Vicious Throne (Gilded Empire Book 4)

Chapter 1 – Mari

Iwas fucking done.

Sick of white walls in a room I didn’t know and unfamiliar sheets on beds that weren’t mine. Sick of people coming in and out of our rooms and the incessant beeping that was driving me slowly insane.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Yet everything faded when Greyson’s eyes opened for the first time.

It had been two days of silence, two days of Nate and Dominic bitching every time their bandages were changed and me snapping at them to get over it. Two days of avoiding being treated myself until there was no other option but to allow it. Two days of pretending that the men who were awake weren’t at odds with each other.

Two days of praying to gods I didn’t believe in to spare Greyson. To spare us all.

Thank fuck they listened.

“Mari,” Grey croaked, and I felt my heart crack down the middle. I heard shuffling around me, happy mumbles that shut off the moment Dominic realized Nate was trying to talk to him.

“You’re awake.”

“What happened?”

I carefully fed a straw between his dry lips, letting him drink as much water as he needed, not ready to answer him.

“You nearly died,” Dominic snarked from his side of the room. “I had to carry your ass out with a bullet in my leg.”

“It was a through and through. Don’t be such a baby.” I didn’t bother to look at him, too terrified to take my gaze away from Greyson.

Would he disappear if I did? Would I wake up and all of this would be a dream? I couldn’t handle either of those options.

“Died?”

“Blood loss,” Nate said from his side of the room. He and Dominic had instinctively taken the outer beds that were closest to the doors. I knew they were bookending so Grey and I were protected if anything went down, and it warmed my heart to see them working together even that much. Dominic had been damn near arctic since we’d arrived. “Your bullets were through and through, too, but one nicked your neck.”

“The artery?” Grey’s eyes were tight. We both knew what an artery wound looked like and the recovery time for it. Time that we didn’t have right now.

“Not quite, but very, very close. You’re lucky you’re alive.”

Grey’s hand squeezed around mine, and I let myself sink into that feeling. Let myself press my forehead to his knuckles as if they alone could ground me.

He’s here. He’s alive. He’s safe. For now.

But outside the walls of the hospital, chaos was still reigning.

Fingers brushed back my nasty hair. “Are you okay?” Grey asked.

Before I could even attempt to answer, Dominic snorted. “She refused to get treated until I sat on her, but she’s fine now.”

Grey’s eyebrow lifted, and I whipped around to glare at Dominic.

“You sat on her?”

“Absolutely. Face down, ass up.” Dominic waggled his brows like an idiot, but the small smile on Greyson’s lips made it worth it. They could make fun of me all they wanted as long as they were all alive.

“The city?”

“Fine for now,” someone else answered. All four of us tensed, and I saw the flash of metal in Dominic’s and Nate’s hands before I turned to the newcomer at the door.

Despite helping us to the hospital and keeping us safe, Two-Bit had been absent the past few days. Allowing me the space to focus on my family, first and foremost. Seeing him now, I knew that was over.

Fact was, a war was waging outside those walls, and I was the general.

“Has he moved?”

“No,” Two-Bit said. “He’s been quiet.”

It wouldn’t last. It never did.

Two-Bit looked past me at Greyson, cataloging every injury in the span of a blink. “You alive?”

“With one more hole than before, yeah. Are my memories fucked, or did you get us out?”

“That was real.”

“So, you’re an ally.” Greyson said it more like a question than a statement, and Two-Bit smiled.

“In more ways than one.”

I so didn’t want to deal with head games after the week I’d had. “Tell me who you are, what you want, and what I owe for your help,” I said bluntly.

“You owe me a conversation—that’s it. As for the rest, I am the leader of the 48th Street Vipers.”

“But that’s not all you are.” It was Nate who said it. Was this yet another thing he knew that I didn’t? He gave me the slightest headshake, telling me he was just as in the dark, but I recognized that he was going to have to spill his secrets soon too if we had a chance of survival.

“No, not all,” Two-Bit admitted.

It hit me then as I saw the way he held himself so differently from the plain, easy-to-overlook way he existed inside of our meetings. He stood with something like power, confidence, and that fucking God complex so many of them had.

“Holy shit, you’re a Fed.” If I hadn’t seen him in action myself, I’d never have believed it. That was a testament to Two-Bit’s acting.

“That’s not all he is.” Griz, his second, walked in behind him and locked us all in. The four of us tensed even more, but no one moved.

Two-Bit tipped his head to the side and smiled, though it was strained and uncomfortable. “My name is Dante. I believe you’ve met my father, Rafael Osorio.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Grey whispered behind me.

It said a lot about my current mental state that I wasn’t even surprised at the news. Another cousin. I had so many questions but decided I needed answers from Rafael, not Two-Bit. Dante. Whatever the hell his name was. At least I could trust Rafael to some degree. I didn’t trust cops, no matter what flavor they were.

“Why did you step in? If you’re a Fed, it would have made sense for you to let us die. We’re not exactly good Samaritans.” That was an understatement if I’d ever uttered one.

Two-Bit—because I couldn’t acknowledge him as anything else—shrugged. “We’re family.”

Which he’d known for how long and done nothing about? No, that wasn’t it either. “Are the Vipers all yours?”

I desperately needed him to say no. He grimaced. “Most. There are some who are old-school Vipers, but for the most part, they’re all agents.”

Saying nothing, I turned to Griz. The bastard grinned. “Not a Fed, but not a civvy either.”

Fucking great.

“Motherfuck,” Dominic grumbled.

