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

by Mara McQueen

  "We tried," Banu cried out. "We're not in charge of the city's infrastructure. You can't blame us for technical faults."

  "Who here has ever had issues with connectivity in our Capital?" Raiden called out. Nobody replied. "Too much of a coincidence for the code not to go through and you not being able to contact me, wouldn't you say? But let's assume something happened. A wire got cut."

  He let the stifling silence fester and build before he went on, "You intercepted the code. You talked to Axton. Did you follow the protocol and tell the guards about it?"

  Tech issues, fine, those could happen. But not saying a word about it and breaking protocol couldn't be argued away, could it?

  Raiden felt the people around them tense. Grumbles, harsh whispers. A good start, but not loud enough.

  Banu dared to look up at him. "I don't know what you're planning—"

  "Why would I plan anything? I have no personal motive in accusing you and relieving you of your status, do I?" He narrowed his eyes. "I'm already the King. There's no more to gain."

  Realization finally dawned on Banu's face, five minutes too late. He’d already given his blessing for Raiden to take the crown. "With all due respect, my King, this so-called proof is all circumstantial. This was an error in communication, nothing more."

  The excuse wasn't standing up. Not with Raiden, and definitely not with the Brotherhood members scowling at the advisors' backs. Their loyalty was now in question. Time for the final puzzle piece.

  "Oh?" Raiden asked in perfectly polite viciousness. "And the bribes?"

  "We have never accepted bribes in our life," Dima whispered fiercely, with all the righteousness of an innocent man. No wonder he'd fooled the Capital, Raiden's parents, and him for so many years. Dima was a very good actor. "Someone is trying to frame us. Whatever proof you have, it was fabricated."

  Raiden had hoped he'd say that. "I have a witness."

  "Witnesses can be bought," Banu hissed.

  "Not this one."

  On cue, Marcella stopped crying. Seleka gripped her daggers.

  Kimbra stepped into the room, head raised high, drawing everyone's attention, as always. But now it was a morbid, disbelieving kind of curiosity. Rossen trailed behind her, carrying a stack of papers taller than his head.

  "Kimbra, baby, what are you doing?" Banu asked, but it sounded more like a warning.

  Kimbra didn't even look at her parents. She stared at the public, proud and unflinching.

  "It pains me to say," she began, voice shaking. She was the only one in this room not faking her emotions. "But I have personally seen my parents' bank accounts. Millions of dollars, that nobody can explain, have been coming in for a year."

  The whispers around them were getting louder. Sweet, sweet music to Raiden's ears. Banu and Dima had worked hard to build themselves up as the perfect parents and Kimbra as their perfect daughter. Such a happy, joyous family. The mere fact that she was turning against them was enough to cast doubt.

  "Kimbra, you're mistaken," Dima said between gritted teeth. "You know you're not good with numbers."

  "I have proof." She pointed to the stack of papers. "Anybody can check them."

  To be completely fair, Kimbra hadn't gotten her hands on the advisors' financial records herself. They'd received them courtesy of Ella, Nat, and Toni.

  Those Syndicate First Family women were as fearsome as the rumors warned. Raiden should know. He was going to spend the rest of his life with one.

  But Kimbra had, indeed, verified all the transactions. If she said those were her parents' financial accounts, then they were.

  "Darling," Banu said, sickly sweet, trying to hide her panic. "You're still in shock from the attack last night. Did someone threaten you?"

  Kimbra finally looked at her parents. "Yes. You. All my life."

  As soon as the words left Kimbra’s lips, Marcella and Seleka stepped forward. They yanked the black velvet off the "casket", revealing a red, painted chest, barely big enough to fit a body. It had one single hole on the top.

  "Recognize it, mother?" Kimbra asked, voice cracking at the end.

  Banu shook her head, even as her eyes went wide and fearful. Raiden's parents looked onto the scene, shocked.

  "Really? Don't you remember locking me inside it whenever I didn't follow your rules? Leaving me inside it for hours, with no water and no food, because I "needed to learn my lesson"?" Kimbra gulped. "I do. If you open it, you'll find dozens of nails scratches. Mine, all of them, while I begged you to let me out."

