Page 112 of Wicked Knight (Knight's Ridge Empire 1)

“Seb,” Theo booms, dragging my attention to where he’s grappling with one guy while the other has Alex pinned beneath him, his hand wrapped around Alex’s throat hard enough to make his face turn purple.

“Shit,” I hiss, but before I manage to get over, a small red laser dot appears on the guy’s temple.

I glance out the window and narrow my eyes but see nothing.

I can only hope he’s found his target and it’s not a fucking Mariano trying to take us the fuck out.

I don’t get another second to consider the possibility of that sniper not being on our side before he takes his shot.

The warmth of the guy's blood sprays me, covering my face and body as he falls limp on top of Alex.

With one final hit to the guy Theo is fighting with, he drops to the floor like a sack of shit.

“Bro, you okay?” I ask, pushing the dead body from Alex and helping him up as he heaves in deep breaths.

“Yeah, man. I’m good. What the fuck just happened?”

The door behind us opens as we stand in the middle of the carnage and a smug as fuck Daemon comes strolling in with a fucking rifle in his hand, as if he hadn’t just killed a man and saved his twin’s life.

“That was the beginning of war,” Daemon says as casually as if he’s talking about the fucking weather.

“And we were put in the middle of it because…”

“A test.”

“Great,” Theo mutters, clearly pissed off that Daemon was in on it when he should be one of us.

A noise comes from the corner of the room, and we all turn to find Marco hunched in the corner. I’m not sure if it’s him or the dead body lying on the floor, but it smells suspiciously like someone’s pissed themselves. From the look on Marco’s face, I’d be tempted to say it’s him.

“Alex and I will take him in. I’ve already got men on the way to take those idiots. You two clean this fucking mess up and meet us back at the hotel.”

Before either of us has a chance to argue, Daemon has Marco off the floor and is frog marching him out of the flat.

“Later then,” Alex says, shooting a salute to Theo.

“Is he for fucking real?” Theo barks the second their footsteps have disappeared.

“Daemon’s a fucking psychopath. The boss might let him in on this kinda shit, but he’ll never take control.”

Theo’s teeth grind in frustration before he pulls his phone from his pocket and sets about calling in the clean-up team. He doesn’t bother updating the boss—he knows full well that Daemon and Alex will do that for him.

“Go find a bathroom and clean your fucking face,” he mutters, reaching down to pick up the couple of guns littered on the floor. “You’re covered in Italian blood.”

Thankfully, backup arrives before either of the Italians wake up, and it’s just over an hour later when we finally make our way out of the diner. Only this time, we go via the back door.

If we wanted this place shut down, we could do it in a heartbeat, but Marco’s diner is a good earner, thanks to the extra kitchen in the basement—hence why the fucking Marianos want it.

“This was not how I was expecting my day to go,” I mutter as we make our way back to Theo’s car.

“What, finger banging the princess in front of us all and then ending up in a fight with the Italians? Thought that would be what you spent the night dreaming of.”

“Well, when you put it like that.”

We fall silent as Theo pulls away from the pavement and joins the queue of traffic.

He’s still white knuckling the wheel, or at least he would be if his skin wasn’t completely busted up and covered in blood.

“You okay, man?” I ask, wondering where his head is at.