Page 33 of Ascendant King

“No.” I shook my head.

“Yes.” He grinned. “You remember Mikey? He used to work up at the Mission? He was the guy who trained you up?”

My mouth went dry, and I tried to swallow, but nothing would come.

“Mikey, Mikey. You’ve got peanuts for brains, Miles. Youtoldhim. You gave him enough information that he put two and two together, and he was smart enough to figure out that meant one of the Castillo kids had survived.” Declan leaned back, steepling his fingers, the light from the lamps catching on the shine of his shoes. “Only by then,youwere looking like a good prospect, and Mikey was on his way out anyway. It was very easy to arrange a wrong spot, wrong time for him. Pop, pop, and my new little soldier now has a patch of his own.”

“No.” I pressed my hands firmly on my thighs. “No.”

“Yes.” Declan sneered. “I could even tell you who pulled the trigger, but I bet you already know.”

“Percy?” I shook my head, my whole world falling apart. Percy had been stealing from the organization—that was what Declan had said. I had waited for him to get into his car and thenstrangled him with a garrote. Declan had given me a bonus and a promotion.

“B-I-N-G-O, bingo.” Declan dropped his hands, watching me curiously, as though he could see every thought going through my head, every shift in my worldview. “You were so eager to be of help. I’d saved your life. You remember what you said to me?”

“‘I’ll give him what he deserves.’” The words came out without thought, only at seventeen, I’d said them so eagerly, so happy to prove myself.

“And you did! Percy wasnota good guy.” Declan shook his head. “Maybe he was stealing from me, who the hell knows.”

“You can’t prove any of this,” I said. He couldn’t. Because this was just my mind making up things, deciding to make me feel more guilty. It wasn’t true. It was just a fiction I’d made up.

“No.” Declan smirked. “No I can’t, but it’s going to eat at you now, isn’t it?”

I took a long breath, letting it fill my stomach. I couldn’t think of anything else to say to him.

“That’s the thing about being king. You’ll figure it out soon. When you’re king, you decide who lives, who dies, and how. You put the pieces on the board, and you play them as best you can, because you know who you can’t ever risk?” He wiped a finger across his brow, adjusting the fall of his hair. “The goddamned king.”

“I managed to take you out,” I said. “Pretty easily, too, since you let Leon put you in a corner. I guess only one of us is going to be dancing at the big end-of-summer party.”

“Leon. You know who doesn’t doubt he’s a king? Leon. That snot rag.” Declan stood, pacing back and forth. “He’s too smart for you. He’s not going to make the same mistakes I did. He’s not going to make the mistakesyoudid. Going home? Letting all those losers live here with you? Letting in people you know you can’t trust?”

“I have to,” I repeated. “Ihaveto.”

“You are theking—you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Declan strode toward me and stopped just in front. He tapped his finger against my forehead, and I didn’t feel any pressure, but I was sure I could feel it, the echo of it on my skull. “Get it through this lump of rock you’re calling a brain. You are the king.Youdecide what you do. The second you let anyone else start calling the shots, you’re a pawn.”

I stood, glaring down at him. “Then what does that make you, Declan?”

He chuckled mirthlessly. Shaking his head, he stepped away, looking down at himself. “That makes me a fool. Sure, I’ll admit it. I’m a pawn and not even a useful one.”

“Why did you do it?” I said. “Why did you get into bed with Leon? You knew better. You taught me better.”

“Sometimes we all do stupid things. You know what I could do with the kind of money he was offering? I could expand. I could take over San Francisco and Sacramento. I could retire.” Declan’s lips twisted. “Doing what he wanted already got me owning property in Los Santos. You know how expensive those buildings were? AndIowned them.Me.The little brat from the Mission. The one they won’t let into any of their fancy clubs to drink their overpriced martinis.”

“And then you got got,” I pointed out. “He put some cheese in a trap, and it caught him you.”

“Nah, I was never the rat he wanted to catch.” Declan walked over to the window and considered the darkness outside. The building was almost completely surrounded by fence and privacy shrubs.

“Cade?” I guessed.

“That freezer you want to stick your dick in? No. The ice prince wasn’t ever Leon’s goal. Just a side benefit. Like me, I guess.” Declan’s eyes flicked up, catching mine in the reflectionon the glass. “You don’t understand a single word I’m saying, do you? You’re still going to go out, looking into these mystery dealers, seeing your mom’s old pack, being the same good lieutenant you were when you worked under me.”

“If being like you gets me killed by Leon, I definitely want to avoid it,” I said. “And Cade isn’t cold.”

Declan barked a laugh. “That’s what you want to focus on? All the advice I just gave you and your focus is on the kid who doesn’t even have the bling to back up his title?”

“You’re my imaginary Declan. I can tell you how I want you to talk,” I said. “And I don’t want anyone talking about Cade like that.”

“You don’t,” Declan said. “Christ. I wish I could smoke.”