Page 34 of Diary from an Inked Throne

“Fucking hell, Enzo. I was sleeping.”

Nice for some. I hadn’t slept properly ever since I’d fled Saint View with a baby who never shut up. My irritation only increased. “Sleeping, huh? Sleeping when you should be out hunting down my nephew? You remember him, don’t you? Around six feet. Dark hair. The heir to my brother’s throne because you didn’t do your fucking job in the first place and kill him when you said you were going to? This is what happens when you lie. When you let us think you had a job handled, but really you just faked the whole fucking thing.”

He blew out a long breath. “I had my reasons. But I said I would kill Luca Guerra and I will. You don’t need to worry about it. Once he’s dead, you can come back. How’s the baby? Still alive?”

“For now.”

He laughed liked we were friends, which we definitely were not. “I think we both know that baby is just fine. You have no choice but to keep him that way. He’s the only bargaining chip you have left, Enzo.”

Rage bubbled up inside me at the hide of this man. “Watch the way you speak to me.”

“Or what? You’ll send your men after me? You don’t have any. With Luca alive, all of your brother’s men fall in line behind him. We both know you’re nothing unless Luca is dead.”

“So fucking kill him! Kill him so this baby is the Guerra heir!”

The man sounded bored. “And so you, as his stepfather, can control it all until he’s eighteen?”

I breathed heavily, trying to fight the rage inside me. “Are you a man of your word or not? You owe me my nephew’s head.”

“Relax. I just had word from my men that he was seen back in Saint View. And if that’s the case, it’s only a matter of time before he finds his way back to Nyah. And that means…”

“You know where to find him.”

“Exactly. He’ll be dead by the end of the week.”

I twisted my head toward my motel room. The baby was crying again, loud enough I could hear it across the parking lot. I was going to lose my ever-loving mind if this didn’t get handled soon. “He better be. Because I don’t know how long I can keep this kid alive if he’s not.”

10

NYAH

Dear Diary,

Today we finally gave our little boy the one thing nobody could ever take from him.

All eyes turned to the four of us as we stepped outside the clubhouse doors. A crisp breeze blew across my skin, but Saint View never really got that cold, even in the thick of winter, and my jacket kept me warm enough.

But even though I was the perfect body temperature, I froze. I’d just been so confident, with the three of them backing me up, but one step out into the real world and it had disappeared.

All the Slayers and their families had come, along with Dax’s brothers and their dad, Stewart. Everyone had drinks in their hands, and there was food on every surface. Kids ran around, oblivious to the sudden tension I felt at having all these people stare at me with sympathy in their eyes.

Dax stepped forward, shielding me, so I had a second to compose myself.

He never let go of my hand though. If anything, he held it even tighter, and Lynx and Luca moved in so close behind me that the heat of their bodies permeated my jacket, warming my back. I hadn’t planned how this would go. We had no official celebrant. I’d figured we’d just get up and tell everyone the baby’s name, and that would be that. But now, that didn’t feel like enough.

Clearly, Dax felt the same way. “This is going to be out of left field, but just bear with me. Most of you know my mother died recently.”

That woke me up. It reminded me Dax had actually lost more than I had in the past six months. I wanted to show him as much support as he’d shown for me. I stepped out from behind him, taking my spot at his side, holding his hand so fiercely tight it probably hurt, but he didn’t complain.

His gaze stayed on our friends and family. “We only had a small funeral for her. Just me, my dad, and my brothers.”

Stewart dropped his gaze to the ground, and I wished I knew him well enough to go over and hug him. He seemed like he needed it. But I didn’t, and so I hugged the man I did know like the back of my hand, knowing he was hurting just as much, even if he was standing up here right now, making speeches.

“Her name was Virginia. And she was absolutely the best mom in the world. She was the sort of mom who came to every soccer game I had when I was five and shouted well-intentioned instructions at me, even though she didn’t understand the rules.”

King chuckled. “She did that to me too.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the thought, and then be sad all over again at the realization she was never going to get to see her grandson do that.