Page 41 of Reaper Flame

“If you’d have known, it wouldn’t have worked,” Zander replied. “Hiram would have seen through your lies. We needed him to believe you hated us.”

Rocky coughed, and Zander loosened his collar then corrected himself, “Ineeded Hiram to believe you hated us. He couldn’t have seen it coming otherwise it would never have worked.”

“Well done.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Your plan worked, and I don’t even need to pretend to hate you.”

“Hiram couldn’t have seen it coming,” Zander repeated. Although, I wasn’t sure whether it was for his benefit or mine. “It’s the only way we were able to get you back.”

“What about now? Hiram will know you’ve played him,” I pointed out. “He may have made a deal to give you all the cash you asked for, but did you really think he would let you go without a punishment? I joined your gang! That’s reason enough for him to want you dead. He used you to get me back, and now he’s coming to take you down. You have no idea about the hell he is about to bring down on your head.”

They didn’t need to know the full story about Hiram’s plans, or how he arranged my marriage to Giles to make sure I was the Briarly successor. Some things were better kept a secret. Zander kept secrets, so why couldn’t I? I didn’t owe him anything.

“We can handle Hiram,” Rocky said with determination.

“You mean, just like the time you ‘handled’ a group of Bryce’s cronies?” I scoffed, reminding him of the time he got jumped and only made it out alive because I’d chosen to spare him. “You don’t understand what you’re taking on.”

“I’ve been planning this from the moment you joined the Sevens. Wewilldo this, Candy,” Zander said, leaning across the table. “Think about it. A future without Hiram. Don’t you want that?”

What a stupid fucking question! Of course IwantedHiram dead. But this wasn’t a high school football game or a gang of untrained kids running the streets who didn’t know better. Hiram was a big fucking deal. The Sevens were no match for him.

“What you’re talking about is impossible.” I shook my head. “It’s one thing trying to kill someone who doesn’t know you’re coming, but Hiram is already out for your blood. He wants to take over Port Valentine, and he will. You can’t beat him. None of you can.”

“Don’t underestimate what we can do, or the lengths we’re willing to go to get what we want,” West growled under his breath, but loud enough that we could hear. He was talking about more than Hiram. Sure, I’d jumped to conclusions about him hooking back up with his crazy ex. But what had he expected me to think after seeing her draped over him like a fucking coat?

“Sometimes wanting something isn’t enough,” I replied coldly.

Zander rolled up his sleeves to expose some of his inked forearms. My mind lapsed momentarily, taking in his taut muscles, then averted my gaze to his face.

His lips twitched up at the corners. “How about a compromise?”

Vixen gasped like he admitted to wanting to join a monastery. Compromise wasn’t part of Zander’s vocabulary. He was lucky to get a second of my attention after sending me back to Blackthorne Towers, but his offer piqued my curiosity.

“Go on.” I straightened in my seat. “I’m listening.”

“Stay with us until we kill Hiram,” Zander said. “Then you can choose to stay or leave.”

Rocky’s eyes widened and West’s knuckles clenched, but Vixen was first to spring into action.

“No!” Vixen objected. “The Sevens are a lifetime deal. There’s not an opt-out clause!”

“I don’t like it.” Rocky shook his head, then looked at West to back him up. “West?”

West said nothing, sitting in a sulky silence and watching everything unfold. What was The Hulk thinking?

“It’s Candy’s choice,” Zander barked, slamming his fists down on the table. “I make the rules. What I say is final.”

I leaned back, stretching my arms out in front of me and mulling over my options. I checked my nails, giving the illusion that I didn’t care at all. “If I choose to leave, you won’t stop me?”

“If she goes, then I’ll go with her,”Rocky said defiantly.

“Silence, Red!” Zander snarled. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“It’s everything to do with me,” Rocky said, standing his ground. The last time he stood up to Zander ended with a bullet in his chest. “I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what you were planning, and I took a fucking bullet because of it.”

Zander’s compromise was turning into a revolution. The Sevens were once a strong united front. Now, they were falling apart like an unstoppable series of tumbling dominoes.

“This is exactly why you didn’t know, Red,” Zander said. “Because, if you had, it would never have been believable.”

“Zander’s right,” Q admitted. He liked to stay quiet and out of Seven business but also wanted to keep the peace. “Hiram would have known something was off if you weren’t willing to fight. He’d have killed you all.”

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