Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy 1)

“Wolf’s inside,” Thatcher stated, looking around. His voice was deeper and jumbled up, some kind of scrambler on it. He tipped his chin toward the inside. “He’s waiting for you.”

From behind him, Wells pulled another mask, handing it out to me. Apparently, these two were just the lookout.

I ignored the mask. I hadn’t even changed my clothes. I was still in jeans and a T-shirt from when I’d showered at Windsor House. They had spare rooms there. In my case and some of the others, we had our own and even kept spare clothes on the property. The Court often held events there, retreats and stuff, so it was nice to be able to quickly change or even sleep if necessary.

Wells lowered the mask as I passed, both Thatcher and him exchanging glances. I nodded at them, then went deeper inside the warehouse.

There wasn’t much to it, dark and dank. In fact, the only light came from floor lights the guys and I had set up for today. It was still pretty early, so there wasn’t much light outside.

Here we go.

This shit was actually happening, and though I knew what I’d find when I came across Wolf, I expelled a breath.

He sat in front of Mayberry, two chairs in the room. Our principal occupied the other, a face covering across her eyes. She panted in a hoodie and sweats and had streaks of dried tears below the mask. The plan was just to take her, do no harm.

Even if she deserved it.

The tears were obviously from the fear of it all, but at least they’d gotten her quiet. At my presence, Wolf shifted, and Mayberry did too, gasping.

“What’s going on?” She jerked around in her chair. “Let me go. Please, I have nothing!”

I snarled at her, but Wolf said nothing to her when he got up. Meeting me at the door, he folded a hand on my shoulder and guided me out of the room.

“Where’s your mask?” he asked outside the door, and I shook my head. I was going to talk to her face to face. I wanted her to see my face. I almost dared the bitch to say something to someone.

I could bury her.

My family ran this town, and though it was a risk, I wouldn’t hide behind a mask.

Though Wolf appeared surprised, he said nothing when I alluded to not wearing one. I started to go back into the room, but he raised a hand.

“So you were with Sloane?” he asked, mentioning her now for some reason. He wet his lips. “I’m really sorry. I…”

I didn’t cut him off. He just stopped speaking, flustered when Wolf didn’t get fucking flustered. I assumed this must have had something to do with our current situation and this woman.

I placed a hand on him. “Thank you for taking care of all this today,” I said, assuming that was what his nerves were. “I appreciate it.”

He’d done it so I wouldn’t have to, and maybe so quickly in part because of our fight. He was trying to make things right.

He was being my friend.

None of these guys had to stand by me now, and I racked up another tally. Another debt. Another sin.

It was time to finish this.

Wolf let me go, and I shut everything out. I closed the door, only Mayberry and me in here. In the case there actually were repercussions from today, only I would receive them. She wouldn’t know anything about my friends.

If she was going to hurt someone after today, it’d only be me.

I was well aware of that when I tugged the blindfold off her and her shock was evident. She blanched, completely wide-eyed, and I’d never seen her in such a way. Her hair was all over the place, disheveled. I assumed that had to do with the kidnapping. Despite being a coke whore, she hid that shit well.

“Mr. Prinze.” She eyed around, gasping but the door was closed. It was just her and me. “What’s going on?”

I took out my cell phone, scrolling to screenshots. I showed her conversations, showed her every message snapped of her talking with Charlie that last day on social media.

Her face paled. “Why are you showing me this? What is this?”

I didn’t put hands on a woman, but in that moment, I questioned the strength I had to hold back.