Page 58 of Monsters Wear Crowns
I swallowed, trying to lighten the mood. “You act like this is my first time being shot at.”
That…did not help.
Rafe’s jaw clenched, his eyes going ice cold. “That’s not funny.”
“I wasn’t joking,” I said quietly.
The silence stretched between us, absolutely thick with tension.
“Who were they?” I finally asked, needing to shift the conversation away from the thick emotion in the room. “Do you know?”
His jaw tightened. That muscle in his cheek jumped, the only tell in an otherwise unreadable mask.
I waited. A second stretched into an eternity.
He exhaled slowly, but it wasn’t calming. It was the kind of breath someone takes before pulling the trigger. “Nicolas Moreau.”
The name hit the air like a gunshot. My stomach lurched. I wasn’t involved in his world, not really. Not like he was. But even I knew that name. Anyone with half a brain did. Nicolas Moreau wasn’t just a criminal–he was a ghost story, whispered quietly in back alleys from men who claimed they knew him so they could commit a heinous crime. The kind of man who made people disappear without a trace.
And Rafe was the other name people spoke of with the same terror. The two monsters whoownedthis city. And now they were fighting.
My chest felt too tight. “Moreau.” The name tasted wrong on my tongue. “ThatMoreau?”
His eyes were steel. “There’s only one.”
Jesus Christ.
A war. I was caught in a war between the only two men powerful enough to burn this city to the ground. The idea of being involved inthismade my stomach twist. “What now?” I whispered.
Rafe’s eyes softened just a fraction. “Now, you rest. Andwhen you’re ready, we start tearing through every lead we have until we find whoever is feeding him information.”
“And when we do?”
The corner of his mouth lifted, but there was no humor in it. “I’ll rip their heart from their fucking chest while you watch.”
A shiver worked its way down my spine, but it wasn’t entirely fear. The room went quiet, and I found myself studying him, the tension in his shoulders, the shadows beneath his eyes. He hadn’t left my side. I knew it without having to ask.
“You should sleep,” I murmured.
He shook his head. “I'm fine.”
“Rafe–”
“I almost lost you tonight,” he said, his voice low and raw. “I’m not sleeping until I know that’s not going to happen again.” The air between us thickened, the weight of everything that had happened pressing down.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered.
He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes unreadable. And then he leaned down, brushing his lips against my forehead.
“Get some rest, Adela.” But even as my eyes drifted closed, I knew neither of us would find any real peace until this war was over.
***
I woke to the sound of raised voices.
My head felt heavy, my body aching as I slowly blinked myself into awareness. The room was dim, the soft glow of nightlights releasing long shadows, but it wasn’t the low lighting that caught my attention. It was the unmistakable sound of Lauren’s sharp and furious voice.Oh, dear.
“You don’t get to make decisions for her!”
