Page 54 of Princess of Vengeance

At least we’ll all be able to get out of this fucking house for a while. That’s some welcome news, even if I have a ball in the pit of my stomach at the prospect of seeing my ex again.

Back in the day,we’d have rolled into this meeting with two dozen bikes, engines roaring, making sure everyone knew the Princes of Carnage had arrived. Now we’re down to a borrowed SUV with some reinforced plating and blacked-out windows. Kendrick and a few other loyal Princes follow on their bikes, but it’s a far cry from what we used to be.

Broken brick factories stretch out on all sides, with their windows busted and metal rusted to shit. I check every corner and every shadow until we finally make it to the outskirts of the industrial park.

The buildings here have long since been knocked down and mostly cleared away. There’s still some rubble here and there, but it’s mostly flat, broken concrete for at least a mile in every direction.

If they called us out here to ambush us, they’ll have to put in some work to make that possible.

Zoey stands in the middle of the cracked lot with Stefan and four Twisted Tyrants spread out behind them. Six people total. I fight back a smirk—is that really all they could scrape together? The Tyrants should have twenty, thirty members easy. Either Zoey doesn’t trust most of her own people, or they don’t trust her.

I guess her leadership isn’t working out as well as she’d hoped.

I keep scanning the horizon through my window, watching for any movement or flash of metal, any hint of a headlight that might give away their backup.

Nothing.

Nico stops the SUV thirty feet from Zoey. Close enough to hear whatever bullshit she’s got to say, but far enough to react if shit hits the fan. We might technically outnumber them, but only by a couple of men, so it’s better to keep things from turning bloody if we can.

No point in doing Malcolm any favors by getting ourselves fucked up.

Even from here, I can see that Zoey looks different now. Colder and harder, with an ugly sneer as she watches us pull up. Whatever I used to see in her is long gone, eaten up by what she did to us.

And that’s fucking fine, as far as I’m concerned. Hating her makes my job easier.

“Are we ready?” Nico’s hand is already on the door.

Killian snorts. “I can’t wait to hear whatever lies she’s got lined up this time.”

I check my gun one last time and grab the door handle. Whatever game Zoey is playing here, we can handle it. We’ve been through worse.

We step out of the SUV with Nico in the lead while Killian and I flank him. Kendrick and the others line up behind us. There might be fewer of us than back in the day, but I’d still rather be on our side than theirs.

Zoey steps forward with Stefan hovering at her side like a fucking lap dog. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she snaps before we’ve even stopped walking. “Poaching my members? Turning my people against me?”

Nico actually laughs, and I can see by the way she flinches that it stings Zoey’s pride to stand there and take it.

Good.

“Is that what you think is happening?” He shakes his head. “You’re gonna ask us to come all the way out here just so you can accuse us of stealing your people? This is fucking ridiculous.”

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Zoey hisses. “Kendrick, Hudson, the others—they were loyal to me until you got in their heads.”

I catch Kendrick’s eye and see him bristle at the mention of his name. I can tell from her quick glance in his direction that Zoey doesn’t miss it either.

“We’re not poaching shit,” Nico says. “We’re accepting members who realized what a big fucking mistake they made by following you. People who are smart enough to know a shitty leader when they see one.”

The words land like an actual slap in the face. Zoey’s jaw tightens, and I can see her hands clench into fists at her sides. Stefan shifts his weight like he’s going to step forward, but she holds up a hand to stop him.

“You want to talk about shitty leadership? You’re the one who fucked everything up for all of us.” Her voice trembles slightly with pent-up rage. “You’re the reason we had to split in the first place.”

It’s a fucking lie and we all know it. Disagreements happen, but there are ways to settle that shit. Starting a fucking coup isn’t one of the ways.

But Nico doesn’t take the bait. He just stares at her with a blank—almost bored—expression. “If that’s all you wanted to say, we’re done here.”

Zoey takes a deep breath, visibly reining in her anger. When she opens her mouth to talk again, her tone has shifted completely. “No, that’s not why I called this meeting.” She glances at Stefan, then back to us. “I want to propose something. Something that could benefit all of us.”

I exchange a quick look with Killian. I don’t know what she’s about to say, but there’s zero chance it’ll benefit us. I’ve heard that tone from her plenty of times over the years. She’s desperate for something.

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