Page 92 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
“Really,” Zach replied. “Anzaldua would be a huge get for Knight, but not at the expense of our values.” He glanced at me, his smile widening. “Fuck, it feels awesome to have values.”
“Sure does,” Noah agreed from his spot on the other end of the couch.
“I…,” Mari began before she shut her eyes with a pained expression.
“I haven’t seen them since the holiday break.
They’ve only been getting wo rse about my relationship with Carmen.
And yet, I still can’t believe they went around me to get to my best friend.
Through Zach . Ugh.” Her eyes popped open, and the fierce girl I knew as my best friend was back.
“We’ll set the meeting, but let’s make them sweat for a while.
I can’t wait to see their faces when they figure out who holds their fate in her expertly manicured hands. ”
I let out a sigh of relief, and Bennett squeezed me affectionately.
The road to “good friend" status was going to be a long and bumpy one, but I hoped this was a start.
Our Saturday afternoon was spent in the library, huddled at the end of one of the long study tables.
Someone had cleaned the blood off the door to the conference room and the carpet below it, and now students were spread across the cavernous room, whispering, working, and oblivious to the gauntlet that we’d thrown down in here twenty-four hours ago.
I was sitting next to Zach, and Bennett worked on my other side at the head of the table. Mari and Noah took up the seats across from us, and we’d all managed to make headway on the homework we were very behind on after the events of the week.
We were also far enough away from the nearest of our classmates to speak freely while still being out in the open and seen by half the student body—because while none of us trusted James Spencer as far as Mari could throw him, we knew the Families’ desire to make a giant mess by attacking us around other Academy students was low.
“That’s close,” Noah said to Mari as he looked over her Chem homework. “But you missed number four and number fifteen.”
“ You try spending most of the semester with Annie as your lab partner,” Mari huffed at him. “I know she’s not dumb, but that professor-banging skank was not a team player.”
I snorted, and even Bennett had lightened up enough these days to crack a smile.
Might’ve had something to do with the fact that I was currently playing footsie with him under the table, but who could say?
I grinned at Mari. “Did you thank Noah for ridding you of Annie forever? ”
She pursed her lips and waved a dismissive hand at me. “Um, no, because he did that for you , chica. And I’m certain you’ve already thanked him in ways he really appreciates.”
“ Mari .”
Noah’s beautiful smile was only the slightest bit smug. “She’s not wrong.”
“Angel,” Bennett rumbled, and Mari visibly swooned just as she had the first time she’d heard Bennett’s name for me.
He hooked his foot around my ankle, inviting me to tear my heart-eyes away from Noah.
Zach was still engrossed in his tablet, but he continued to absently trace patterns on my thigh with his fingertips as he read.
I looked at Bennett. “Hmm?”
“I think we all need to acknowledge that our parents are dropping the pretense of being unwilling to kill you,” Bennett said, almost keeping the distress from clouding his face.
“You’ve moved against the Families publicly multiple times, and you’ve hit them hard enough that even their strongest allies are about to jump ship.
They’re desperate enough to risk their image now. ”
Zach grunted in agreement. “Especially because you have us. They made it extremely clear that they think we’ll run right back to them if they can just get rid of you.”
None of this was news to me, but I hated to see the strain of worry that had crept onto all three of my boys’ faces, not to mention the near panic on Mari’s. “I know,” I said with a wry grin. “But history shows I’m pretty hard to kill. I’m like a cockroach.”
No one found that amusing.
I sighed. “We’re prepared for this, guys. I know it’s all new to you, but I’ve known I was going to be in this position for seven long years. We’re full steam ahead, and we’re going to end it as soon as possible.”
“So, what’s next, then?” Mari asked tentatively, like she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.
“Well,” I began. “Noah’s already taken everything worth having from Peter.
” I beamed a loving smile his way, and he preened.
“And Andrea’s scrambling. Ferrero makes a lot of its money with guns and muscle, and Zach’s cut her off from just about any capable assistance she could hope to procure after we blew a hole in the Ferrero Enforcers. ”
“Amazing what you can do with a little money and the connections you make being forced to do the Family’s dirty work for years,” Zach mused, now tucking his hand in between my legs like a deviant.
“But Spencer still stands,” Bennett said. “They’ve lost their major tech VCs to Knight, but my father’s empire is still mostly intact. He’s plotting.”
I twirled my pen between my fingers, wishing it were my knife. “I know. Zepp and Silver are working on something, but I think we need a shot across the bow, like, soon.”
“Spencer cares the most about the Family image,” Bennett said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. He’d dressed down today in his crew shirt and team joggers, and his corded forearms flexed with the movement—something I could now ogle to my heart’s content without a shred of guilt.
He clocked where my eyes went, and while his reproachful face said, “Behave,” his heated eyes definitely said, “I’m going to fuck your brains out later.
” I smirked at him, but he forged on. “As the white-collar powerhouse, Spencer has a higher proportion of investors and partners who find the violence, murder, and underhanded shit… distasteful. They know it exists, but they don’t actually want to be publicly associated with it.
It may be time to make another huge statement in the press. ”
“I can help with that,” a deep voice purred, and Raiford Montgomery sauntered out of the stacks, raking his hand through his blond coif and flexing a bicep in his polo shirt as he moved.
He grabbed a chair from the table next to us and pulled up a seat at the corner of ours, right smack dab in between Bennett and me. He gave me a lascivious smile, and if my boys’ looks could kill, Raif would be dust in the cracks of the hardwood floor right now.
“Is that so?” Mari asked, lightly elbowing Noah as I smothered a snicker.
“Sure,” he said, oblivious to how close to death he was walking as he continued to give me his flirty eyes. “I have a proposal for the lovely Knight Heir, if she’ll hear me out.”