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I quickly changed into a clean shirt and sweatpants before relieving Joey. Victoria was still in the bath, her head leaned back against the porcelain lip, and her eyes closed.

"Let's get you out of there, Princess, before you accidentally drown yourself." I said softly.

Her head lolled toward me, and she cracked open one eye before shifting forward in the tub. Snagging a soft, white towelfrom the rack beside her vanity, I turned to help her climb out. She wobbled slightly as I wrapped her up in the towel.

"Hang on to me while I dry you off, love. I don't want you to fall over." I told her, grabbing her hand and bringing it to my shoulder.

I gently dried her off with the towel and helped her into sleep shorts and a tank top before guiding her to bed. I'd barely gotten her tucked under the covers when her hand reached out and grabbed my wrist.

"Stay?" she murmured.

"Of course," I replied, climbing in beside her.

She sighed as I pulled her against my chest and wrapped my arm around her waist. After several minutes, her breathing evened out and grew shallow. I allowed myself to relax as she slept, peacefully tucked against my side. My mind began to wander as I let myself drift off to sleep.

The shrill ring of her phone startled me awake before sleep had fully claimed me. Shifting Victoria to free my arm, I climbed out of the bed and grabbed her phone from her nightstand in time to see Tiffany's name flash on the screen before the ringing stopped. Intending to silence the ringer, I flipped it open as a text popped up.

Private: When will you learn? There is nothing I won't do to have you.

My brow furrowed, and I tapped the notification to open the message thread as a second text from the same private number came through.

Private: Do you see the sacrifices I make for you?

Below the text was an image of Noah Mercer's body with the Jackals red spider lily on his chest.

"What the fuck?" I hissed, scrolling back through the message history.

There were numerous threatening messages going back almost as long as Victoria had been with us. The image of Noah's body, paired with the information we'd gained from Colin, meant they had all come from the Jackals. If I had to wager a guess, they'd come from one in particular. Rinaldo Marino.

Pulling my phone from the pocket of my sweatpants, I texted the other guys to see how much longer they'd be. They needed to know that Marino had been hassling our girl, and we'd need Craig to double-check that the texts actually came from him. My phone buzzed almost immediately after I hit send, Rich letting me know they were on their way back to the manor. With one last look at Victoria, I pocketed both our phones and slipped from her room to wait for them in the great room.

It wasn't long before the four of them burst into the great room, each wearing a different look of concern and frustration.

"We didn't find shit." Leighton pouted. "There's no cameras on the new construction, whichsomebodyshould have done before this shit went down," he continued with a pointed look at Craig.

"I was working on getting it set up, but I can't make the shipping for the parts go any faster," Craig barked back.

"We have another issue," I interjected before they could devolve into full-on bickering. I pulled Victoria's phone from my pocket, opening it to the messages I'd found. "Marino has been threatening the Princess. At least, it adds up to be him."

"Threatening her?" Rich stepped forward with his hand out for me to pass him the phone.

The other three crowded around him to read over his shoulder. By the time they'd finished, they all looked fit to kill.

"With what Joey beat out of Colin about Marino buying Victoria, it makes sense he'd be the one behind those texts." Isaid. "The picture of Mercer's body means it can't be anyone other than the Jackals behind this shit."

"Weird to see a dead man that has the ability to text." Leighton said, the humor in his voice not matching the murderous look in his eyes.

"Agreed. Funny the kinds of tricks dead men learn these days." Joey snarled, his eyes glued to the phone.

"Cool it, you two. Craig, you dig into these and make sure itisMarino behind the texts. In the meantime, we need to get a meeting with the man. He may be trying to intimidate her because he's out whatever he paid the mother fucker that sold her. Before we start a war over texts, let's see if he's amenable to us buying him out and putting all this shit to bed." Rich spoke.

You could almost hear a pin drop in the silence that followed Rich's statement as we all turned to look at him.

"What… the actual fuck just came out of your mouth, Rich?!" Craig clipped.

"You wanna run that by us one more fucking time?" Joey roared at nearly the same time.

"I've never questioned my allegiance to you until now," Leighton hissed. "If you thinkbuyingher is the answer, you and me will have a score to settle."