Page 89 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
And he also wasn’t going to tell his dad that Bridgette Spencer was safely ensconced in an adorable condo Bennett had purchased with his Alastia money a few blocks from my family’s home in Olde Town.
I actually knew for a fact that as of half an hour ago, she was drinking tea with Laura in her store while they discussed their favorite books—with Martinez in tow.
Bennett had threatened him with a very painful death should one blonde hair on either of their heads be harmed on his watch.
“She hasn’t been home in three days, and there’s been no activity on her card,” James said, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Or yours. Are you so desperate to rebel against me that you’re borrowing money from Knight?”
Bennett cracked a smile. “Jealous, Father? Hargraves is dead, Ferrero is dying, and Spencer is right behind them both. Knight is already more powerful than it ever was, and Jolie isn’t even finished with you yet.”
Peter scoffed. “You boys are delusional if you think Knight is more powerful than the Families.”
“In that little bitch’s dreams,” Andrea sneered.
James blew out a frustrated breath, shooting them both some menacing side-eye before he ran his enraged gaze over the boys.
“We will give the three of you one last chance to do the right thing and return to the Families. I’m confident that when your little girlfriend is six feet under for daring to challenge us, you’ll remember that you can have literally any piece of pussy in this City, and you’ll thank us for setting you back on the path you were born to walk.
Nothing is worth giving up your place as Heirs of the Four Families of Saint Gabriel City. Do you hear me? Nothing .”
I felt the boys tense next to me. As impervious as they were to their parents’ insults and threats against them, they were a lot more sensitive when those insults and threats were directed at me.
Bennett squeezed my hand, and I knew he was about to turn this meeting over to me.
He looked at his father one last time. “Jolie Knight is the love of my life, and you took her from me. You slaughtered her parents right in front of her and ordered the same for her—an eleven-year-old child —and then you lied to me about it for years . You claimed they’d broken the code of the Families—that Jeffrey Knight and his entire Family deserved to be dragged into that conference room and executed.
We know now what a crock of shit that was, and we’re never coming back to the Families.
You three made your bed, now you have to fucking lie in it . ”
James paled, while Andrea’s face had grown redder, if that was even possible. Peter appeared puzzled, like he just couldn’t comprehend that we’d somehow discovered the truth and that his son could really be finished with him forever.
I stepped forward, feeling so much strength in the wake of Bennett’s impassioned declaration. With my boys standing behind me, I was unstoppable.
I was loved .
“I was just wondering, Mr. Spencer,” I said, examining my dagger as I twirled it lazily through my fingers. “Have you heard from Anders lately? ”
It took him a moment to tear his wide-eyed stare from Bennett, but those evil brown eyes finally slid over to me. “Your uncle appears to be missing,” he said through gritted teeth. “And I suspect you’re about to tell me that you know where he is.”
I chuckled, all of my energy focused on keeping a light, unaffected air in front of the man who’d killed my dad when I really just wanted to rage and tear his still-beating heart from his body.
“I actually don’t know where he ended up.
” I tossed a look over my shoulder at Zach.
“Does your cleanup crew have a favorite dumping ground?”
He smirked at me. “They have a few, Princess. Want me to get an exact location so we can head out there and piss on his grave?”
I blew him a kiss. “Next date night, babe.”
“ Enough ,” James spat. “Congratulations, Miss Knight. You’ve apparently murdered your own uncle. And here I thought the deaths of your family members were why we’re all here in the first place.”
“No,” I snapped. “I did not kill my uncle—though I would have loved to have had the pleasure. Your son killed my uncle with his bare fucking fists. Do you want to hazard a guess as to why?”
All three of them glared at me in silence. They knew what was coming.
“That’s right. Anders confessed to everything because he thought I was going to hand him the keys to the kingdom he’s been desperate for all these years.
Bennett did not take kindly to hearing how my uncle sold his own flesh and blood to you three criminals for the false promise of money, power, and apparently that reprehensible cunt, Elise Proctor. ”
“Preach,” Zach muttered.
James Spencer finally took a seat at the table, feigning calm, but I knew he was seeing the hope they’d all held onto of finally getting their hands on my father’s discovery dissolving right in front of his eyes. He steepled his fingers under his chin and gave me an assessing once-over.
“I assume you’ve unlocked your father’s flash drive.”
“Yes.”
“And I assume you’ve ascertained the value of what was contained there.”
“Yes.”
“So, you understand that your father would have had the power to ruin all of us. To destroy the institution of the Four Families because he found it so… distasteful . To upend the way things are done in this City. To bury Hargraves, Ferrero, and Spencer if he so chose.” He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, and his hard stare once again darted to Bennett, almost imploring .
“We made a calculated decision to defend the Families. You would have done the same in our shoes.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Father,” Bennett replied, bored. “How does it feel to sit there today and know that it was all for nothing?”
Noah chimed in, staring at his own dad like he was a bug under his shoe. “How does it feel, Dad, to know that by murdering two innocent people and attempting to murder a child just to steal the tech breakthrough of the decade, you’ve now lost your Heir and all of Hargraves?”
“And how does it feel, Mom,” Zach added with his own maniacal grin, “to know that I hate you so much for what you did to my girl that I broke every bone in the body of the one man left on the planet who could stand your presence for more than ten minutes? That I’m going to enjoy every second of watching the love of my life tear down what’s left of Ferrero brick by brick? ”
“And how does it feel to know, illustrious leaders of the Four Families of Saint Gabriel City,” I went on, because we hadn’t even gotten to the real kicker.
“That the one thing you wanted—the thing that set all of this in motion—is so far out of your reach now that you will never, ever have it? Miraculene is now the property of the Knight Foundation, and we’ve gifted all of my dad’s research to universities around the globe.
The money made from this revolutionary technology will be going into scholarships and grants for low-income students.
Nobody is going to become obscenely rich from my dad’s work, and the world is going to be a better fucking place because of it. ”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” James shouted.
“Noah, I think we should talk about this—” Peter began.
“Zachary, you will speak to me this instant—” Andrea barked.
“We’re done here,” I announced. “It’s over for you three. I’m coming for what’s left of the Families. The Shadows are coming for you, too, and your sons will be with us every step of the way.”
The silence stretched for what felt like hours as we all stared at one another, resignation finally seeping into each of their addled minds.
Eventually, James spoke, his words low and dark.
“We will not hold back. We will end you, little girl, and our sons will watch it happen as punishment for their terrible decisions. There are no rules in this game, but you will not create a mess like the one you made in Industrial City at this Academy.”
Oh, God forbid the Families’ crown jewel be tainted by the war they started seven and a half years ago. They wanted things to seem like business as usual, and a big part of that was having the Heirs they hoped would return to them continue to go to class like nothing was amiss.
“Fine,” I said. It benefited us to have the Academy as a neutral zone, anyway.
“Let’s go, Angel,” Bennett said, and James blanched at the beautiful name his son had given me. “I’m tired of my father’s eyes being on you.”
I clasped his hand in mine, and Noah threaded his fingers through my other one. We gave their parents our backs.
“Noah!” Peter’s voice was desperate.
“Zachary!” Andrea shrieked.
“Bennett.” A last low, threatening growl from James.
We slammed the conference room doors in their faces, marched past their still-bound guards, and my boys left the Four Families behind for good.