Page 7 of Devil's Game

“Yes, you do.” She sighed. “I’ll see you soon. I have to go before this lunatic goes waving his gun around at my neighbors.”

Resting Merrick’s phone in my lap, I let the events of the morning sink in. Sophia was really coming to East Haven. My two worlds were about to collide. I was just getting back to the person I was always meant to be, but would she accept me still, black heart and all?

“Zane will take care of her, little devil,” Kellan assured me, his voice jolting me from my thoughts.

A blush crept across my cheeks at his assumption, but I didn’t bother to correct him and, instead, focused back on the topic of their mysterious friend.

“You didn’t answer what his price will be?” My gaze sharpened on Merrick.

“Does it matter?” He shrugged, his jaw working as he shoved his phone into his pocket and directed the full weight of his hazel gaze on me. “I’d give him anything he wants to keep you and whoever matters to you safe.”

“Of course, it matters.” I frowned back at him, searching his face. He had to know, right? “You’re part of that, too, and sometimes, the cost is too high. We can go—”

“No cost is too high for you, little devil.” We exchanged dark looks, both desperately trying to make the other see just how much we cared about them. “This is the safest option, especially with Tommaso on his way back.”

“You have a plan?” I swallowed, prying my gaze away from Merrick before I continued the argument that wouldn’t do either of us any good right now. Electricity thrummed between us, something dark and sensual that needed to be sated.

“Yeah, we do,” Merrick assured, his fists clenching in his lap, like he was fighting the urge to pull me across the van and onto his lap. “But we can go over that when we get back to Inferno. We need to have a talk with the whole crew because last night changed everything.”

Pushing down the urge to blurt out the questions buzzing around in my mind, I stared out the window, letting the car settle into a comfortable silence.

A deep pink light glowed in the sky above, the early morning sun rising just above the horizon and lighting up the distance with warm hues. The sight reminded me of the day I tried to leave Tommaso, the day that put this whole series of events in motion. I compared the socialites in the Hamptons, indulgingin their parties and rosé to wearing rose-colored glasses, ones I, too, had tried to don for a time, resigned in my agreement with Tommaso, with my promise to be his for the safety of my friends.

Friends. That word seemed to pale in comparison to what they’d been then, and what they’d come to mean to me now.

A memory niggled at the back of my mind, of a saying I’d long forgotten about sailors and the pink light of morning. Did it mean a storm was coming or clear skies were ahead? Honestly, it didn’t matter, because, with these men by my side, we could weather the most brutal of storms and make it to the other side.

Chapter Two

Merrick

My boot slammed intothe thick wooden door as I kicked it open, and the crack splintered through the hum of voices inside, immediately silencing them. I didn’t care that the door was probably broken, not when I was barely hanging on by a thread. My nostrils flared as I tried to quell the hurricane of rage swirling in my center, but it was no use.

We got her back, but I wouldn’t let this happen again. They’d have to pry her from my cold, dead hands before I ever let anyone take my little devil again.

Eve winced, barely keeping herself upright as she steadied herself against the bar. I knew my people were barely hanging on to the last threads of consciousness now that the adrenaline was wearing off, but I couldn’t let them go without setting everyonestraight. We’d taken a detour while we were on the phone with Zane, losing any trace of the Barones’ tails while the others came back to the bar.

“We were betrayed tonight—not just me, but every single one of us.” I slammed my hand down on the bar, and heads snapped to me, helping to chase away the sleep that clung to their weary bones. “We banded together for one goal, to take down the Barones, and someone we allowed into our inner sanctum, who we trusted near our loved ones, sold us out.”

An echo of agreement sounded around the room, men and women slapping their hands against the tables in outrage.

“We knew this day would happen. We knew that it was only a matter of time before we weren’t able to hide behind the Demon Riders any longer.” My voice boomed across the room as I strode down the line of the bar, vaguely aware of Giana, Spade, and Kellan huddled near the entrance. “Tommaso knows about us now; the Barones know that we’re the ones in charge, and they’re not going to pull any punches when they come after us. If it isn’t because they want Giana next time, it will be because they want to take us out at the knees, cripple us from standing up against them ever again.”

Tables rattled as I got the crowd riled up, needing each and every one of them to know just how serious this was.

“We hid in the shadows, amassing a force great enough to stand against them, while they basked in their ignorance. We’ve stood against them twice now, and who has emerged victorious?” My voice rose as I asked the question that echoed off the walls.

“We did!” the Demons roared, fists pounding on the tables in triumph.

“We’ve watched them for years now, we’ve studied the way they operate, we know their tactics. This is our time!” My pulsethundered to the beat of the raucous uproar that followed my words.

My nostrils flaring, I clenched my fists at my sides, already envisioning Giana pulling a knife across Tommaso’s throat in payment for the hell he’d put her through. I’d promised her she could be the one to do it, but it didn’t mean I wouldn’t watch and revel in the bastard’s terror as his life slipped away at the hands of the one he’d kept caged for so many years.

“If we want to take them down, we need to provide a united front—loyalty above all else.” I held each of their gazes as I strode back to the entrance, letting them individually feel the weight of the vitriol rolling off me. “This is your one chance to run with your tail tucked between your legs, because there’s no backing out after this. If you’re in, you’re blood. If you’re out after today, you’re dead.”

Silence swept over the room. I watched as throats bobbed, yet everyone met my eyes with a steely determination.

“Mike tried to take someone who didn’t belong to him tonight, and he paid that price with his life.”

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