Page 49 of Brutal Queen

“Thank you,” I say, unable to hide my smile at his bemusement. “For taking care of Benny. He needed you and you were there for him when I couldn’t be. You may be the best of us.”

He nods, looking a little awkward. “You never need to thank me for looking out for Benny, or any of you, for that matter.”

“Well, I’m thanking you anyway. Just say you’re welcome and move on.”

“Uh… you’re welcome and move on,” he says before letting a smile ease slowly across his face.

“Smartass,” I say, releasing his hand and batting it away.

Aurora and Enzo return to the screen huddle, and I’m intrigued by what they’re studying.

“What has you all so fascinated?” I ask, givingin to my curiosity.

They look at each other like conspiratorial teenagers.Now I really want to know.

“Go and grab Benny and I’ll make coffee for us all. We have some intel from Gabriella you’re going to want to see,” Aurora says, not giving anything away.

I cock my head to the side. “Oh, come on, you can’t leave me hanging.”

“I think when it comes to work I can do whatever the fuck I like, Nico,” Aurora retorts. “But regardless of my ultimate power over you… Benny needs to see this, so go get him.”

“Alright, alright. I’m going. Back in ten,” I call out as I bounce back up the stairs to wake Sleeping Beauty.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

SINCLAIR

“You’re fucking kidding me?” Benny shouts, slamming his fist down on the table as he studies the surveillance photos. I'd about had it with everyone crowding around my tiny laptop, so I’ve cast my display to the flatscreen. Aurora insisted we put it up for meetings with the capos, but I swear she uses it more to stream the same damn show over and over while she’s working.

No one needs to rewatchPride and Prejudiceas often as she does.

The screen is currently filled with images Gabriella sent over this morning. Her team caught none other than our friendly neighbourhood date rapists delivering what I can only assume is their latest victim to one of The Knights’ warehouses.

From the images, I’d say the woman can’t be more than twenty-five years old. She looks half-dead, angry bruises and swelling marring her features, which will make it next toimpossible for me to identify her from her picture. Even if they weren’t carrying her into the warehouse, from the state of her, I doubt she'd be able to walk. She’s either concussed or drugged from the video clips Gabriella included.

“You’re telling me those cunts have upgraded from date rape to human trafficking?” Nico shouts, waving angrily at the screen. “It wasn’t enough to gang rape them. They’re now shipping them off to thisscum?”

“How the fuck did this happen? Why on earth would The Knights be recruiting a bunch of over-privileged fucks like this?” Benny adds.

“We beat that prick on the left to within an inch of his life, and he never once mentioned anything other than his frat boys when we questioned him,” Nico says, flicking his gaze between us all. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“We’re obviously missing a link. Nico, you’re going to take the lead on this. We’re going to bring our friend in for a little chat,” I say.

“Call Etta and get her to line up one of the interrogation sites for you. I’m sure she has a few new ones up and running if you fancy trying something different,” Aurora adds.

“Different?” Benny asks.

Nico nods in his direction and explains, “She has three up and running and two still under construction. The three that are fully functional each have differentspecial features. The one we took Manny to had a built-in disposal system, but apart from that was actually pretty basic. One of them has a set up for electro-shock, and the other has different types of on-site water torture.”

“Nobody tells me anything,” Benny complains, balling up a piece of paper and flicking it at Nico. “I went to dinner with both of you last week and you didn’t think I’d be interested?”

“Watch yourself, brat. We couldn’t get a word in edgeways.You wouldn’t stop going on about your new remote-detonating incendiary device. I swear I know more about discrete microwiring than I ever needed to.”

I don’t know what it is about the way they’re bickering right now, but it’s helping shift the heavy weight from my chest. It’s a stark difference from the interactions I’ve observed over the last few weeks. It’s been hard to watch the distance that was growing between them as Nico became more and more withdrawn. For a moment I thought the Nico of old was returning.

No one, least of all Nico, wants the sixteen-year-old version of him to resurface. It took a long time for Enzo and I to get him to recognise the path of destruction he was on.

I'm glad that they talked last night out—and that I could help.

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