Page 101 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JOLIE

“ H oney, I’m home!”

This time it was Mari’s voice that floated in from the entryway, the sounds of her suitcase rolling along the wood floor following immediately.

“Does literally everyone we know have access to this place, Princess?” Zach asked. “Not that I mind Mari being here, but security is kind of important given the… position we find ourselves in these days.”

I frowned. “Actually, Mari’s fingerprint isn’t keyed to the penthouse. She was supposed to text me when she got to the lobby.”

“This place is amazing!” Mari raved as she waltzed into the living room.

All four of us froze, eyes wide, as we realized Mari had brought a friend with her.

Frankie grinned like a maniac at us. “Love the new digs, Little Knight.”

Mari had her hand looped through the crook of Frankie’s elbow as he escorted her further into the room, both of them clutching brightly colored drinks speared with fat straws.

“Um, Mari,” I began, darting a what the fuck? glance over at Zach, who just shrugged helplessly. “What’s, uh… what’s going on here?”

“Oh, I met Francisco in the lobby when I came by earlier!” she gushed. “We decided to go get our nails done, and then we went for boba tea. You guys didn’t tell me Zach had such an adorable young uncle.”

Frankie preened, waving his drink-holding hand at us, his dark purple nails a stark contrast to the neon orange boba tea.

“I hadn’t had the chance to make Miss Mari’s acquaintance yet, so we decided to get to know each other.

I’m responsible for her safety when she’s staying here with my other charges, after all. ”

“Uh-huh,” I said, slowly.

“Sorry I didn’t text you, but Francisco said he could bring me to the penthouse,” Mari went on. “ Joder , look at the pool!”

She released Frankie’s elbow and trotted over to the tall French doors that lead to the pool deck, her flowy pink playsuit swishing around her legs and her espadrilles clomping against the floors as she went.

Noah watched her over his shoulder as she breezed out onto the patio, then he turned back to the rest of us. “So, should we tell her, or…?”

Frankie rolled his eyes, his wide smile never faltering. “You guys act like I can’t have friends.”

Zach’s dark stare turned suspicious. “Since when do you have friends, Francisco? ”

He shrugged lazily, taking a big swig through his straw. “Sometimes I like to try new things.”

Mari returned from her tour of the pool deck, and instead of dropping into the open spot on the couch I’d vacated for Bennett’s lap or the other empty armchair, she trotted back over to Frankie’s side and clutched his arm again.

He offered her a sip of his tea, which she accepted with a gracious smile.

“Just keep calm, Angel,” Bennett muttered into my ear. “We don’t want to startle either of them.”

Right on cue, Max sauntered back into the living room. “Fuck, Jojo, this place is great. Your orgy-sized bed is a nice touch?—”

He froze as he noticed our visitors. I watched his dark gaze heat as it landed on Frankie, drinking him in with such enthusiasm that I wrinkled my nose—some things a sister really just didn’t need to see that up close and personal from her brother—but then his eyes widened in surprise before they quickly narrowed as he noticed Mari clinging to Frankie’s arm .

“Max, mi amor!” Mari exclaimed. “I didn’t know you were already here.”

Frankie had also appeared taken aback to run into Max at this exact moment, his big smile morphing into a glower in Max’s direction. But the second Max’s salacious perusal of Frankie turned into guarded suspicion regarding Mari, a smug little grin crept back onto Frankie’s striking face.

“Miss Mari, who’s your friend?” he asked lightly, then he eyed Max with a challenging stare as he sucked hard on his straw. “I sure hope you haven’t replaced me already.”

Max scowled, marching toward them to pluck Mari out of Frankie’s clutches, pulling her into a hug that she accepted with enthusiasm. They did the double cheek-kiss thing, and Max stared Frankie down the entire time.

The boys and I just watched this whole thing unfold in uncomfortable silence.

“Maxy, have you met Zach’s uncle?” Mari asked brightly, turning in Max’s arms to gesture to Frankie. She tossed a really unsubtle elbow into Max’s ribs as she stage-whispered, “He’s pretty cute, no?”

“Very,” Max purred. “But, babe, I’m a little confused as to how you happen to know the bloodiest, most notorious Family Enforcer in the entire City?”

She gasped, turning back to Frankie. She swatted him playfully on the bicep, and the rest of us winced in unison. “Francisco! Is this true?”

Frankie shrugged. “I do have a bit of a reputation. But that’s all nasty business—definitely not appropriate conversation for our delightful afternoon together.”

