her mouth falling open and closing again. A shake of her head as if fighting to make sense of it.
I stepped into her, refusing to sugarcoat the truth. “Gretchen is your mom.”
“What?”
Her voice came out on a shriek, disbelief flashing in her eyes.
“They set us up,” I explained. “The entire thing, to get us to this point.”
“Are you serious?”
Nodding, I held on to her, refusing to ever let go again.
Lisbeth stood silent for several minutes, her mind processing what I’d told her.
“Is there anything else?”
“Franklin killed everybody on the night of your ball. Other than that, there’s nothing else.”
She blinked, cringing as if punched in the face by the truth of her family, but then she shook her head. “I hate this fucking place.”
Laughter boomed out of me, a smile slashing a wide line across my face because I knew what she meant.
“Me too,” I agreed, trapping her chin in my hand to kiss her again, my arm slipping around her back to pull her close to me.
We stood together for a while before she spoke again.
“What do we do about it? Do we leave?”
My mouth curled with a better idea.
“We change it,” I finally said. “And make sure it never happens again.”
Determination sparked behind a set of eyes, their color a reflection of the sky.
“I know the first change that needs to be made.”
Curling my fingers through her hair, I met her stare with the promise to back up any decision she made.
“Will it piss them off?”
Her mouth curled with mischief and she nodded.
I saw her then.
The wicked bitch.
The petulant brat.
A woman determined to turn the world on its head to get everything she wanted.
I’d once hated that woman. Despised a strength of will that had forced me to my knees.
But in this moment I realized that I’d loved her that entire time as well because, in many ways, we were the same.
People tend to hate in others the very thing they have in themselves.
Leaning down, I whispered against her mouth, a temptation, a tease.
“Then why don’t we go back to my room for a while, and you can tell me all about your plans?”
Lisbeth laughed when I dragged her behind me, careful not to drop her to the ground like I’d done in the past.
Changes would be made. I was certain of that. But when it came to Lisbeth and me, some things were never meant to change at all.
We fell for each other when battling.
And we would continue to challenge each other because we wouldn’t be who we were without it.
Lisbeth
Outside a set of double doors, a crowd shouted for blood. The loud voices of the audience were a chorus of sound, their eyes locked on two fighters who had stepped into a ring in which only one would eventually walk out.
Tonight was Callan’s night to move through that lethal dance, my nerves on edge to think what could happen, my fingers curling into my palms with the worry that one night such as this could be his last.
Eight months had passed since the truth of the Rose family became known to us, eight months in which we’d taken a lesson from the generation before and made changes that we both felt were necessary.
In truth, there wasn’t much.
Franklin still managed the daily business affairs of the family, although he did so with the knowledge that Callan would rip him apart if he were every caught lying again.
Gretchen still managed the household staff. Callan’s mother had stepped into her new role among us and worked closely with Franklin and Gretchen both to ensure the house and family ran smoothly.
As Callan insisted long before I came back, the staff was treated extraordinarily well, the fighters were given their chance in the ring but also employed as guards.
But no longer was there a huge separation between the members of the Rose family and those who worked for them.
We were a larger family now, one made up of maids and butlers, fighters and guards, gardeners and kitchen staff, each person having pride in their part.
I refused to allow wealth to be the bar that established who was deserving.
Respect was paid to those who deserved it. It was earned. It was promised. And if anybody attempted to step out of line and demand it without reason, they were quickly dealt with by the lethal force I now called my husband.
Callan and I were the new heads of the Rose household. The power couple. The two people to whom everybody else answered if