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There is fear in Margot’s eyes, tears running down her cheeks. Her hands are pressed to the kid’s arm.

And when the man steps toward her, I lose it.

Rage, pure and unadulterated, surges through me as I move. He only has half a second to notice me before my fist connects with the side of his head, a sickening thud that sends a jolt up my arm. The man stumbles and drops the cleaver, but he stays upright.

All the better.

I lunge at him, pouring a flurry of brutal blows into his face and ribs. I feel bone crunch, hear grunts of pain but I don’t stop, following him down and hammering into his face for pointing a fucking weapon at my chef. For threatening her. I stop only when the man finally collapses to the floor in an unconscious heap.

I pull my gun and keep it on him as I cross to where Margot is kneeling. “Are you okay?” I ask, cupping her face with my free hand as I run my eyes over her. “Did he hurt you?”

“Not me,” she sniffs, pointing at Jasper. “His arm is cut really bad. I think he needs a doctor.”

“One moment,” I tell her, grabbing my radio to call security, demanding that they come up here. “What happened? Who the hell is that?”

My questions are directed at Jasper, who has a pained look in his eyes. It looks like he’d rather eat jagged glass than answer, but I keep my eyes trained on him. “Answer me now!”

“I didn’t mean to,” the prospect sobs, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I’m sorry, Prez. I didn’t mean to.”

“Speak clearly, and—”

“He needs a doctor,” Margot cuts in. “He’s hurt.”

I inspect the wound, which is deep but not life-threatening. He’ll live—from this anyway, though not necessarily from what happens if I don’t get a fucking answer in the next several seconds. He must see this because his face crumples in fear, eyes wide with it.

“I—I don’t… I’m sorry.”

This time, I don’t bother to ask what he’s apologizing for as I’ve already seen it. I rise to my feet and walk to the counter where a box sits. I hook the flap open with the barrel of my gun and go cold.

And then all of it makes horrible sense.

“You’ve been moving drugs through Cathedral.” My voice is so cold it stops the security team coming through the door. A drug deal gone wrong that nearly killed Margot. “Answer me now before I plant a bullet into your fucking skull!”

“I’m s-sorry,” Jasper cries, scrambling to his knees, clutching his arm, bleeding all over the floor. “I needed the money. That’s all it was at the start, I swear—school’s eleven grand a semester, and I did the math a hundred times, and it never worked. This guy s-said all I had to do was hold something. Just hold it. N-nobody would get hurt.”

The kid’s shaking, but he stutters on. “A-and then I tried to stop. Six weeks ago, I told him I was done, and he laughed at m-me, Prez. Then he told me he knew which floor I worked on and what time I finished, and after t-that, it wasn’t about money anymore. After that, I was just s-scared.”

Margot saw the drugs.

Now, every accusation she threw at me in that elevator makes sense—the box, the shelf, weeks of her dealing with this alone in a building full of my men, with nowhere to take it that didn’t lead back to me.

She thought it was me and she stayed anyway. She got into bed with a man she believed was poisoning her own kitchen, because some part of her couldn’t make it fit either.

Fuck.

And how did this little shit do it under my nose? I thought I knew everything that happened in this building.

“Take this one to Wolf,” I tell the guards, kicking the man lying unconscious on the floor to wake him. “Get someone to burn this garbage safely, then bring our little prospect to B2. I’ll deal with him myself.”

At that, Jasper goes sheet white. He’s been here long enough to know what happens there. He’ll be lucky to make it out in one piece. I’ll see to it that no one in Cathedral ever thinks to follow in his footsteps.

“What’s B2? Bishop?”

“Step aside, Margot,” I say with incredible patience.

“Not until you tell me where they’re taking him.” She tries for stubborn, but her eyes fill instead. “Please don’t hurt him. He saved my life. He tried to get me to leave, but I wouldn’t go.”

She rushes to me, gripping my arm as tears fall down her cheeks.