  "Stop it!" Dima said as Banu began to sob big, fat, panicked tears. "Can't you see what you're doing to your poor mother?"

  "What about what you did to me my entire life? You raised me to be nothing more than Raiden's wife and punished me whenever I tried to go against that."

  "Trickery," Dima hissed, manic gaze looking behind him at his guards. But none of them were looking back at him with anything but disgust and disbelief. A few shifted uneasily, not sure of what to do without a direct order. That was the problem with bribed minions—they always shifted masters when it suited them.

  The trust was officially broken, the advisors' reputation in tatters.

  Raiden felt the beast inside him roar in victory. Banu and Dima had been too cocky for their own good. They should have seen this coming. But they'd been so sure they'd beaten Kimbra's spirit enough that she'd never rebel and reveal. How wrong they had been.

  Dima exhaled a long breath, chest caving. He turned to Raiden's parents, pleading. "This is a trick to discredit us. We've served the Clan with nothing but loyalty all our lives. Your Majesties, please—"

  "I'm the King now, you address me," Raiden said with too much satisfaction. "Tricked by whom? Your daughter? Your King? It pains both of us to accuse you, but we have cause."

  Kimbra stuttered a breath. It really did pain her. As for Raiden, even knowing all he knew about Banu and Dima, he still remembered that Dima had given him his first dagger as a child and that Banu used to bake cakes just for him.

  But now he saw those small memories for what they were—Banu and Dima laying the ground to secure their standing in the Brotherhood, nothing more. All their supposed kindness had been calculated. The wretched chest standing behind them was proof enough.

  "You set up a trap for us," Banu hissed. "None of this is true."

  "It is and everyone in this room knows it." Raiden hadn't set up the trap by himself—the "casket" hadn't been his idea, but it had worked beautifully. Banu and Dima had thought they'd won and now they were going to lose everything. "And you will be sentenced for it."

  "Kimbra," Banu pleaded through the tears. Who for, Raiden had no idea, because nobody was buying her wounded mother act. "Are you going to sentence your parents to their deaths? Are you that heartless?"

  "She can't sentence you," Raiden said. "The Queen and I will."

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  AVA

  That was her cue.

  Ava walked in, back straight, crown on, face impassive, heart dropping somewhere near her ankles.

  Relax. You can pull this off.

  Cool and calm and correct. That's how she had to come across as to everyone watching her every step, like they had back at her wedding. But now they held no polite pity, only raw curiosity.

  She might've come up with the funeral plan—"If they want me dead and they think they've accomplished that, they won't give you any trouble when you take the crown, will they? Let them think they've won and then drop the sword on their heads. Or necks."—but the rest had been up to Raiden.

  What to say, what to reveal and when, so the noose tightened around the advisors' necks before they could formulate a plan and hit back.

  The longer the advisors kept their status, the better chances they had of starting rumors and sowing doubt through the Capital.

  Banu and Dima needed to be disposed of today.

  Ava stopped next to Raiden, doing her best to look royal and detached. They needed to present a united fr
ont and burn the image into the minds of the Brotherhood. Fast.

  "Syndicate scheme," Dima hissed. "She's twisted all your minds."

  "Now, now, Dima. I know you're not trying to accuse me, your Queen or your daughter of treason," Raiden said. Lord, he sounded menacing and in control as Ava had never heard him. The crown looked good on him, too.

  Standing by his side, some of Ava's nerves vanished. The plan had gone well so far. She didn't see one single friendly face directed at Banu and Dima, who were crawling on the floor.

  "We have shown proof. We listened to our witness—unless you have any questions for her?" Raiden asked Banu and Dima.

  They remained furiously silent. They knew they'd lost Kimbra.

  "Does anybody have any proof to support the advisors' claims?" Raiden asked the crowd.

  Silence.

  "Does anyone want to speak on their behalf?"

  More silence.

