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Lucia’s mouth clamps shut. Her Dukes eye her, obviously wondering themselves, but she doesn’t crack. “It doesn’t matter. All I know is that she was alone when I spoke with her.”

“But she wasn’t,” I say, the events of the night rushing back. “She said…he was waiting for me.” My eyes meet Ballsack’s. “She said someone was in the woods.”

“Stop.” Lex sounds tired and deathly serious. “None of this shit matters. Not right now. Verity suffered a significant injury from the fall. She’s bleeding. Vaginally.” The last word makes Lucia pull in a shocked gasp, a hand fluttering to her mouth. Lex takes the moment of grim silence to look between the Dukes. “Whyshe ran away,whoattacked her,allof that has to wait until we know she and the baby are stable.”

If anyone wants to argue, they keep it to themselves.

Lex looks at Wicker, then me, the blood still stark on his face. “I have to get in there.”

I’m about to ask about Father—what to tell him, if we even should—when the aggressive clack of heels in the distance grows closer.

The dread forms a pit in my gut because I don’t even have to look to know.

I can hear the jangle of her metal bracelets.

Fucking hell.As if this could get any worse.

Mama B strides into the middle of the group with fists clenched, like she’s wondering who to hit and what to hit them with. Worse than that, however, is the look on her face.

Pure, naked terror.

“Where the hell is my daughter?”

* * *

It feelslike it takes hours for Lex to return.

All of us had been moved to another waiting room lobby, off the women’s care ward. I keep waiting for the Dukes to leave, but they’re planted firmly in place, sprawled around the room like sentinels. It’s an indicator of how protective they feel about Verity. I’m not sure I like it. Jealous over the fact other men hold importance in her life? Or should I be glad to know she’s not alone in her own territory?

Not the way my brothers and I are.

“Sir, I am sorry you weren’t notified about her arrival.” The receptionist’s voice carries over from the admissions counter. “There is nothing on her paperwork indicating that you should have been given a call. Her mother is listed as—” Her next words are a stutter, “Y-y-y-yes, sir.”

Father.

Wicker and I share a dark, tense look. If he comes in here right now, while things are bordering on explosive, the consequences will be unavoidable.

I stand, crossing the room to where Perilini sits, watching the door. Like Lex, he’s still dressed in the suit he wore for graduation, but the blazer is draped around his Queen’s shoulders.

Steeling myself, I say, “I need a favor.”

He scoffs. “You’re the last people I want to do any favors for tonight.”

This is all so easy for him. He’s a King now. He answers to no one. When he challenged Saul Cartwright, it sealed his fate. But we’re not Dukes. We’re Princes, which means we’re trapped inside a web that only seems to get stickier the harder we try to get out of it.

“Listen,” I try in vain to keep the irritation out of my voice, “whatever happens here tonight, or tomorrow, or twenty fucking weeks from now…” I press my fingers into my temple, “Don’t let him near her.”

“That’s the first smart thing I’ve heard any of you say yet,” Mama B chimes in three seats away. She casts her gaze on Perillini. “He’s right, Simon. Ashby comes in here, and we’re all fucked.”

“I’ll handle it,” Nick says, pushing off the wall where he’s been standing for the last hour.

“No.” Sy shakes his head at his brother. “You said there was an intruder at the palace?”

My jaw tics. “Yeah.” It rankles to admit it. All my equipment was being packed away. I didn’t even have a screen up when it all went down.

Sy nods, then looks across the seating area to where Maddox is curled over Lucia’s arm, doodling on her with a marker. “Remy.”

“Yeah?” Glancing up, he pauses his artwork.