Max shook his head, like he wasn’t sure he’d heard that right. “Mari, you spent the afternoon with Frankie Fingers?”

“Frankie who?”

We were all saved by the loud buzzing of Frankie’s phone. He pulled it from the back pocket of his ridiculously tight acid-washed jeans and put it to his ear. “Yeah?” A slow smirk spread across his face. “Oh, that is excellent news. We will meet you in the workroom.”

I slid from Bennett’s lap and onto my feet, my back straight and my game face on. “Whose day are we about to ruin?” I asked Frankie as he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

He looked giddy, all the weird bullshit he and Max continued to have between them momentarily forgotten. “The Montgomerys have delivered their rat.”

Bennett squeezed my hand. “Are you sure you’re okay being back down here, Angel?”

I nodded, feeling resolute. “I know some traumatic things happened to me down here, Bennett, but some amazing things did too. Plus, this is where Knight will be… taking care of certain business. I’m not going to just hang out up in my ivory tower and not get my hands dirty alongside my team.”

Frankie tossed an amused smile over his shoulder. “Ah, Little Knight, as much as I’d love to take care of all of these things for you, I do find that position so very respectable. I knew as soon as I caught you on the roof of Spencer Tower that you were something different.”

Mari gasped from behind me where she was being led into the lion’s den by Max. “Francisco is the one from the Spencer Tower heist?”

She’d insisted on accompanying the group down to Knight Tower’s basement “workroom.” It was just as well, since Max had pouted when I demanded he stay behind to watch her, and none of my boys were keen on being left out, either, so here we all were, filing into the bleak, cold basement behind Frankie.

Max grunted, answering her question. “Yep.”

“Francisco!” Mari barked. “You shot at my best friends!”

Frankie turned to give her a guilty little smile. “I wasn’t trying to kill them, Miss Mari. If had been, they’d both be dead.”

Chilling, but true.

We entered the barren floor of the basement to find Kara and Julie—married couple, two of the most badass ladies I knew, and longstanding members of the Shadows—keeping guard over a lone prisoner.

I could tell by the delicate frame of our captive that this was a woman, her spindly arms wrenched tight and bound to the chair behind her.

She wore wide-legged denim jeans and a fitted black sweater, and there was barely a smudge on her expensive heeled booties.

Her perfectly contoured face was defiant and flushed with rage.

As we stepped into the low light of the single overhead bulb, I realized I recognized her. “That’s the fucking makeup artist from the Montgomery Star Media studio,” I said, disgusted and just a little pissed off that I’d let this woman touch my face.

“Ah, I see,” Kara replied, her defined arms crossed over her chest and her narrow-eyed stare still on the captive.

“She’s been extremely tight-lipped since they dropped her on our doorstep ten minutes ago.

” She glanced up at the group of us as we all fanned out around them, and she chuckled.

“I see you brought the whole gang, Jojo.”

I grinned, shrugging. “Can’t let Frankie have all the fun.”

“Aw, come on, Little Knight,” Frankie said with a playful whine. He began circling the prisoner like a shark, and the determined set of her jaw wavered at his manic smile.

Kara’s grim look softened as her eyes landed on Noah. “Hi, Noah. Long time, no see. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to chat on our last… op.”

Noah returned her smile. “Hey, Kara.”

She walked to his side to pull him into a hug.

“Look at you, all grown up and so handsome.” She ruffled his hair affectionately, and it was entirely too adorable.

She went on, “I know I was only your mother’s bodyguard for a couple of years, but I remember vividly how close you and the other Heirs were.

I’m glad you all have Jojo back with you now. ”

“Me too,” he replied, glancing my way with that beaming smile full of love that melted me from the inside out. “It’s good to see you, too, Kara. How’s the shoulder?”

She flexed her left shoulder where she’d taken a bullet from Ramon’s gun. “I’ll live. Heard from your mom at all?”

His smile vanished. “Not in years.”

She scoffed, a disapproving look on her face. “Typical. Peter paid her off long ago, so she’s sitting pretty, even after the implosion of Hargraves.”

Julie piped up from where she stood next to our prisoner. “Kare, what’s the plan here? Our girl already looks a little more open to chatting with us after getting a dose of Frankie’s crazy eyes.”

Frankie cackled from where he now stood by a table near the wall, sorting through a box of his toys and murmuring sweetly to them.

I stepped closer to Miss Makeup, studying her and finding barely a dark hair out of place. “Did they at least give you a name when they dropped her off?” I asked Julie, keeping my hard stare glued to our petulant captive.