Page 74 of Jace
“Like lions,” Ruby corrects me.
It strikes me immediately. “Wait.” I glance from her to Delphine. “If you two are here, then who’s watching the scumbro?”
I know Axel and Ruby’s kids are with Ruby’s sister, Scarlett, in The Mercier’s penthouse upstairs. Luca Mercier is Ruby’s brother-in-law.
But at this rate, I’m surprised the whole damn hotel isn’t in here.
Delphine flits her hand at me. “That iswhywe are here. The merde is at your house.” She addresses Vivian. Typical queen. Her true loyalty lies with her. “He is waiting for you. You do not have much time. What is your plan?”
I bark, taking over. “I shadow Vivian and kill that fucker if he breathes near her.”
Ruby rolls her eyes. “Okay, hot Reacher.” It’s what she affectionately calls me and Grant. Apparently, we look like the massive one, not the little Tom Cruise one. “We’ve had this discussion before,” Ruby sweetly chides. “Don’t go stealing a woman’s victory by trying to save her. A lioness can save herself.”
“Ouais,” Delphine adds. “This is Vivian’s fight. She just needs you to guard her pride.”
“Spoken like my court of queens.” Mom beams, patting her granddaughter’s back, murmuring over her soft curls, “Isn’t that right, my little lioness?”
Again, typical.
Our beautiful queens keep their kings in check. Too bad we love them more than logic allows. It’s instinct. They can’t tame us. We’re still beasts.
“But like hell if we ever abandon a queen,” I argue. “We kill for you.”
“He’s right.” Grant has my back. He adores Vivian. She brings him gummy bears, got him trained like a dog with a bone, so he protects her, warning, “Don’t trust a man when he’s shown you that he can’t be trusted. One wrong smile at you, and that fucker dies.”
“Ouais, mon amour.” Delphine pats Grant’s shoulder, her smile sarcastic but warm. “Smart plan. Kill him, and the video lives forever.”
“That’s what I keep saying,” Vivian chimes in, sweetly but determined. “Look, I appreciate what everyone’s doing for me. Truly. I can’t thank you enough, but I know how to fix this now. It’s David’s cousins. They’ll be in Florida, where I’ll encourage him to party with them for two weeks straight, buying you enough time to search their homes here. They’ll have no drunk idea while you find those servers. That’s the plan; trust me.”
Delphine piles on. “Trust a woman’s intuition.”
“And our intelligence.” Ruby pulls a white velvet jewelry box from her purse. “The Queen asked me to bring this. It’s my tracking necklace.” She hands it to Vivian, winking. “Press it if you need help with your tiny ex-dick, and wear it if you want your pierced king’s dick to stalk you down a dark alley and lift your skirt and?—”
“AndMom doesn’t need to hear that story,” Axel interjects, almost laughing.
Unfazed, Mom kisses Zarina’s cheek. “Whatever gives me grandbabies.”
Ruby shares the PG version of Axel stalking her, while I just gaze at Vivian.
I can’t deny that her plan is smart.
So why can’t I shake the instinct that it’ll go wrong?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
JACE
“So this is billionaire’s row?”
“Yep.”
“Why doesn’t the scumbro suck off Mommy and Daddy’s tit and stop trying to take Vivian’s money?”
Grant’s full of questions, and I’m full of rage.
“Because they cut him off.” I suck my teeth, scanning through the binoculars.
We chartered a fishing yacht. It’s bobbing in the calm intracoastal lagoon on one side of the estate where Vivian’s staying on Palm Beach Island, with the Atlantic on the other.
