The Favorite: A Dark Enemies To Lovers Mafia Romance (The Syndicate's Revenge Book 2)

by Mara McQueen

  Dima ran his sausage fingers down his beard. "We understand something happened the other day in your study."

  Ava blanched. She couldn't even breathe in the Capital without someone talking about it, could she?

  "I have nothing against Kimbra," she hissed and turned to the King and Queen, who were as silent as their son. So that's where Raiden had learned the quiet predator stare. They might've been dripping elegance, but there was an unmistakable ruthlessness shining in their grey eyes, waiting to snap at the right time. "Your Majesties—"

  "If not jealousy, then maybe something even more sinister," Banu said with vicious calmness. "You are, after all, Syndicate at heart, no matter how many of our jewels you wear."

  Oh, if they only knew what this Syndicate heart of hers was roaring to do right now. It sang for blood. Banu and Dima's, who were approaching Ava slowly, from both sides.

  She stood her ground, even as every cell in her body told her to step back. She felt the shift in the guards. The merciless anticipation. Danger pulsed all around them. Around her.

  Ava stood up straighter. Taller. She'd face whatever these two worms had planned for her.

  She'd escaped death once today—and weeks ago, too, she realized; today's blast had sounded sinisterly like the ones when she fell off Azor.

  The silence turned ugly and menacing, as the advisors closed in on her, ever so politely. The guards gripped their weapons tighter.

  Ava finally gulped. Nobody could defend her against all of them. Nobody in this room wanted to, apart from Seleka, and Ava wasn't about to let her face dozens of guards.

  "What, exactly, are you accusing my wife of?" Raiden's deep, cold voice slashed the room.

  Just like that, the tension dissipated, all eyes jumping expectantly to him.

  Ava breathed a sigh of relief despite herself. She should not be grateful he'd finally deigned to open his mouth.

  The advisors froze.

  Whatever sham of a smile Dima had vanished. "Your Highness, we need to take into account the possibility that—"

  Raiden raised his brows, the perfect image of a Clan Prince nobody dared disagree with.

  Banu licked her lips. "She might've been working with her cousins to destabilize our Clan, Your Highness."

  A funeral silence fell over the room.

  Before Ava could open her mouth—and nothing good was going to come out of it—Raiden's voice speared the room again.

  "Are you accusing my wife of treason?" he asked so darkly, Ava wondered how Banu wasn't shivering.

  But the color had drained from her face as her mouth opened and closed too many times. "Your Highness. She's your second wife—"

  "I'm only going to ask you one more time," Raiden said in perfectly polite viciousness. "Are you accusing my wife of treason?"

  "I—" Banu licked her lips, looking to her husband for help, but he looked just as apprehensive as her. "No, Your Highness. Forgive me. I was only concerned about your reputation and the Clan—"

  "Mother, Father," Raiden said coldly, narrowing his eyes at his parents. "This is ridiculous."

  Yes. Finally. Exactly Ava's thoughts. Despite herself, Ava's heart gave a little flip. At least he hadn't stood by while she burned.

  "Kimbra, Evana, and two other Brotherhood members, plus Seleka, almost lost their lives today and instead of finding their would-be assassins, we're interrogating them." Raiden's relentless gaze flicked around the room. "Is this what our Clan does now?"

  The Queen looked away, lips pursing. Behind her, the King shook his head.

  "I want a full investigation into what happened," Raiden went on.

  Yes, yes. Good. Drown the worms.

  Ava was acutely aware of the advisors' beady eyes on her. So was Raiden. His voice became lighter, almost amused.

  "Someone very close to us wanted to take advantage of Evana being a newcomer," he said. Where was he going with this? "She's Syndicate, with no connections in the Capital. An easy target to frame. Are we that gullible?"

  All the gratitude Ava had felt melted away, leaving a deep gash behind.

  No matter what she did, she would always be an outsider to these people. Hell, she was the outsider for her own "husband".

  They kept interrupting her. Nobody believed her. They never even bothered to say her name right. She was—what was it? An easy target?

