Page 80 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

BONUS SCENE

ZACH GOES TO JOLIE’S HOUSE

I rang the buzzer next to the weathered blue door.

It had taken me a minute, but I’d located the entrance to Jojo’s family’s apartment around the corner from the front of the bookstore where her adoptive mom made her living.

Behind this door were stairs leading up to the small apartment above the bookstore.

This was where our girl had spent the last seven years of her life in the arms of a loving new family who had put her back together piece by piece.

Now I needed her to put me—and Bennett and Noah—back together in the same way. Losing her had fucking broken us, and she was our cure and our salvation.

I was being a forward, cocky little shit by showing up here, but that was my default setting as Ferrero Heir.

Plus, I was on a mission.

Nothing was going to stop me from holding my Princess tonight—not even her adoptive father, whom the boys and I were mildly shocked to discover we found kinda intimidating.

The door opened, and I was treated to the stupid, smug face of Jojo’s adoptive brother, Max, who was wearing only flannel pajama pants.

“Can I help you?”

I returned his bullshit with a confident smirk of my own. Nobody would keep Zach Ferrero from where he wanted to be, and right now he wanted to be wrapped around his girl in her bed. “I’m here to tuck Jojo in, just like I said I would be. Let me up.”

His lazy grin was full of ice. “Sure, if that’s what my sister wants.” He turned to shout up the stairs. “Jojo! Ferrero’s here to see you! Should I let him up or toss him out on his ass?”

After some harried stomping noises, I heard, “ What? ”

Max just chuckled before turning back to me. “If you hurt her, Ferrero, I will break you into tiny fucking pieces and feed you to the river rats. I don’t give a fuck who you are or who your Family is. I will end you.”

The balls on this asshole. “Cute. But I think you’re aware that Jojo doesn’t need your help to fuck up my world if I ever did something to deserve it.”

His grin turned more genuine. “Bet. At least you’re not a total idiot.”

My retort was cut off by the sounds of bare feet hitting the stairs, then Jojo appeared over Max’s shoulder, looking flushed and perfect in her silky jammies. “Zach? You really came?”

“Of course I did, Princess.”

“Um, okay, then.” She nudged Max’s shoulder. “Let him up. He can explain himself to Dom and Laura, I guess.”

I shot Max my triumphant grin, and he rolled his eyes before making a show of reluctantly stepping aside. Clearly, I did not beat him hard enough at Dom’s gym earlier today.

Jojo eyed me with guarded suspicion as I stepped into her personal space in that narrow stairwell, halting on the step below where she stood. “I take it you’ve never had to meet the parents before, Ferrero?”

“I have not.”

She quirked a blonde brow. “Nervous?”

I probably should’ve been. There were four people in this City who didn’t give a flying fuck that I was Zach Ferrero, son of Andrea Ferrero and Heir of the Four Families, and they all lived here in this apartment.

“Nope,” I replied. “I know I’m where I need to be. Lead the way, Princess.”

The way her pale cheeks flushed was only just visible in the dim light of the stairwell, and it took great effort on my part to refrain from pumping my fist in the air.

She turned and made her way up to the second floor, and I did not refrain from staring at her tight, round ass in her tiny sleep shorts as she climbed the stairs in front of me.

“Make it less obvious next time, Ferrero,” Max groused under his breath behind me.

“Get used to it, Miller,” I retorted just as quietly. “Your sister is a fucking smoke show, and I’ll be appreciating her ass forever because I’m here to stay.”

“You fucking better be.”

Well, then.

Max Miller—unexpected ally.

Noted.

Jojo pushed open the heavy black door at the stop of the stairs, and the three of us trekked into the apartment.

It was… small. Definitely small. Jojo’s parents’ bathroom in the penthouse she grew up in was as big as the entire living room and kitchen of this place.

The front door opened into a cramped living room containing a large worn leather couch and an equally well-loved armchair. The space was set apart by a faded-but-still-colorful rug, and a nice flat-screen TV hung on the wall.

Beyond the living room was a small kitchen with dark-stained cabinets and appliances that looked at least sort of new.

A square wooden table sat in the corner next to glass doors that presumably led to a balcony, a vase of fresh flowers sitting proudly on top of it, and a hallway branched off the wall between the living room and the kitchen.

The apartment may have been small, but it was also… homey, and that was a thought I’d never had entering my own massive penthouse atop Ferrero Tower.

Something loosened in my chest. I’d known my Jojo had been rescued by the grace of God on the worst night of our lives and taken in by a new family that cared for her, but seeing their cozy, lovingly decorated apartment, with pictures on the walls of Jojo and Max and their parents and the faint smell of a vanilla candle lingering in the air, gave me the reassurance I’d apparently needed that she’d been safe and happy here.

“Hey, Dom and Laura,” Jolie said as we approached the kitchen where her adoptive dad and mom sat on stools at the bar top, both in their robes and drinking something that smelled like mint tea.

