Page 155 of Wicked Empire (Knight's Ridge Empire 3)

“You’ve said it now. It’s time for the queen to take over your palace, Cirillo.”

All of us but Nico bark out laughs at the serious expression on Calli’s face. Girl’s not messing about.

And something tells me she’s about to cause her big brother—us—some fucking trouble in the near future.

“The princess has spoken,” Alex says with a wink in Calli’s direction.

She rolls her eyes at him and changes the subject.

“Anyone spoken to Emmie? She’s not answering her phone.”

All eyes turn on Theo, making him rear back. “What? Why would I have spoken to her?” he asks, completely affronted. But the second his eyes lock on mine, I read the truth. Cheeky fuck is lying through his teeth.

“She’s fine,” I answer for him.

“Yeah. So she managed to not get in the middle of your bullshit last night?”

I raise a brow at her.

“Our bullshit?” Theo asks. “Did you, or did you not, ask to become a part of this?” Her lips part to answer, but he beats her to it. “Our bullshit is now your bullshit. You might not have had your finger on the trigger, baby C, but you’re a part of this now, so suck it up.”

She swallows somewhat nervously at the serious tone of Theo’s voice.

“O-okay. Jeez. I just wanna know if my friend is okay.”

“She’s fine,” he says coldly, making me wonder if she actually is.

My eyes narrow at him, trying to read between the lines.

He went back in there last night because of her, I’d put fucking money on it.

Subtly, he shakes his head at me.

“I’m going to the toilet,” Calli huffs, taking off down the hall. She doesn’t need to ask where to go seeing as it was she and Selene who filled this flat yesterday with everything we’d need. It wasn’t only Stella’s outfit they went shopping for.

“Who’s got her knickers in a twist?” Alex asks.

“Don’t talk about my sister’s knickers,” Nico barks.

“Jesus,” Theo mutters, throwing a croissant at him. “Stuff that in your face and stop fucking talking.”

The buzzer rings out again and I push from the couch. There are only a handful of people who know about this place, so it’s not hard to guess who might have come to join us.

Checking the screen, I find exactly what I was expecting.

The devil of death himself.

“Morning, sunshine,” I sing.

Daemon stares back at me with his cold, empty eyes and doesn’t even crack a smile.

Weird fuck.

“How is she?” he asks, inviting himself in.

“Still sleeping, but she’s going to be okay.”

“Yo bro,” Alex says when I appear ahead of him. “Satan let you out to play today, huh?”