Page 165 of Pretty When She Breaks

Come to the VIP Suite tonight—alone. If you don’t, we’re going to drug your precious feral and let Madison slice him to pieces in the Sink.

Laurel and Finch shared a look.

“That would work out very well, actually,” Finch said. “If you distract them upstairs, they won’t be waiting for us to free Ocean below.”

“They’ll probably have extra security down there, but we could go with my strategy for clearing out the staff.”

“What about you, though?” he replied. “That would put you right into their hands. They could hurt you.”

“I have my gun.” She patted her thigh.

“Still—”

A brilliant, beautiful idea occurred to me. “What if we use this against them? Because Madison will be down in the cages, right?” I said excitedly, blurting out the idea to the group.

Finch looked concerned, but Laurel’s and Jewel’s eyes lit up with the same excitement.

“I fucking love it. And I know how to cut the lights and everything,” she said.

“It’s certainly…dramatic,” Finch said. “And very risky.”

“It’s perfect. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it,” Laurel added, making me preen.

Finch looked at Laurel, his face softening. “Your wish is my command,” he said, nodding at her. I could tell it cost him a lot to go along with her, but it was worth it as she clapped her hands in delight.

“Kaos.” Finch turned back to me. “Did you get anything else from Dax’s phone?”

“Just more messages about them planning to kill Daddy Thaddy,” I said. “They delete them, but I have copies.”

“Kaos,pleasestop calling him that,” Laurel said as Jewel burst into another round of laughter. “But thank you for finding those. I need you to get those to Jag right before the matches start for the evening.”

“Sure thing,” I replied, and she gave me a smile. Nice.

“Okay. Let’s go get Jade and Casey caught up,” she said, hopping down from the beam. “No, you’renotcoming,” she added as Jewel jumped down beside her. “As if we need you and Jade in a room together right now.”

NINETY

FINCH

I followed Laurel through the door as she led me and Kaos into the staff dorms. I could hear Jade’s quiet voice coming from up ahead but couldn’t see the small beta yet.

“You should go set up the cot. Get some proper sleep,” she was saying.

“I’m all right,” another sleepy voice insisted.

“Hush. I know you’re staying out here for my sake,” she replied. “I’ll be fine.”

“What if there’s an incident while I’m gone? Then you’d have to deal with it on your own…” the other voice said. We rounded a corner, and I could see Casey and Jade on some old couches.

“I know you worry about me,” Jade was saying. “You worry about everyone. But I worry about you, peaches.”

They looked up, finally clued into our presence, and Jade dropped Casey’s hand.

“Glad to see you’re all right,” Casey said, standing up, genuine relief on his face.

“Come on. We can talk in our room. Then Casey can go to sleep after,” Jade added, turning and leading us into a small room with two twin bunks. We all filed in and closed the door.

Casey sat on one side, stifling a yawn, and Jade dropped down next to him. Laurel sat on the other, Kaos climbing behind her and wrapping his arms around her protectively.