Page 95 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER TEN

JOLIE

“ W e are indeed troubled by the allegations made by Miss Knight, especially given that she has been able to produce the evidence regarding the astounding miraculene research left to her by her father. We are also sickened by the violence perpetrated against her that Montgomery Star Media was able to record. As such, we will be ending our partnership with Spencer, effective immediately .”

I leaned closer to Noah, looking over his shoulder to watch the end of the press conference being held by the largest global investment bank in New York City as it played on his phone.

We sat in the back row of our Monday morning Finance class, waiting for the professor to begin his lecture while also pretending we didn’t feel the wary stares of almost every student at Holywell on us at all times.

A text popped up on Noah’s screen.

Bennett: Spencer stock is tanking

I pulled my phone from my bag to respond in our group chat.

Jojo: good thing I had Zepp invest your trust fund entirely in Knight last week

Noah snorted next to me. “He was ready to refuse every last dime from that trust. He’ll thank you later, I hope.”

I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Or spank me later, probably. ”

Noah hummed happily under his breath. “He wishes. You only let me do that, right, sweetheart?”

I felt the flush tinge my cheeks, but I kept it together, leaning in to brush my lips against his ear. “That’s right. I’m only a good girl for you, Noah.”

He shut his eyes and let out a low, pained groan.

Zach snickered from my other side. “That wasn’t nice, Princess. It’s been all work and no play around here lately, so the blue balls are really setting in.”

I turned to look at him, arching a brow. “The faster we break the Families down into the tiny, little pieces of garbage they are, the sooner we’ll have unlimited time for you three to just fuck me to your hearts’ content.”

Zach just smirked, those dark eyes full of a lot of promising things, before he turned back to his phone and his new partner in crime—Mari, who sat on his other side.

They’d been plotting the fates of the various Ferrero cast-offs knocking at Knight’s door, and their blossoming friendship made my heart squeeze a little.

He tossed his phone onto his desktop as he got to chatting with Mari, and it was then that I noticed Zach had set the lock screen to a still shot of me from the attack at Montgomery Star Media.

I was standing tall behind the flipped craft services table, my dress torn and my hair askew as I held my Glock high to take out the last remaining Spencer goon.

The reminder made me feel powerful while also scaring the shit out of me, because that Enforcer had been about to take a shot at Zach when I’d ended him.

While no one had sustained any major or lasting injuries—including Lucinda, her employees, and the few members of our Shadow team that had been on hand just in case things had gone exactly as they had—it had still been too fucking close.

The low thrum of dread that now beat through my veins was a new development.

When I’d started this journey in earnest—the day I’d shoved my grief aside and told Dom that I was going to destroy the Families for what they’d done—I’d numbed myself to anything that wasn’t the mission. I knew the risks, and I accepted them.

But now I had three of the biggest pieces of my heart back, and the thought of losing any of them in this war filled me with pure, unbridled terror.

I shook those thoughts away, refusing to collapse into an emotional puddle in the middle of Finance class. James Spencer was paying for endangering my boys, and he was about to pay some more.

The class passed quickly when I finally let myself become absorbed in the lecture.

When the professor dismissed us at the end of the hour, we packed our shit, unhurried, Mari and Zach still giggling together like schoolgirls and Noah continuing to shoot me heated glances that said he would bend me over his desk at the first available opportunity.

Hell yes .

“Ugh, what?” Mari suddenly spat at a group of students lingering a few rows below us, several of them shooting hateful glares in our direction. “If any of you have a grievance you want to address with the Heirs, I suggest you do it quickly or move along.”

Of course, Chad was at the center of this little group, with Dane Jefferson hanging awkwardly off to the side, and the small flock of Tier Two ass-kissers who ran around with Harper and probably fucked Chad on the regular were there to sneer at us too.

Chad’s beady eyes were hard, and he spoke through gritted teeth. “We don’t have anything to say to pretenders .”

Zach’s lazy smile was his most dangerous one. “Careful, Hendrickson. I don’t give a fuck if you insult me, but one word against my girl or Mari and you’ll find yourself having a really bad night tomorrow at Fight Night.”

The girls tittered, and Chad’s eyes widened just a fraction before he scoffed.

