Page 123 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

“And what if he wasn’t? What if he actually liked me?”

Nico scrubs his hand down his face, taking a moment to figure out his response. The rest of us remain quiet, not wanting to get involved with their sibling spat despite the fact that Nico is obviously right.

“You’re unbelievable, Calli. You need to forget all about him. You’re just asking for trouble if you keep anything alive there.”

“Whatever,” she scoffs, neither confirming nor denying that she’s spoken to him again since that afternoon we caught them.

Calli silently fumes while Nico takes a pull on his beer with a smug-as-fuck smirk on his face, knowing that he won that round. Calli can argue all she likes; the hard facts are damning. Antonio was after something, something more than getting into her knickers and getting bragging rights over it. He was planted that night. Both of them were. It’s just yet to be seen as to why. Things seem to have quietened down again since the drama that day, or at least no one is telling me anything about it if they haven’t.

“I’m heading out,” Daemon says after a few seconds. “Calli, do you want a lift home?”

She glances over my shoulder at Daemon before drilling her brother with another deadly look.

“Yes, but not because of this wanker. Because it’s a school night.”

“Sure,” Nico chuckles.

“I just need to say goodbye to Stella and we can go.”

Daemon must agree behind me, because she hops through our outstretched legs and heads toward my room.

“Tonight was fucked up, man,” Theo offers when Calli has gone.

“You’re fucking telling me,” I say rubbing at my rough jaw as I shoot a look in Toby’s direction. He’s distracted, too busy staring down at his can to notice my attention. My heart shatters for him all over again.

“I guess you’re feeling pretty smug right now,” Alex mutters.

“W-what? Why the fuck would I be feeling that?” I bark back.

“Didn’t you see the look on Galen’s face when you walked away with the one thing he cares about more than anything? Pretty sure that right there was your sweet fucking revenge.”

“Not quite how you planned it, mind you,” Theo adds.

Their words roll around my head, but unlike what I expected only a few weeks ago, I don’t feel any kind of happiness or joy over the fact that I might just have won.

The reality is that while there’s someone out there who clearly wants to get to Stella, then we’re both at risk of losing. Because if he gets her again, if he hurts her again, I’m not sure I could cope. Especially if I weren’t quick enough next time.

“It wasn’t him,” I confess, repeating the one bit of information Toby gave me that I can share.

“What? How do you know that?”

“He told Stella and me before we left the house.”

“And you believed him?” Theo asks.

“Yeah. I did. After all this, after the way Seb’s treated him… If it were him, he’d just confess. He’s already lost. It makes little difference at this point.”

“I agree with him,” I say.

“You do?” Alex asks, looking genuinely confused.

I swallow down the last of my beer and drop my can to the table.

“He’s lost. There’s no point in covering it up anymore.”

“He was a scapegoat,” a deep voice says from behind me a beat before Daemon walks around to stand beside us all. “If what you’re saying is true, then Damien used him as a scapegoat, knowing he was leaving, to cover up who really did it.”

“But why? None of it makes any sense. Why did Galen need to leave at all?”