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“The Princessaskedto stand in for Pace,” he gives my brother a withering look, “but I can see the thought of her taking more lashes is aggravating an already tense situation, so I’ll compromise.”

Even now, with a gun and a knife at his throat, he manages to command the room, but he’s right. I’m a strategist, and everything he said is true. We don’t have the power here. We never wanted this position. We didn’t play politics with PNZ. The whole plan, all along, was to run.

“What compromise?” Wick asks.

“Take her to the dungeon.” He waves his hand like the matter is already settled. “She can complete her punishment there.”

Pace’s eyes widen, I see the argument on his face, but I give him a warning look.

Making a deal with the devil himself, I nod at Wick. “Take her down.”

* * *

Pace returnsfrom the dungeon looking more drawn and exhausted than I’ve ever seen him, and that includes the day he was sent to prison.

“How is she?” Wick asks, stopping his pacing.

“Asleep—finally,” he says, exhaling. Yet again, he looks at me, jaw tight. “I don’t like leaving her in there, Lex.”

The frustration threatens to rise. No one likes it less than me, but there are factors to consider. “The dungeon is awful, but it’s our domain,” I explain. “She’ll be protected down there while we sort this out. Pace,” I dip my chin at him, “you know how to endure it. You can coach her through it.”

We’re in the solarium, tucked back in the corner near the nettles and thorny bramble. It’s the one place Father doesn’t have cameras, out of respect for Miranda’s garden and Michael’s grave.

It took both Wick and Pace to help her downstairs, while I’d run to get my kit. Once she was in the cell, I did a preliminary exam to make sure neither she nor the baby were in a life-threatening situation, and then the three of us worked to get her back cleaned.

It wasn’t until it was over that she finally, truly cried, and Pace asked us to give them a moment.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Wick says, running his hand through his hair, still damp from his shower. He’d run upstairs and dressed before coming in here. “What the hell happened up there?”

We’d both walked into a horror show—a literal nightmare. The image of Verity on her knees, her split and torn up back, is burned into my mind. Never in my life did I think he would go this far, but as Pace describes the night—discovering Charlie’s security breach, the fact he’d been selling videos of Verity, the hoard of exploitative content he had at his fingertips…

It was a perfect storm.

“I tried to stop her,” Pace says, voice thick with regret. “I know she thought he’d back down, but the second she stepped up, I saw it in his eye. He was excited.”

She took the punishment for him—for us. To think, at one point, I’d accused her of being disloyal. Time and time again, Verity Sinclaire has proved she’s the most loyal of us all.

“He told me he would do it,” Wicker says, sitting on the stone wall. His shoulders cut a sad, defeated curve. “At the gender reveal, he said she wasn’t the first pregnant Princess to get punished. I should have told you.” He looks down at his hands. “God, I let you walk right into his fucking trap.”

That’s what this is. A trap. We all feel it. We know it. We’ve lived it. Even Verity has called East End a prison, and she’s only been here for six months.

That’s why I say, “It’s time to enact the plan.”

My brothers look up at me.

“Which plan?” Pace’s forehead creases.

“Wicker’s right. He’sbeenright. We have to leave.” I swallow, feeling insane for saying it aloud, but even more so for taking so long to see it. “And we’re taking her with us.”

“Fuckingfinally!” Wick shoots to his feet, relief clear on his face. “When do we go?”

But Pace raises a hand. “Look, not to piss in anyone’s protein shake, but the plan was for the three of us.”

To my surprise, Wicker’s the one to narrow his eyes. “There’s no fucking way we’re leaving here without her.”

“Obviously,” Pace says, forehead creased like the implication alone is irritating. “The leverage we’ve been building all these years might be enough to buy our freedom in a pinch, but his daughter’s? His grandchild’s? Hisheir’s?” Pace looks at me, deflated. “Guys, it’s not enough.”

“Then we have to make it enough.” I look between them, knowing there’s no other way. “We can’t leave until Verity is healed and ready, so there’s time to be smart about this.”