“Um, this is Zach Ferrero. Dom, you might remember him from his little surprise visit to the gym earlier today? He’s here for a… sleepover with me. And Max.”

Max snorted behind us. I ignored him and stepped to Jojo’s side, clasping her hand in mine. I reached forward, offering my other hand to Dom, who eyed me with something close to amusement as he shook it.

“Sorry to drop in unannounced, sir. Again ,” I added with what I hoped was a sheepish grin. “I wasn’t ready to spend the weekend away from Jojo. We only just got her back, as you know.”

He grunted, nodding, while Laura let out a dreamy sigh next to him. “Aw, that’s so sweet. She missed you boys too. She really did.”

“ Laura ,” Jojo whined.

I smiled at my new favorite mom as I shook her hand. “We missed her too, Mrs. Miller. We weren’t complete without her, but now that she’s back with us, we’re not going to let her go.”

“Tell that to Bennett,” Jojo muttered under her breath.

“Oh my gosh, I am so happy to hear that,” Laura went on. “Our Jojo deserves all the love in her life, don’t you think, Dom?”

Dom quirked a dark eyebrow at Jolie before turning his intense gaze to me.

The guy was the spitting image of his son except that his hair was short and graying at the temples, crinkles graced the corners of his eyes, and he had about twenty extra pounds of muscle.

He had the look of a guy who’d been some places and seen some shit.

I would hesitate to get into the cage with that man, and I’d never had that thought about anyone.

“Our Jojo deserves everything ,” he rumbled as he held my stare. “Everything she wants.”

I didn’t miss his meaning. Jojo had come out of hiding and declared war on the Families—on my mom. She deserved to take back what was stolen from her. She deserved vengeance against the people who murdered her parents.

“I couldn’t agree more, sir,” I replied, serious as the fucking grave.

He considered me for one moment more, then with a small nod, he broke our stare-off to give Jojo a warm fatherly smile. “I’m happy to have Zach here if you are, honey. Just don’t stay up too late—you had an eventful day.”

I frowned at her. “What else happened today?— ”

“Got it. Night, guys!” Jojo said, cutting me off as she dragged me away from the kitchen, a snickering Max on our heels.

We shuffled down the little hallway and through the door to the tiny room she shared with Max. As the door clicked shut behind me, I took in the space where my Jojo had slept every night since the day we thought we’d lost her forever.

A set of bunk beds sat against the room’s lone, small window. The soft yellow glow of the streetlamp outside was just visible through the blinds. A single dresser had been shoved against the opposite wall, and an adjacent sliding door marked where the one closet likely was.

Max’s clothes were strewn about the floor and on the lower bunk, which was unmade. The top bunk was neater, and its lavender quilt said it was Jojo’s bunk and my bed for the night.

“This is adorable, Princess. Are you ready for bed?”

Max threw his large body onto the lower bunk. “I keep a knife under my pillow, Ferrero,” he announced with a vicious smile. “I don’t know what game you’re playing with my sister, but if you try anything tonight, I will come up there and end your life.”

“ Max ,” Jolie groaned. “Stop threatening the Heirs on my behalf. I love you and would prefer not to have to maim Zach or the others in your defense. What you two put me through today at Dom’s gym was entirely enough.”

I tugged her closer and brought her hand to my lips. I kissed her, reveling in her blush and Max’s scowl, and then I released her with a nudge toward the ladder on the side of the bunks. “He can goad me all he wants, baby girl. We’ll keep our shit in the cage where Dom can supervise, yeah?”

She sighed and began to climb the ladder. “Fine. I guess you’ll make each other better fighters, and I can live with that.”

As I approached the ladder to follow her up, I smirked at Max and gave him the finger. He feigned shock before he mimed grabbing my finger out of the air and sticking it in his pocket.

I rolled my eyes, finished with him for the night, and I hoisted myself into my girl’s little bed, shucking my sweatshirt before sliding under the covers with her.

As I did every night when I climbed into her bed, I positioned myself between her and the door, pulling her into my chest and wrapping my body around her .

I felt the tension leave her body, and my heart soared with victory.

“I can’t believe you really came here,” she whispered into my shirt.

“I said I would. You didn’t believe me?”

I felt her shrug against me. “I don’t know what to believe anymore, Zach. You guys are… confusing.”

I hummed softly, taking the opportunity to stroke the silky skin of her bare shoulder with my fingertips. “We’ll earn your trust back, Jojo. Don’t worry about any of that right now. Just sleep—I’ll keep you safe.”

She huffed. “I’ll keep you safe, Ferrero.”

“I believe you, Princess.”

And I think I love you , I thought like a sappy, pathetic fool.

She melted into me, and then all the bullshit faded away.

This was my girl. Our girl.

I would never let her go again.