The sun blazed overhead, but all I felt was the ice in his words. And for the first time, I realized, he hadn’t just found me. He had been waiting. Watching. Every step had been planned. The crash hadn’t been fate. It had been the trap snapping shut. And I think Astoria had a hand to play in all of it.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
kaius
Redand blue lights reflected off the twisted metal of my baby sister’s car like some grotesque carnival. The silver frame, once sleek and polished, was bent in on itself, caved like a crushed ribcage. Glass littered the asphalt in glittering shards, but it wasn’t the glass that turned my stomach. It was the blood. So much of it. Smeared across the hood. Spattered along the pavement like careless brushstrokes. Thick enough that the metallic tang crawled into the back of my throat.
Nolan shoved past me with the recklessness of a man who didn’t give a damn about protocol or boundaries. His voice cracked as he screamed Astoria’s name. It rose above the shouts of officers and the distant wail of sirens. He sounded half-feral, like his soul was tearing free from his body. I didn’t call after him.
My eyes scanned the chaos instead, cataloging every face, every weapon holstered at a hip, every badge into my memory.If the bastard responsible for this was still here, if he thought he could hide in plain sight, I’d find him. But the other car, the one that had crashed into hers, was gone. Not abandoned, not overturned, not even parked across the way. Vanished, like it had never even been here. I ducked under the yellow tape, ignoring the way the crowd shifted to make space for me. Fear followed my shadow. It always did when in public.
“This is a closed crime scene,” someone called out.
I lifted my gaze to find Detective Watson barring my path. Young, sharp-featured, with eyes that had already seen too much. The kid barely looked old enough to shave. His voice wavered at the edges, but his stare didn’t falter. To his credit, he didn’t step back when I turned my full glare on him. Smart or stupid, I couldn’t decide.
“That’s my little sister’s car,” I said, my tone as cold and flat as the blood drying on the pavement. I didn’t need to raise my voice to make it dangerous. I only had to nod toward the silver four-door to drive the point home.
He didn’t argue. Just crossed his arms over his chest, the way a man does when he wants to look like he still has control.
“But you already knew that,” I continued, “seeing as you let Nolan storm in without giving him any grief.”
Something flickered in his eyes, but instead of flinching, Watson let out a humorless chuckle. “Everyone in town knows Astoria Mordred is Nolan Bedivere’s. Only an idiot would try to stop him right now.”
I ran a hand over the stubble on my jaw, fighting the urge to bare my teeth. “You got a point there.”
“She wasn’t on scene when we got here,” Watson went on, his voice calm and calculated. He wanted me to know he wasn’t rattled. “Witness says she was taken.”
My gaze snapped to his. “Witness?”
Astoria had left the bar alone and hadn’t mentioned picking anyone up to run her simple errand of dropping the bar’s funds off at the bank. Josie had been kicking a few of the newer Knights’ asses in a game of pool when Nolan had gotten the call. I should be mad they called him instead of her own brother, but the way Nolan had raced out of the bar without a second glance back at us, I knew Astoria would never be unprotected.
Watson gestured with two fingers toward an ambulance parked off to the side. Its back doors were open, spilling a wash of sterile light onto the asphalt. Three officers stood like bodyguards around a woman small enough to look breakable, her shoulders draped with a thin blanket. Her dark hair was matted with blood, sticking to her scalp in crusted strands. She spoke softly to a female officer, her posture trembling like a half-broken thing. As if she could feel eyes on her, the woman turned over her shoulder to meet my gaze.
Blue eyes met mine. Too blue. Terrified and sharp, cutting straight through me. I’d seen them before, staring out of another face, another time. The same shade as a dead Spade brother, who had once betrayed Nolan and me, turning our perfect plan into a ruin of blood and ashes.
My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms. It took everything in me not to lunge at Acelynn, not to cross that stretch of asphalt and drag her by her hair until she was screaming on the floor of my basement. I could almost taste it—the copper bite of hemlock on my tongue, the image of her eyes dimming as the poison worked its way through her veins. But the thought sliced deeper than it should have. Every heartbeat was a sharp pain, tearing through the part of me as every moment she lied to my face flashed through my mind. That hollow ache, that fury that had no place to go.
And I knew the truth. No matter how I tried to paint her as the enemy, no matter what name she wore, I couldn’t killher. Not when she was the one who had already started piecing me back together from the inside out. My mind dragged me backward, years ago, to the Spades’ house—their suffocating walls, their polished lies, their rot dressed in velvet.
I’d stormed out of the meeting room where my father and Alec’s were deep in negotiation. While the Knights exclusively dealt in the distribution of Muze, the Death Dealers dabbled in multiple different drugs that were just as addictive and much more deadly. Muze for powder. Distribution for territory. Both leaders so smug, convinced they were protecting their children when telling us to scram from the table when negotiations got serious. It was almost comical. I was the next president of the Knights. Alec would take the throne of the Death Dealers. Every deal they cut would be ours to carry. They thought they were shielding us from the dirt when really, they were burying us in it. Turning the corner, I stopped short at the sight in front of me.
Emersyn Spade. The princess of the Death Dealers was perched precariously in the opening of a laundry chute. Her small frame strained as she used all her body weight to shove at the jammed door, trying to wedge it closed with all her strength. I leaned against the wall across from her, an amused smile toying at my lips as she continued to struggle.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, letting a laugh slip from my lips as she shrieked, nearly falling backward.
She glared at me, arms crossed, as though the posture could make her look fierce instead of like a kitten puffing itself up. Emersyn craned her neck out of the chute, eyes darting like she expected a shadow to come for her. I turned to look in the direction she was. “Who are you looking for?”
“My brother,” Emersyn grumbled, casting her eyes down to the ground. She scooted all the way forward, letting her legs dangle out of the chute. They swung back and forth, hitting thewall with a light thud each time. She bit her bottom lip, peering up at me with an innocent look. “Please don’t tell him I was spying on the meeting.”
“Is that what you were doing?” I let out a low chuckle.
Emersyn shrugged her shoulders.
I shook my head. “I won’t tell Alec anything.”
She shot me a bright smile. “Good, because if you do, then you would have to protect me from him.”
“Oh, is that so?” I cocked an eyebrow at her.
