Page 60 of King of Cruelty

“Are you sure you guys will be okay?”

“We’ll be fine.” Sienna settled Laurel in her stroller and tucked her blanket in around her. “I’ve got bottles, diapers, money, and this stroller lies flat for naptime. We’ll be good for hours.”

I hesitated outside the entrance to the park. Of course, I trusted my sister with my baby. I just hated the idea of the three of us being apart when the Brotherhood had officially lost its mind. Chasing the guys through the streets? Surrounding the compound with snipers?

There was no way I was putting Sienna and Laurel in the middle of that craziness.

“My phone is on and fully charged,” I said. “If anything happens. If someone even looks at you funny, just call me and I’ll be here.” I thought about it. “Also run.”

Sienna laughed like I was kidding. “Kenzie, relax. Your future is a shifting, shadowy kaleidoscope on your best day, but mine and Laurel’s are clear. No one is going to hurt us. No one wants to.” She gave me a look. “The two of us haven’t been collecting mortal enemies for the last four decades.”

Laurel shrieked her agreement.

“True. Very true,” I mumbled. “But these Brotherhood psychos are everywhere, and they might get it into their heads that messing with you could get them close to the guys. That’s exactly why Luca took me and Laurel that night.”

“Ehh, not really. That’s why they tookyou. That shit-shitting bastard only took Laurel too because she was strapped to your chest,” she pointed out. “You’re the one Liam, Bane, and Sunnyare in love with. You’re the target of Gen’s girl crush. You’re the leverage against them, not us.

“And if you think about it,” Sienna continued. “It’s being next to you that puts the target on our backs. Now that you’re taking off and leaving us to our Auntie/Neice Day, we’re probably the safest we’ve been all day.”

A snort sounded behind me, making me snap my narrowed eyes to a laughing River.

“Thank you for laying that out for me, sister dear,” I gritted. “If you’re finished telling me how much you won’t miss me, I’ll go now.”

Sienna laughed in my face. “Bye, Kenz, love ya.”

With that, she strode off with Laurel, leaving me shaking my head.

“Can you believe her?” I muttered, stomping off to the car.

“Nope. I can honestly say your sister is one of a kind. There has not nor will there ever be anyone like her.” He jogged ahead of me to get my door. “That’s what I love about her.”

“I’m finding that quality less endearing at the moment,” I snapped, setting him off laughing at me too.

Soon we were on the road again, driving in the opposite direction from the Fairfield. It was in the car that I remembered there was something else I wanted to tell Sienna before she got on my nerves and I forgot.

“Where is this secret entrance?” I asked, typing out and sending my text to my sister. “How far away is it?”

“About a mile. Cinco City is rotten with underground tunnels from back in the Prohibition days. The majority of them aren’t on any official maps or schematics, because of course they’re not. That would’ve defeated the purpose,” he said. “The trick is to find one that isn’t caved in, or already occupied by the unhoused of Cinco.” River dipped his head. “Then you’ve got to make sure no one else discovers it.

“But the Merchants went another way, and built their fucking own.”

My brows shot up as my phone beeped Sienna’s reply. “They dug their own secret Prohibition underground tunnel.”

“Yes, they did.” He shot me a grin. “And you’re going to love where it leads.”

Ten minutes later, I was standing on the sidewalk—blinking up at a familiar logo.

“Caddell House?”

“Yes.”

“This Caddell House?”

“The very same.”

“The same Caddell House that I worked in for years is parked on top of the entrance to a secret tunnel?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

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