Page 161 of Wicked Empire (Knight's Ridge Empire 3)

Twisting back around to him, I show him how it looks.

“Even better than I could have imagined,” he mutters, his own fingers trailing down the chain, causing goose bumps to erupt across my body.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same about you.”

“Nah, baby. I’m worse. So, so much worse.”

His hand finds its home around my throat, and he kisses me entirely too thoroughly and dirtily, considering our family is right outside the door.

“I love you, Hellion. Never change.”

“Never. I love you too.”

Extended Epilogue

Theo

Her shriek of fright as I slam the door behind me makes a smirk curl at my lips.

Shaking my head, I step farther into the dark room.

Her wide, terrified eyes track my every step as I get closer to her.

“What do you—”

I don’t give her a chance to finish her dumb fucking question. Instead, my fingers wrap around her throat and I slam her back against the wall behind her.

“You think you’re so fucking clever, don’t you, Ramsey?”

My eyes narrow as I stare down into her dark ones, and my jaw tics in frustration.

The others seemed to miss the flash of dark hair that bolted from the corner of the room the second we stormed the Royal Reapers clubhouse. But I didn’t. I saw every second of Cruz dragging her away and hiding her in here to keep her safe.

A sneer pulls at my lips.

Fucking idiot.

If he wanted her safe, he shouldn’t have let her inside this compound in the first place.

“I-I don’t—”

“Don’t fucking lie to me.” My fingers tighten around her throat as her pulse thunders beneath them.

She likes to pretend that she’s not scared of me, that she’s immune to what everyone sees when they look at me. But I can see past that mask she puts on. I feel the tremble of her body when I touch her.

She’s not stupid, despite how she tries to act.

She knows she’s in the wrong here, and she’s fucking petrified.

“I’m not,” she snaps, trying to cling to her brave façade. “I had no fucking clue that you’d all be here tonight. That you’d…” She waves toward the wall that leads to the main clubhouse where Stella just put an end to one of the Reapers’ lives. The wall has a window in the middle of it, and despite the fact that we couldn’t see her hiding inside here, I just fucking knew that she could see everything.

And I was proved right the second I stepped in here and had a clear view of the chaos we left behind as Ram and the rest of his men scrambled around to remove the dead body from their floor.

Fucking idiots didn’t even see me slip back inside here, let alone hunt down their little princess.

A laugh rips from my throat.

Princess.