Page 83 of Claimed By the Ruthless King

“I’ll be thanking you over your fucking dead body.”

“That’s if the Crows don’t get to us first. I’m doing you a huge favor. Ophelia doesn’t know the first thing about our lives, about what we have been through. She sees innocent people dying and panics like the rest of them. Panicking is messy. I’ll rein her in if you don’t.”

“We can trust Ophelia.”

“Why?” scoffs David. “Because she loves you. Screw your head back on and think about this rationally. We could lose everything, our businesses, money.”

“I agree, we have a very long way to fall. But your focus should be on destroying the new Crow leader, not stalking my assistant.”

“You’re lucky I stepped in, otherwise things would have gone incredibly south. Gossip spreads like Chinese whispers. Promises are empty. Ophelia might think she’s telling her friend things in confidence, but when people have nothing to lose, they push boundaries. Rumors spread like wildfire.”

I rake a hand through my hair, done with David’s bullshit. “Leave Ophelia out of your shit. This is my final warning. You already broke into her mother’s unit and stole priceless information, now you’re following her around Fifth Avenue, wasting your time trying to catch her out. Do something more useful, otherwise my knife will be going in your throat.”

“Threats, Salvatore,” chuckles David. “You’re already growing weak.”

“What business do you have with Ophelia’s aunt?”

“Vivian Bennett has her own secrets, and they might be darker than ours.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” suggests David. “She can lie to her own family, but will she lie to you when a gun is being pointed at her head?”

I rake a hand through my hair. Ophelia would fucking kill me if I brought her aunt into this. She lied to protect her family, but what about herself?

“I’m not putting a gun to an innocent woman’s head.”

“Suit yourself,” says David.

“You know what Vivian did. Tell me.”

“Drop Ophelia and I might think about telling you.”

I hang up, launching my phone across the room.

Ophelia would never forgive me if I approached her aunt with violence, but what other fucking choice do I have? She said it herself. Innocent people are dying, and while we’re sitting here working out the puzzle, the Reaper is taking advantage of our ignorance, using it to buy himself more time.

If Vivian knows where this man is hiding, she needs to fucking tell me so we can end this.

I grind my jaw. David knows something. Why the fuck is he playing me?

I retrieve my phone from the floor, shooting him a message.

ME: I need those journals.

The answers are in there. And if David refuses to hand them over, I know the truth.

I head downstairs, knocking on the bathroom door, checking on Ophelia. “You feeling any better?”

“I’m about to take a shower.”

“Great. I’m heading out if you need anything.”

“Where are you going?” she asks, her voice cracking with disappointment.

I grind my jaw. Lying to Ophelia is wrong, but very fucking necessary. She can spend the rest of her life hating me, never wanting to see me again. As long as she survives this mess, I don’t care what happens. Her survival is the most important thing to me right now. Ophelia has her entire future ahead of her. Me on the other hand? I’m already falling, already slipping back into that helpless state. I was never meant to be this powerful. I overrode the system and built my own success by taking away other people’s, and for that, I deserve to die.

If I can sacrifice my life for Ophelia’s, I’ll die a happy man.