Page 254 of Vexatious Queen

He looked at Ivy for answers.

“It’s not mine. Where would I even get it,” Ivy asked.

She and Sabastian both turned on me.

“You did this. You all did this, didn’t you? You fucker,” Sabastian roared and pulled on the officer holding him.

“Put them in separate cars. We’ll take them both in,” Ellis ordered.

Fuck.

“This can’t be happening,” Ivy said, her voice shaking as she looked at Ren. “I didn’t do this. You know that, right? Please tell me you know I wouldn’t do this?”

“I know,” Ren yelled back as she walked up to me.

You could still hear Sabastian melting down in the back of the police car, his feet pounding on the inside of the door as he yelled. He certainly wasn’t helping his case.

Once the cops were gone and the customers went back inside, Ren turned on me. Mo and the guys stood behind her. She stared me down and crossed her arms.

“You did this, didn’t you? He’s right. You set him up.”

I didn’t say a word. I didn’t feel guilty for protecting her, not now, not ever. Even when she didn’t fucking see the danger in someone she cared about. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

“Answer me, Nash.”

“No.”

“No, what?”

“No, I’m not going to answer you.”

“Nash, I’m not playing this game with you. Tell me right now if you had anything to do with this,” Ren demanded.

“And what if I did? What are you going to do? You gonna rush down to the station and tell the cops that it wasn’t your psycho, sorta brother? That it was your husband and boyfriends instead?”

Ren looked over her shoulder, and the guys all nodded.

“All of you?”

“Ren, he was dangerous. I know you don’t want to see it, and I understand why. But love also makes us blind,” Liam said.

Myles stepped forward.

“Ya know how much I hate keepin’ stuff from ya, Snowflake, but they’re right. We couldn’t take the chance that another New Year’s happens. We can’t lose anyone else, and next time it really could be yer Ma, Da, Lip, or one of us. He needs to be in a feckin' time out.”

“I don’t believe this,” Ren said, and ran her hand through her hair. “Do none of you feel even the tiniest bit guilty that he could go away for life for this? For something he didn’t do. My friend is down there with him and scared out of her mind.”

“I don’t give a fuck that he is behind bars where he can’t hurt us. In fact, he can rot there for all I care.” I leaned in closer and felt the anger radiating off of her. “He deserves everything coming to him. He did the same thing to Zigzag, who is currently waiting to see how much jail time he is facing. And because of me and what I did tonight, Zigzag will only get two years instead of fifteen. So no, I don’t care,” I whispered. “And I’m not fucking sorry.”

“You made a deal for Zigzag,” she whispered.

“Fucking right I did. Christov played him, and so did Sabastian. They are the ones who should be locked up. I did what I did, and I won’t take it back. So, if you want to head on down there and tell the cops what you think really happened, go for it.”

“And put all of you in there instead? You knew I wouldn’t do that. This…this is unbelievable. What’s going to happen to Ivy?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure how that happened,” I said, looking at Liam.

“No idea, but I’ll find out,” he said, pulling out his phone.