  Powerless and defenseless. That's how these people saw her.

  They'd listened to Raiden, but she was and always would be a nuisance to these people. To him.

  She didn't belong here. Without the title of Crown Princess, she had no power. She couldn't help anyone. She wasn't becoming Queen.

  She would never get her revenge here. All that awaited her in the Capital were long, bitter years, dreaming of a man who'd tried his best to break her heart, while looking over her shoulder in case someone tried to kill her again.

  Even now, his indifference hurt. The small little hurtful truths he'd said so casually.

  She didn't belong here. She'd suffered enough.

  "After the investigation is over and I'm convinced Marcella is out of trouble," she began, shaky voice echoing all around her. She locked eyes with Raiden. "I want an annulment."

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  RAIDEN

  "What did you say?" Raiden asked with the last shreds of calm he had.

  He'd been too focused on keeping the vipers on a leash and away from Ava without ending in a bloodbath. He'd turned himself cold and disinterested, feeling each one of her disappointed sighs straight in his soul.

  He must have misheard. There was no way Ava, his Ava—

  "I want an annulment," she repeated, clearer this time.

  Raiden heard the conviction in her voice. He lost his mind.

  "On what grounds?" he asked so low, he barely recognized the beast in his voice.

  They'd finally scared her away, when he was so achingly close to catching those two bastards in a trap.

  No wonder. She'd almost lost her life. Raiden had almost lost her.

  Ava inhaled deeply, gaze glued to somewhere above the Queen's shoulder. "I talked to my cousins yesterday and—"

  It would have hurt less if she'd taken that switchblade of hers and stabbed him in the heart.

  She'd decided this yesterday. Right after their maddening kiss.

  She didn't want to leave because she'd finally gotten sick of the Capital. She wanted to leave because of him.

  Can you blame her?

  No, he couldn't, and the pain flailed him to the bone.

  He'd lost her. He'd finally lost her, when they were so close to the end of this charade and the start of their new, real life together.

  Desperation, unlike any he'd ever felt, beat in his chest.

  He couldn't lose her. He couldn't let her go. Not now. Not ever.

  All he wanted to do was take her in his arms, away from the Capital and the Brotherhood and the Underworld and make her understand he'd had to protect her. Had to bottle his feelings. Had to save her.

  "—Nat explained that the contract isn't valid. It can be annulled, even without either of us going against any clause, which…" Ava looked at Kimbra. "...we can pretend all day long you didn't break, but we can all see the truth."

  Raiden's mind raced over every line of that blasted contract. It was iron tight. His parents and hers weren't stupid, they'd written it so that this would never happen. Raiden had gone over it himself with Logan and fifteen other Underworld law specialists.

  No clauses had been breached.

  He could practically feel the advisors' giddiness. Felt their guards' breaths against his neck.

  He had to keep pretending, even as he felt his entire world falling apart.

  He forced an easy grin on his face. "Do tell."

  She didn't like that. Something flashed in her eyes. Anger? Disappointment? Sadness?

  Whatever it was, it threatened to take the breath right out of Raiden. He hated that she wouldn't even look at him while talkin
g about leaving him.

  How could he make her understand she was everything to him? How, when one slip of the tongue, one loving look, one hand on the shoulder could be her undoing?

  "The contract was meant for the Brotherhood Prince and a Syndicate member." The smile that graced her face held nothing but sadness. "To be considered a true Syndicate member you have to go through the initiation ceremony, either when you join or turn eighteen. I was long gone by the time it would've been my turn and nobody bothered to initiate me when I came back. I might have Syndicate blood in my veins, but I'm not an official member."

  Raiden felt like the sky had fallen onto his shoulders.

  Their marriage wasn't valid. Their. Marriage. Wasn't. Valid.

  "Nobody told me or the Brotherhood about this secret initiation." Raiden heard the fury in his voice. He hated it.

  "Nobody told me about your delightful illegal tradition of marrying more than one person. I say we're even."