“Whatever, Ferrero. Once that cunt is put down, all the cowards who fled the Families will end up right back where they were. This little war your bitch started because she’s a hysterical drama queen is only going to end one way. ”

I felt Zach vibrating next to me, and Noah had just blown a hard, calming breath through his nostrils.

I knew the feeling—it had taken a mountain of self-control to stop myself from beating the life out of Chad Hendrickson every single day since I’d first stepped foot in Holywell Hall.

Forcing an unaffected smile, I ran a soothing palm down Zach’s back while squeezing Noah’s hand with my other. “It’s okay, guys. Chad’s a little sore the feds just came knocking at the Hendrickson manor, aren’t you, buddy?”

Chad’s square face flushed red all over. “The feds don’t fucking scare my father. You should’ve stayed dead, bitch, because now it’s open season.” He jerked his head at his groupies, and they trotted after him as he stalked off.

Zach cracked his knuckles. “Tomorrow night’s gonna be a fucking bloodbath.”

That threatening growl reverberated in my panties. “Can’t wait.”

“You’re calling it ‘Operation Perv Sweep’?” Mari asked around a bite of her salad. “Did Zepp name that one?”

“Silver, actually,” Noah replied, taking a sip of his second coffee of the day.

Hannah Langford gaped at us. We’d dispensed with the raised table and were back in our usual seats at lunch, so Hannah, John Tyler, Raif, Devin, and a few of Devin’s very chill Tier Two buddies had joined us.

“You sent the feds after a dozen Spencer-connected families?” Hannah asked, incredulous.

“I can’t believe the feds finally grew enough balls to even set foot in this City. ”

I shrugged. “They’re feeling braver since Knight invited them here.”

Mari’s shrewd gaze cut across the aisle to where Chad sat with Harper and their dwindling but vocal group of students loyal to the Families.

Harper was comforting Chad, running her one good hand up and down his meaty arm and whispering to him.

“No wonder Chad was running his mouth earlier,” Mari said.

“His daddy might actually end up in jail.”

Bennett squeezed my thigh under the table, and I grabbed his hand, cradling it in my lap. This little project had been in the works for a while as our first real shot at Spencer, and Bennett had been all too happy to help bring it home last week after he’d abandoned his Family once and for all.

Over the years, the Shadows had collected information on a group of the City’s Spencer-connected elite whose special predilection was pornography featuring underage girls and boys.

We had a good batch of evidence on Benedict Hendrickson (and by association, Chad) and a few others, and then my venture into James Spencer’s safe had yielded his stash of blackmail material on several more Tier One Spencer allies.

Once Zepp had downloaded all of this information to Bennett last week, he’d been able to add the rest of the names.

“I wish I’d paid better attention to this shit, Angel,” Bennett mused, brooding next to me at the head of the table per his usual.

“My father used to bitch about Hendrickson and his little circle of deviants like they were risking the Spencer empire’s fake perfect image, but I hadn’t known he was talking about a fucking child porn ring. ”

I began rubbing little soothing circles on his palm with my thumb.

“I know, Bennett. There’s nothing you could have done, anyway, but you remembered all the names your father has ever complained about in connection with Hendrickson.

They’re all getting what they deserve because you were paying attention. ”

“Yeah, man,” Zach chimed in from his spot on Bennett’s other side.

“These pedos are about to get ass-fucked by the feds, and Spencer is going to be hard-pressed to stop the bleeding. Not even the most cynical of the greedy Tier Twos is going to want to touch any of these companies now, and your ability to collect and retain your father’s bullshit over the years was a huge part in making that happen. ”

Bennett huffed, but I caught the corners of his lips threatening to turn up in a smile. After years of constantly being called a failure by his father, it would take some time before Bennett would truly believe he was anything but.

I’d remind him at every turn, and so would Zach and Noah.

I floated through the rest of the day on autopilot, still trying to get back into the grind of school after everything that had happened in the past week.

I took grim satisfaction in the constant updates from our team on the downfall of the Spencer white-collar pedophile club, and, despite the rising tensions of this war that we all carried with us now day in and day out, I managed to sleep soundly that night with my boys curled around me.