Page 157 of The Silent War

Reasonable.

I leaned forward, chair legs screeching against the concrete. The table shook when I set my hands down.

“The Crows’ drugs are pure. No one else can match it. Ourguns run clean. No faulty crates. No street misfires. You don’t bargain with that. You don’t bargain with us.”

Dante shifted, pen caught between his fingers. Marek stopped breathing for half a second.

“You take the price we set, or I put your bodies in the same dirt I bury their supply.”

No raise in tone. No need. The truth did the work.

The warehouse went still.

Marek’s eyes dropped first. Callum swallowed. Dante’s pen slipped, clattering against the table.

Rome smirked like he’d been waiting for it. Luca didn’t even bother looking up from his ledger.

If they wanted drugs, they would pay the price we set.

It should be as simple as that, but it never was. Everyone loved to argue to make themselves taller. And this was just another hour of my day wasted.

The screen glowed in my lap. Emilia’s location pulsed steady on the app. She hadn’t moved for an hour. Still in the same building. Still at the dinner. And the longer I stared at the screen, the heavier it felt.

“She’s still there,” I muttered.

“Her headache isn’t gone.” Luca didn’t look over, just watched the road. “She was rubbing her temple when she got in the car this morning. Tried to hide it. She only does that when she doesn’t want us to know.”

“She thinks we can’t tell.”

“We always tell.” He flicked his eyes to the screen in my hand, then back to the windshield. “If it carried through to today, whatever’s eating her hasn’t shifted.”

I exhaled through my teeth. “We’re not waiting. Dinner’s done by now.”

“Good.” His mouth curved faintly. “Because if I have to watch that dot on a screen for another hour, I’ll put my fist through the glass.”

I typed the message short, final.

We’ll be taking her from here.

Sent to her security detail.

Luca leaned back, wiping the camera angles and checking who was out the front. He didn’t need to tell me what he was doing, and I didn’t need to tell him. We just knew.

The same rhythm —one thought, two bodies.

Even from a block out, I saw the flags. Two crests hung heavy. Two dynasties announcing a merger.

The Dynasties like to make everything a statement. The truth was similar the merger that was announced tonight, would have been between two people who were merging for the bloodlines, not for love.

We pulled to the curb. I spotted her instantly. Standing at the base of the steps, dress catching the light, hair pinned back. She was talking to Vivienne Kingsley. Dynasty daughters together, polished, smiling as though the weight didn’t hurt them.

“She’s beautiful.” Luca’s voice dropped, softer than I’d heard it all day.

“Always.”

He paused, “Can’t wait to see her in Crow colors.”

My gaze didn’t leave her. “Our girl’s gorgeous. But I’m sick of seeing her in Adams blue.”