they negotiate? Try to take her? Or just come in guns blazing?

I wished I could say I knew my brother well enough, but the truth was, I didn’t. I never had. When we were children, he’d been… different. It was hard to put my finger on, but as we’d entered teenage years, I thought he’d grown out of it. Until the day our dad had died, and he’d taken everything.

My place in the Brotherhood, my home, and my scent match.

That was when I realised my brother had never changed. He’d just become better at wearing a mask. Glade had chosen him for power, and I doubted it took her long to realise he could never offer anything more than that.

Not like we could.

But she’d shown us all her priorities, and apparently even the power wasn’t enough in the end.

I made an effort to focus on my screen. I had a few jobs to do, and Glade wouldn’t be awake for hours. Until Kyan gave me something to do regarding the Brotherhood, I was stuck.

We made our money in cybersecurity. One of the generous gifts my family left me with was the foundational knowledge on how to manage dirty money. I was an expert at laundering, untraceable wiring, and setting up offshore accounts. Kyan did the crazy shit with computers, but Knight and I worked with clients who needed simpler expertise. We located missing or stolen money, or tested a trail to make sure it would be impossible to follow.

I picked through my latest job list absently, unable to stop my mind from crawling back to the Omega in the room behind me, like the desperate prick I was.

She’d just been so damn beautiful in Kyan’s arms. Peaceful and protected… The glow of her skin in the sunlight, the flutter of her thick lashes brushing her cheek.

A glimmer of the reality we might have had.

I couldn’t help dragging up more distant memories… Her smile beneath the stars on a cloudless night. The feel of her lips against mine… She’d kissed Kyan and Knight, but not me. Not since she’d left.

Was I jealous?

How many times had I stayed up, remembering the way her body fit so perfectly against mine, the touch of her fingers at my cheek, and the dazed look in her eyes as I claimed her? There had never been anyone else.

I hated that I felt the urge to make sure she knew that.

I hated myself for dreaming of those moments.

I hated myself for thinking of them now when she was here, and we had bigger problems to deal with.

I did need to find out when her heat actually was because we needed a plan for when it came.

Maybe Knight was right, and we should just let her go… But what if we did, and they caught up to her? A Brotherhood hunt wasn’t a joke—even less now that Ace was in charge. If she got caught by herself—a low growl rose in my chest and I stifled it, viciously rubbing my face in my hands.

Fuck me.

I could barely remember the original plan. We’d taken her for leverage, not to protect her. But if she was in my brother’s sights—and not in a good way… She’d cheated on him and he’d let her walk—what the hell had she done to provoke him this time?

Every glimpse of her was like driving a knife into an old wound, drawing fresh blood each time, but that didn’t mean I could stomach the idea of her alone, facing shit odds.

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