Page 161 of Only Fools Rush

“Damn, Fallon,” I breathed. Beside me, Willow and Zoya burst into laughter. I sat up a little straighter. The heaviness in my body lifted somewhat.

She was right.

Yeah, I was a fucking queen. And I had five kings at my side.

Ever since the club explosion, I’d been so worried about failing—about proving to everyone around me that I was strong—that I lost sight of the fact that this burden didn’t fall singularly on my shoulders. We were supposed to be a team.

We weren’t perfect human beings. Mistakes were bound to happen. They were unavoidable.

What mattered was that we were there to catch one another, and love one another, when we did.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, rubbing my chest absentmindedly.

“I once gave you a choice, Leona,” Fallon said. “I offered you a chance to run, but you chose to search out Wynn and the Shadows instead. I’ll give you another choice now. Do you want to stay in New York? Fight for the future you believe in, with these men by your side? Or do you want to come back to Philadelphia with me and the girls?”

I swallowed, looking between them. They all looked at me with kindness, not one ounce of judgment within the circle.

The idea of leaving cut me even deeper than the lies. I knew, as soon as she offered me that decision, that I couldn’t walk away from them. I still felt raw. There was still a lot the six of us needed to work through, but I knew my answer.

“Thank you, Fallon,” I said as a tear dropped down my cheek. “But I know my choice. I’m staying. For them. For us. For the future of our syndicate.”

We could fix this.

If they still wanted to be a team, I was all in, even when they made mistakes, too.

Willow smiled and grabbed my hand. “I don’t know the first thing about running a city or all this dangerous mafia stuff, but I do know that you get to decide how you want this relationship to look. You arepartners. Partners talk about things. Partners work through things.”

“You’re right.” I glanced at the closed bedroom door. My men were just beyond that door. “I need to talk to them.”

“I’m proud of you, Leona.” Fallon stuffed another handful of popcorn in her mouth. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re making the right choice.”

“Me, too,” Zoya pipped up. “I want a future where women get to claim their power. So don’t give up.”

I snorted a laugh. “I’ll do my best.”

“But!” Fallon said when I shifted on the bed. “It’s girlsnight. Talk in the morning.”

I leaned across the bed and pulled her into a bear hug. She grumbled, but her hand came around my back to pat my shoulder.

“When I was in your position, I had only just met Willow. I didn’t have a lot of women to help me. But the women that were in my life got me through some really hard shit. We need more queens in the world.”

“Thank you,” I said, releasing her, and meeting both Willow and Zoya’s smiles. “I think we have a pretty fucking badass group of queens right here.”

46

RYUJI

Iwas on my second glass of scotch when Fallon Byrne knocked on the front door and Wynn, the little bastard, let her in. I had a knife in my palm within an instant, but he insisted. He took her—with his sister and Zoya—straight to Leona’s room.

What were they doing here?

It didn’t matter. I didn’t care.

By my third glass of scotch, anger leeched from my limbs, along with my sober state of mind.

I sank into the couch cushions, propping my feet on the coffee table while nursing the remaining brown liquid. A shadow passed over my eyes, and I opened them to find icy blues glaring at me.

“The fuck, Ciel?”