  "And she says she's not jealous." Dima scoffed.

  "Quiet," Raiden bit out. Dima bowed. Very soon, he'd be bowing under Raiden's sword.

  But today wasn't it. No. This was the day when Ava could leave him. He had to be very, very careful.

  They were so close. So close to the finish line. So close to safety and starting their lives together.

  A few more days, that's all Raiden needed to show her how good they could be together. How they should have been from the start.

  But nobody in this room could know that. He could risk ruining everything Ava and he had suffered for.

  If she didn't hate him already, she would hate him now. And Raiden had to accept it because he couldn't risk her life.

  Better to have her alive and away from him than dead because of him.

  He had to turn into the monster she thought he was. The Dragon, in all his glory.

  "Are you trying to start a Clan war?" He forced his voice to be cold when all he wanted to do was whisper sweet nothings to her. Admit to everything and hope she'd forgive him.

  Ava huffed a desperate laugh. "You think I have the power to do that?"

  She had the power to do anything she fucking wanted. Why couldn't she see that?

  Because of you.

  "Are you willing to risk your cousins' lives for this?" The words tasted bitter.

  He hated them. He hated himself.

  Ava finally looked at him. Raiden suddenly wished she hadn't. The sorrow in her eyes would follow him to his grave.

  "Are you threatening me?" she asked, low and ominous.

  "I'm stating facts," he said coldly.

  "Here's a fact," she spit out, turning toward him, ready for war. "I might not be dangerous—" She was, to Raiden. She was everything, his happiness and misery wrapped in one, staring daggers at him. "—but I know dangerous people, too."

  Everyone around them stilled. Threatening the heir to the Brotherhood throne was punishable by death.

  He huffed an icy, mocking laugh, even as his insides boiled. If he treated it as anything but a joke, she would be in serious trouble. "We both know you're bluffing. You might not be a true Syndicate member, but you sure have the temperament for it."

  "Enough," the Queen's voice shook the room.

  Raiden had never been happier to hear his mother angry.

  "You are a Prince and a Princess. Act like it," the King said, sounding more imperious with every word. "This spat of yours could ruin lives."

  Ava gave Raiden one last disgusted look before turning toward his parents.

  "Evana, the contract can be renegotiated with better terms, if that's what you want," the King went on.

  Raiden schooled his face into a mask of indifference and swallowed his sigh of relief.

  If the Queen chose to ignore Ava's threat, then everyone else needed to follow suit. But it also reminded him that despite being the most feared man in the world, in this room, right now, he didn't have the ultimate power to protect Ava.

  He'd been content with running the Brotherhood operations through the entire world and letting his parents deal with the Capital for a few more years. Not anymore. The cost had been too great.

  It was time he ascended to the throne.

  "All I want is to be free," Ava said.

  Raiden's chest constricted. Free from him.

  The King sighed. "This annulment, if it can be truly validated, is serious business."

  "I know. But wouldn't it be easier for everyone? Raiden can live his life with Kimbra and, excuse my forwardness, I might be able to get out of the Capital alive. This is the second time I almost died in less than two months. Kind of getting the feeling you all don't like me that much."

  Raiden fisted his hands behind his back. It would've been less messy if Ava had set off a bomb.

  She was done playing Brotherhood games, it seemed. Raiden couldn't blame her. He blamed himself.

  The King's brows rose. "That is a grave accusation."

  "Funny how me saying the truth is worse than it actually happening."

  Oh, Raiden loved seeing that spine of steel on her. From the way the Queen's lips quirked, she liked it too.

  "The investigation will take a while. Think it over until then," the Queen said gently, but there was an unmistakable undercurrent—You better know what you're doing. "Enjoy the festival."

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  RAIDEN

  "You know how some civilians believe in hell?" Raiden asked, staring at Ava's closed gates, in front of an entire procession of horses, carriages, and guards, only half of them his.

  Kimbra raised her brows at him and nodded.

  "You think it exists?" he went on.