  Ava saw a few people exchanging panicked looks, but they kept their mouths shut. Ava would remember their faces. At least two of them were guards who'd been on duty the night she'd been attacked.

  Raiden took out his mighty sword. It hissed as he arched it in the air. The advisors trembled.

  But instead of bringing it down on their necks, he propped it vertically against the Brotherhood symbol on the floor and crouched at their level.

  "I'm going to give you one last chance to spare your miserable lives," Raiden said darkly. "I know you were involved with the wedding massacre."

  Banu and Dima shook their heads much too vigorously. Ava could smell their fear.

  "I was almost killed that day," Raiden went on.

  The advisors' gazes snapped to his.

  "You didn't know." He laughed darkly. "A poisoned bullet almost took me out. All your plans would have crumbled. I know you're working with someone, who apparently has different plans than yours. Tell me who they are and what they want, and I'll let you live."

  Banu and Dima looked at each other for a long time. Then looked behind—nothing but disgruntled, disgusted faces met them.

  Banu laughed coldly. It sounded wretched and ugly. "And spend the rest of our days in ruin? What life is that?"

  Ava swallowed her sigh. She wasn't surprised Banu and Dima's pride had won, but a small part of her had hoped to get answers about who was behind all of this.

  "You can leave the Brotherhood. Go where nobody knows who you are," Raiden said.

  Dima's beard trembled. Banu's eyes widened.

  "You're afraid," Raiden whispered. "Who are you working with that has you so petrified? That you fear more than death?"

  Dima gulped. "It doesn't matter. We've lost everything. But we'll go knowing that even if we die, they're coming after you."

  Raiden rose slowly, gripping his sword tighter.

  "You think you'll live your happy little life with that peasant of a girl you call a wife?" Banu spat at Ava's feet. They were getting out all their malice with their final breaths, weren't they? Banu leered at her. "You should have stayed drowned."

  Ava froze. "What did you say?"

  Banu only smiled wider, real tears streaming down her caked cheeks. "We warned your parents. They didn't listen. You've managed to survive until now, but your luck will run out soon. Someone very important wants all of you dead. A life for a life."

  Ava gripped the necklace around her neck with all her might.

  She'd always thought her purple floating pad had somehow malfunctioned back in grandpa Baron's pool. But it hadn't, had it? There was no way Banu and Dima could have known about it unless they had been involved.

  That's why her parents had taken her away. That's why they didn't believe grandpa Baron could protect them. Ava had almost drowned in his backyard when she was six.

  All they'd wanted had been to protect Ava. Not from her marriage to Raiden. Not from Clan life. From getting killed—and they'd paid for it with their own lives.

  "You," she whispered, horrified. "You ruined our lives."

  Banu's grin grew eerily. One last cruel victory under her belt. "Tried to, but you're like a cockroach, aren't you? You'll be squashed soon."

  Raiden circled the advisors, shooting Ava a concerned look.

  "Are you okay?" he mouthed.

  Ava nodded. She was, because now she had an answer and would get her vengeance. A cold, wretched feeling coursed through her. She wanted blood.

  "Then your fates will be decided by the one you've slighted the most. A life for a life, as you said." Raiden nodded at Ava. "What will it be?"

  Through the fury threatening to darken her soul forever, Ava was surprised. So he did trust her decisions. Enough to let her decide now.

  A sinister stillness settled over Ava. Finally, she could begin avenging her parents' deaths. If Banu and Dima hadn't frightened them enough to run away when she'd been a child, then nobody would have killed them a year ago.

  A life for a life.

  "Raiden," the former King said imperiously, probably feeling the finality in the air. "We need to discuss this. Banu and Dima have been our trusted advisors—"

  "At one point," Raiden bit out, still looking at Ava. "They've turned wretched over the years and you should have seen it sooner. What will it be, Ava?"

  She rolled her shoulders back. She was finally free.

  "Kimbra, please escort Raiden's parents out," she said.

  No point in having her watch what was about to come.

  Kimbra nodded shakily, tears streaming down her face. She stepped behind the former King and Queen, pushing them gently when they didn't recover from their stupor fast enough. But they still wouldn't budge.

