The Boss (Chateau #3) - Penelope Sky Page 0,63

flanked me on either side, armed under their jackets, in case the guards staged a coup or one of the women was angry enough to come for me.

One woman in particular.

My black horse was ready for my departure. He was mine exclusively, and I was the only one permitted to ride him. He was well trained and obedient with a black coat that rebelled against the white landscape. A gorgeous horse deserved the right rider, and I paid a sum greater than a car to be that rider.

I always wanted the best in life.

My eyes left the steed waiting for me and settled on Magnus.

With his hood pushed back, he waited for me to approach.

We hadn’t spoken after our tense conversation in the cabin. Wordlessly, he did his job, and I did mine. I didn’t wait for an apology or an admission of guilt, and even if it did happen, it wouldn’t change anything. The deep-seated loyalty I had for my brother was the reason he was still breathing right now.

I stared him down as I took the reins from the guard. “Leave us.”

They all obeyed immediately—the way Magnus should.

Their footfalls died away as they entered deeper into the camp, moving through the cabins and approaching the clearing.

I held the reins even though Horus remained still.

Magnus stepped closer to me, my height but leaner in his arms and torso. His eyes remained guarded and cold, unapologetic about the last words he’d spoken to me. “I’ve had a few conversations with the Colombians about the increased production. We’re working on a solution to our problem.”

“I want a solution. Not an update.”

“Solutions take time, Fender.”

“We are men who don’t try. We do. Remember the difference.” I expected every man who worked for me to bust his ass like his life depended on it. That was how we took over the entirety of France and claimed it as our territory. When a streetwalker got their hands on our drugs and started their own pitiful organization, they were taken out. We didn’t ignore them because their enterprise was laughable or because they were insignificant. We took on every single threat, no matter how small, just out of principle. Our business was run like a militia, with no exceptions. If you were going to bother to do something, do it the best. Something my father said when I was younger. The only advice I ever valued from that piece of shit.

Magnus’s eyes shifted back and forth.

“Anything else?”

He inhaled a breath, deep and slow, like he kept back everything he actually wanted to say.

My eyes burned deeper into his. “Speak.”

“Our operation is perfect. By scaling it up, we risk uncertainty. We risk a decrease in our product. We’ll need to find more girls. The bigger something grows, the more difficult it is to manage. We have more money than we can spend in several lifetimes. When will it be enough, Fender?”

My hands immediately squeezed the reins because my brother was a broken record. Nothing he’d said in the past had changed my mind. Nothing he said in the present or future would change it either. “Never. It’ll never be enough.”

His expression didn’t change, but his disappointment filled the air around us, an invisible energy. “You can’t prove anything to someone who’s dead.”

I would never stop. Everything had been taken from me, and I wouldn’t stop until everything was taken back. This was more than revenge. It was more than spite. It wasn’t even about proving anything to a man I’d murdered near a stream.

It was about proving it to myself.

That I won.

That my mother won. My sister. My brother.

My family won.

I looked into his face and saw the only person I had left. “Do I need to remind you that you would be dead if it weren’t for me? That you would have gone to bed for the last time and never awoken?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, growing more strained. “No.”

“Then I shouldn’t have to remind you that we’re all that’s left of our family name. I shouldn’t have to remind you that no amount of money will make us forget that our home was once a dumpster in an alley. That we couldn’t afford the doctor or the medication, so we had to steal to be able to get it. That we were jumped by full-grown men because we chose to take a different alley home. I shouldn’t have to remind you of the suffering we endured because he decided to be a coward and make