Savage Queen (The Dark Elite #3) - Eva Ashwood Page 0,11

to give Zaid access to my neck. “Just… you.”

4

Grace

The living room is subdued and silent as the men pour themselves drinks and sit down.

As amazing as it was, Lucas, Zaid, and I didn’t get to linger as long as I would’ve liked in our post-sex haze of bliss. As the sweat began to cool on our bodies, we were forced to confront the fact that none of this is over yet.

After a few more whispered words and searching kisses, we all got up and showered quickly, then headed downstairs to meet with the others. This is the first time all of us have gathered somewhere besides the interrogation room in the basement since Leland came to the house.

When I find my seat by Hale on the low couch, I can’t help but think about how different things are now compared to when we were last in this room. How much more we know, and how that knowledge has changed all of us.

I’m not sure what time it is. So late that it’s early, I think. Probably only a few hours from dawn. Mafia hours are different from normal hours, because time doesn't seem to exist in the mafia. There are no off hours, no set hours to work. It happens when it happens; it could be midnight or four in the morning, and I wouldn’t know any differently.

I glance over at Zaid and Lucas, and a pleasant little shiver runs down my spine.

They did what I asked them to, and more. For a short while upstairs, I stopped thinking about all of this, stopped feeling the hurt and anger that’ve been churning in my gut. The only thing I could think about, the only thing I could feel, was them.

Both inside me. Both surrounding me.

My body can still feel the echoes of their touch, and it grounds me now, giving me strength and clearing my head.

“He’s in holding.” Ciro settles onto a large chair, rubbing his bruised knuckles. “He’s exhausted, but if he thinks he’s going to get any sleep, he’s mistaken.”

As much as I hate Leland with everything in me, I can’t even begin to imagine what he’s going through. Whatever Ciro did to keep him from sleeping or falling unconscious, it’s just another form of torture like everything else he’s been through—he won’t be allowed to sleep until he gives us everything we want. And even after the men are satisfied they’ve gotten all they can from him, I’m not sure the living hell will stop.

Thinking about my earlier days here as a prisoner, when sleep was my only refuge and escape… I don’t envy him.

But my circumstances were always different than Leland’s.

I may have been a prisoner they didn’t trust in the beginning. Hale might’ve thought I had something to do with the other team of armed men who showed up on my wedding day, compromising everything. But still, I was never tortured, beaten, or sleep deprived. I was given my own room, a bed with Egyptian cotton sheets, a shower with three shower heads, and fresh clothes delivered to my closet.

Then again, I wasn’t a murderer or a double-crossing mole.

“We made a little more progress after you left, but not enough,” Ciro says. “He claims not to know much about the Rook Syndicate.”

“There's still too fucking much we don’t understand.” Hale takes a sip of his whiskey, grimacing. “Information that we may never know unless we talk directly to Camilla—even then, it’s not like she would be so gracious as to give us a summary of everything she’s been doing over the past several years.”

“What confuses the fuck outta me is that on the outside, she hasn’t been involved,” Lucas adds, annoyance coloring his tone. “From what Leland said, she’s not just part of the Rook syndicate. She’s their fucking leader. They’ve been on our radar for years, but we’ve never even had an inkling that she might be involved. For all we know, Leland could be lying to us, trying to pin the blame on the other syndicate—”

“He isn’t lying,” Hale says firmly. “We can spin ourselves in circles trying to figure it out, but until we have more information, we can’t move on it. The Rooks don’t trust us enough to open a meeting with us, and frankly, I don’t trust them either. All we know about Camilla is that she’s cunning and power-hungry, and that she’s got a vendetta against us and Grace. Until we know why, I’m not doing anything risky.”

He grimaces