  "All you had to do in all your ungrateful life," Dima began darkly, gaze shooting daggers at his daughter through his tears. "Was smile at the Prince, lay on your back, and open your legs. And you couldn't even do that."

  Kimbra froze.

  That final malice cost Dima. The King and Queen stared at him in shock and began walking away. Kimbra followed them, head between her shoulders. Ava was going to find the best therapists in the world and send them her way and hope and pray Kimbra could recover from her parents' cruelty.

  But all she could do now was stop it from spreading. As soon as Kimbra's silk dress swooshed out of view, Ava looked down at the advisors' with all the hatred she had in her.

  She gripped her locket tighter, almost feeling her parents' smiling faces against her palm. They gave her courage.

  "Kill them."

  Banu and Dima locked hands as Raiden raised his sword.

  It came down against the advisors' necks. Their heads rolled at Ava's feet. Blood splattered the ends of her dress, flowing down into the Brotherhood symbol on the floor.

  It was done. They were free. For now.

  "Take their bodies and stuff them inside the chest," Raiden said. "Then throw it in the ocean. Let the waves wash away the last traces of them."

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  AVA

  "Banu and Dima were right. You really are trying to bring Syndicate treachery into the Capital." Raiden grimaced at the walls in Ava's study. "Blue and silver? Syndicate colors? I can feel my grandfather rolling in his grave."

  "My study, my colors." Ava laughed, coming up behind him and circling his waist.

  "But they're incomprehensibly ugly," he went on, clearly amused.

  Ava gasped in mock-offense. "Says the man who insisted our bedsheets be crimson red."

  Raiden smiled at her over his shoulder. "You're telling me you hate how our bed looks?"

  Just like that, they were kissing again. This happened a lot. A lot. One look and they were in each others' arms. One touch of the hand and they were falling into bed.

  They had a lot of time to make up for, after all.

  A scratchy tune burst through the room. Raiden sighed.

  "That's mine." Ava leaned back, taking out her phone. Her brand new phone, which was untraceable—even according to Toni, who was beyond frustrated she couldn't crack it.
>
  "Hi!" Ava said into the phone.

  "Someone's sounding happier each day." Enzo laughed on the other end. "I take it things are finally going well in that wretched Capital of yours?"

  As well as they could be three weeks after a public execution. Kimbra and Raiden had divorced. Kimbra and Bethany had married. Raiden and Ava had been officially crowned King and Queen. Her in-laws didn't like her, but Raiden avoided them like the plague, so she didn't care.

  They were slowly rounding up Banu and Dima's former underlings. Those who'd conspired out of a misplaced sense of loyalty were spared. Those who'd been paid to join the plan hadn’t been. But none of them had any valuable info to give on who the advisors had been working with. Or for.

  All in all, better than last month. At least nobody had tried to kill them in weeks.

  "Almost great by Underworld standards," she said, shaking her head at Raiden, who was still scowling at the wall.

  "Our nursery's going to be a silver nightmare, won't it?" he muttered under his breath.

  "Hey, hey, hey, what did we say about talk of kids?" Ava called out.

  "That we'll discuss it after we both turn thirty," he said over his shoulder. "But I need a few years to get used to the idea of my kids having Syndicate aunts and uncles. Axton warned me the family reunions are going to be loud."

  "You'll love them."

  "I won't." He turned to look at her with a warm smile. "But I love you, so I'll survive."

  The tips if Ava's ears heated up. No matter how many times he said it, she still blushed.

  "I love you, too," she muttered.

  "Isn't that sweet?" Enzo drawled from the other end of the phone. "Tell your beloved husband we're not all that thrilled to be related to him either. If he doesn't cut it with the grumbling, I'm going to make it my life's mission to make his kids' first words be "Syndicate rules all"."

  "I heard that," Raiden called.

  "Good," Enzo said loudly.

  Ava rolled her eyes.

  "Put a hold on that newlywed bliss and get serious, because I have news," Enzo went on. "I think I've found something on those men that brought you back a year ago."