Page 126 of Revenge Saints

Knox looks at me, and it makes me sit up straighter. “We’ll need your help, Aspen.”

Finally.

Finally, he sees me as someone who can carry her own weight. “Of course. What do I need to do?”

“You’ll stay here. Ryker takes you to a tree near the perimeter. You stay hidden. Every time a group leaves the base, you signal us through the radio. No speaking, just three clicks. We’ll respond with two,” Knox explains, and I nod, taking mental notes.

“Won’t Roman notice?” He has Dante’s radio.” I ask gently.

Knox grins. Almost proud, I asked. “He will. But by the time he figures it out, it’ll be too late.”

“He’ll stop sending men,” Dante smirks, “but we’ll already have cut his numbers. He has at least twenty men,” Dante says, eyes on the map.

“That still leaves a lot.” I frown, trying to think of how to thin them out more, but Ryker chuckles.

“We can each take five,” he says casually.

I squint at him, grab a fistful of his hair, and tilt his head back to meet my eyes.

“If you can take five, then why reduce them at all?”

He grins. “It’s more fun this way. I love a good seek and destroy.”

He kisses me, and I roll my eyes.

“We don’t hit the base right away,” Knox says, leaning back, full of confidence. “We make Roman sweat. Keep his men on edge all night and all the next day.”

“They’ll be tired. Shaky.” Max grins, arms crossed, muscles shifting beneath his shirt.

“Just how we want them,” Dante says, slamming his knife into the table right over the nameRoman.

“We get our fucking home back,” Ryker growls, pulling me closer. I giggle at the dark look on his face.

“And we kill Roman and Bryn,” Knox stops.

His eyes shift to me.

“Kill Bryn?” The words come out trembling.

I know what she did. She helped Roman. Nearly got Dante killed. But… she was my friend.No, my sister.

The thought of killing her turns my stomach.

Knox meets my eyes.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, but,” He hesitates, gaze dropping to the floor.

“Brynn lied to you, Aspen,” Dante says quietly.

I push away from Ryker, stepping toward Dante without thinking, arms crossed tight. “What the hell does that mean?”

Dante doesn’t flinch. “When you saved her, those men weren’t hunters. They were from her community. She tried to take over by trying to kill their leader. They were trading her for supplies.”

His words gut me.

“No,” I whisper. “I saw them. They raped her.”

“I’m not saying they weren’t cruel,” he says, stepping closer. “But she wasn’t some helpless girl. She wasn’t dragged from a massacre. That story she told you? She rewrote it.”