  "I do," Bethany said. "And it's going to be so much fun watching so many of our acquaintances burn from up above."

  Raiden licked his teeth; how very unprincely of him. But he was so tired of playing these royal games he was on the verge of losing. "I think I might end up screaming alongside them."

  Seleka huffed a sigh. "You've saved more lives than you've taken. Think you might end up in limbo."

  As long as Raiden wouldn't have to spend eternity with Banu and Dima, he wasn't going to complain. Because if hell existed, Raiden was going to send them straight into it.

  But he could fume and curse and plot all he wanted.

  It was his fault Ava had almost died. His fault she wanted to leave. He should have kept his cool back in his study. Should have drowned all his suspicions and trusted her from the start.

  The gate opened and Raiden, feared and acclaimed in all the Underworld, felt his entire body vibrate in anticipation.

  Universe, he was a sap.

  Ava stomped out, crown clutched in her hand like it was a stick she wanted to throw far away from her.

  Raiden rolled his shoulders back and nodded in greeting. The least he could do was not make her hate him more.

  "You're early," she snapped at him instead of a hello, and smiled at everyone else.

  "The faster we get there, the better." And safer. At least in theory. The advisors' army would remain in the Capital.

  But he didn't put anything past those maggots. His guards had been instructed to guard Kimbra and Ava above everyone else, even him.

  He extended his palm to help her into the carriage. Heavens, he couldn't wait to touch her again, even for a moment.

  Ava's disgusted gaze ping-ponged between him and the carriage's velvet seats. "I'm not going in that."

  Raiden's hand fell to his side. "Planning on teleporting yourself over there?"

  Ava rolled her eyes and brought her thumb and finger into her mouth. She whistled. Once.

  Gallops resounded from the courtyard. Raiden watched in amazement as Azor lumbered out, stopping next to Ava and nuzzling her face with her snout.

  "Why is the horse in your courtyard?" Raiden asked.

  "Because I don't trust you lot not to take her away from me, too." Ava plopped the crown onto her head and lifted herself onto Azor in one go. Without a saddle.
<
br />   Raiden inhaled sharply. With the morning sun beaming into her crown, she looked like she had a halo of fire surrounding her.

  How ironic. She wanted to leave when she looked like the perfect Brotherhood Queen.

  "Shall we?" she asked and nudged Azor forward before Raiden could reply.

  This was going to be a long trip.

  "Go talk to her," Kimbra whispered from the corner of her mouth.

  They'd been traveling to the Northern town for half an hour. Riding his black as night horse, Shinzan, Raiden could have arrived there by now. Ava, too.

  But they had great big chariots filled with offerings for the festival. Plus, Ava whirled her head around, like she wanted to see every little part of the scenery all at once. At this pace, she could enjoy the view.

  "She doesn't want to talk to me," Raiden breathed out, feeling every word beat against his soul.

  Bethany rolled her eyes. "You were right, men really can be clueless when it comes to women."

  Kimbra huffed a laugh.

  Raiden slashed them a look. "Think it's funny that she wants to leave?"

  Ava wants to leave you.

  Kimbra's brows furrowed. "I don't think she does."

  Seleka, who'd been quietly judging him from the carriage the entire time, exhaled noisily. "Ava asked us not to talk about her personal affairs—"

  Marcella, who was sitting right beside Seleka and who'd been quiet as a mouse this entire time, cleared her throat with a little cough that sounded suspiciously like, "Then don't."

  "So I'm not telling you to go talk to her," Seleka finished.

  Even Shinzan neighed underneath him. Traitor.

  Raiden licked his teeth and checked his phone for the seventh time today. Axton was busy gathering evidence on Banu and Dima and, if everything went according to plan, he'd have the proof they needed by the end of the day.

  Raiden hadn't insisted they leave the city just because the festival was happening, after all.

  The King and Queen could have gone; as time went on, they'd become little more than the face of the royal family in the Capital, while Raiden ran the real business outside of it, and all the gore that came with it.