“Are we going to take them down? Lucia killed Lucio, her brother-lover”—Frankie shivered, pulling her fingers from him to her chest—“and my father, I guess. She confirmed it with me. She’s fucking psychotic but—” Frankie stopped, biting her lip. The prospect that she wanted this life—really wanted it—was too fucking tempting, but Frankie’s hesitation was clear. No matter what, she had to have the final say. Like he’d said, he was done taking away her choices.
He traced her jaw and said, “It’s up to you.”
“I think Lucia already knows you’re alive, though.” Frankie’s eyebrows pulled together. “Gabby said something to me before she died that made it sound like it. We won’t have the element of surprise.”
“If she didn’t, she does now,” Anteros said. “I ran into Nikolai before rescuing you. Don’t let that change your decision.”
“I want her dead.” Frankie gripped his biceps, nails digging at the flesh with her words. “I want this, I want us to rule together.” A brief pause followed her declaration, the air hammering with possibility.
“I have the contacts,” Anteros said. “The reputation.”
“I have the name.”
“Many will follow you just because of that. We just need to cut the heads off the snakes.” She pulled him closer so their lips were just a thread apart.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do this, but I have to be the one to kill her.” Her eyes shone in the darkness, cheeks twitching as she held back a grin. Then she kissed him, quickly and ardently. When she pulled back, Anteros’s own cheek lifted.
“Then we better get a good plan.”
“This is not a good plan,” Frankie said. “I mean, as far as plans go, it’s got to be on par with Bay of Pigs.” A couple hours later, Anteros helped Frankie back into the tattered remains of her dress, one cheek lifting as she joked.
She was right, though—their plan was madness. It was little more than faith, hinging on them getting close enough to kill. The biggest hurdle had been figuring out how to get to Nikolai and Lucia. Without soldiers in the way. Without security stopping them.
Once they’d accomplished that, the next step was for Frankie to convince Lucia she was on her side. One thing had been certain through all of this: Lucia valued Frankie’s life. They planned to exploit that. Lucia had saved Frankie from Lucio and the Beast, had protected her for years. Frankie just had to convince her she was over her ‘infatuation’ with Anteros and wanted to be a good princess.
Then she would kill her.
Once Lucia was down, Anteros could take Nikolai out.
Everything else, they would take it as it came.
It was a plan based on hope and faith. Anteros had spent his life without hope, had never prayed to a deity. He’d always considered faith to be for fools, but that was because he’d never had faith in anything.
Until Frankie.
So yeah, the plan was fucking reckless and insane, but for once, he had hope, so it wasn’t that crazy.
“This is fucking crazy,” she continued as he zipped up the dress. “There’s zero percent chance this will work.”
“We don’t have to do it.” He spun her around so they were face to face, gripping her by the forearms. “We can stop.”
“I never said I didn’t want to do it, I just said it’s fucking crazy.” She kissed him ferociously, tongues dueling. She bit his lip, drawing blood. He growled, pushing her back into the wall.
“We’re going to die,” she said against his mouth with heated, steamy breaths. Pulling back, Anteros searched her eyes. He hadn’t told Frankie that he was willing to die in the process. He was sure they could get Lucia and Nikolai, but he wasn’t sure if they could both get out alive. He was deadly certain he would get her out, but if she wanted to stop, he would drop it all in an instant.
Then like a flash of lightning rippling over a pool of water, he saw the glimmer in her eyes, the madness that matched his own.
She loved it.
Anteros seized her face, feeling overwhelmed as insanity coursed through his veins. Before Frankie, he’d waded through life broken and uneven. Finally, he was fucking whole.
He kissed her violently, sealing the moment with their lips, then opened the door.
Twenty
Anteros and I stepped out the front door of the warehouse onto the docks. It was daylight, changing the place from fire and shadows to ice and shine. It was almost two months ago exactly I was sitting on a bench in Gramercy Park, planning to take down the Beast. I remember thinking how fucking crazy the plan was, how it wasn’t going to work. Now I was with the Beast, with an even crazier plan, hoping to take down someone even worse.
But I wasn’t scared.