What a mess. The idea that teams of federal agents were walking their way through my city made my skin crawl.

“Are you here for us or Cash?” I asked finally.

“Cash, actually.” Thank fuck for small miracles. “Despite your illegal dealings, you’re kind of a low-level issue for us. You keep the city clean. You force your business partners to do the same. It’s admirable.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t make me seem like a saint, cousin.”

“Never said you were. I just said what you’re doing is admirable. Admirable enough that you’re not really on our radar.”

The warning was crystal clear. We have the information we need to take you down. We’re choosing not to.

“But Cash is,” Grey prompted, readjusting himself until he was sitting up. I tried to move off the edge of the bed where I’d been planted, and he dragged me back until I was pressed against his side, head tucked under his chin. Not the most dignified, but with his heart beating under my ear, I wasn’t going to complain.

“The FBI and the DEA have a joint task force for Mr. Beckstrom.”

“The drugs,” Nate said softly.

Two-Bit’s eyes flashed to him. “Your brother is acting as an import partner to one of the cartels, and while we know they have other partners, he’s one of their biggest. It’s important we shut that down.”

He didn’t mention the Osorios, so I had to assume this partner was someone else. But I noticed the narrowing of his eyes, the stiffness of his shoulders. It was plain to see this was something Rafael’s son wasn’t going to tell me.

“Why help us if you’re here for Cash?” I asked, settling back into Grey’s arms.

“Because you are the closest thing we have to an ally. You can get rid of him.”

“Have you been paying attention?” We’d been working for months to unravel the Aces and every hit we landed didn’t seem to be enough. He’d had over a decade to plan his war, and every turn we took made it obvious we were playing catch-up.

“You’re failing because you don’t have the support to take him out head on. We are willing to give it to you.”

“Bullshit,” Dominic spat. “Since when do Feds trouble themselves with gang wars?”

“This isn’t a gang war. It’s the only way to ensure a dictator doesn’t take over a major point of access to the country.”

“National security shit.” Dominic’s sarcasm was thick, but Two-Bit still nodded.

“Essentially, yes. Cash needs to be removed from power. We have the money and the tools to make it happen, but we don’t have the foothold. He has too many people watching us to get close.”

Sighing, I held his gaze. “Be straight with me. What do you want? Am I supposed to turn him in or something? Because asshole or not, I’m no snitch.”

Two-Bit and Griz laughed, the latter taking over. “We’re not asking you to be a witness. We’re asking you to be a weapon.”

“So, you see the three-headed snake, and you want me to be the sword that chops them all to pieces. Is that it?” They said nothing and I nodded. “How typical of the government. You put your resources up, but not your people. God forbid your little soldiers end up in a tiff they can’t get out of, so you ask mine to instead.”

“He needs to die,” Two-Bit said.

I didn’t disagree, but I wasn’t going to say that to a Fed. Not when I had no clue just how far he was willing to go if I said no. Could he arrest me? He’d already insinuated that he had the leverage. If I declined playing God, would he take me in? What about my men?

Greyson squeezed my shoulder weakly, knowing where my thoughts were. “What exactly are you offering?”

“To look the other way,” Two-Bit said carefully. “Tools and weapons as needed. Ammunition, money, safety for some of your people. You, included.”

“You’re giving me a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

“One that you desperately need. Don’t forget, if you end up in jail, you’re dead. The Aces have more of a foothold in the system than you could ever imagine. The fact that he survived was a miracle.” Two-Bit pointed to Dominic, who grunted like it didn’t matter, but I saw him glance at Nate with the barest flash of appreciation. After all, it had been Nate’s men who’d saved him while he was inside. It went a long way toward Dominic’s hard-won forgiveness.

“So, you’ll turn a blind eye to everything that we do if we kill him. What’s the catch?”

“There isn’t one. At the end of the day, either Cash ends up dead, or you do. In which case, my deal is null and void. If you survive, you’re free to move on as if nothing happened. This isn’t exactly an easy mission, and we knew the bribe would have to be enough to entice you to risk it.”

God help me, it was. I didn’t want to work with the Feds, but we needed allies. We needed safety and protection, more than I could give us with Cash chipping away at the foundation of my empire. Still, the Feds were going to be the last fucking place I turned.

No use surviving if the rest of the city leaders killed me thinking I was a snitch.

“We’ll need some time to discuss,” Nate said carefully, hoisting himself out of bed.

He stood tall and proud, a barrier between us and them, but I saw the wince he was trying to hide and could practically feel the ache of his wound. Had it been anyone else standing in front of us, I’d have told him he was a fucking idiot for moving when he didn’t need to. But we had to be a united front from here on out. We couldn’t let the world see a single crack.

Griz and Two-Bit looked at each other before the bigger man stepped into the hallway. “Take some time to think about it, but just know we don’t have forever. This needs to end fast.”

With a nod to all of us, Two-Bit headed for the door.

“Thank you.” The words were ripped out of my chest, but looking at Nate standing there, Dominic lounging back on his bed, and feeling Grey’s skin warm underneath mine, I couldn’t help but say it. He didn’t have to save us. Hell, he probably shouldn’t have.

Even if he did it because he wanted something from me, he’d kept my family alive when I couldn’t. That deserved gratitude and the respect of considering his proposal, at the very least.

Two-Bit inclined his head and left the room, shutting the door behind him. The second we were sealed off from the rest of the world, our shoulders lowered, and we all seemed to relax. Greyson’s hand was shaky as it stroked my greasy hair back. “Are you really all right?”

“I’m fine,” I promised. Nate paused as he passed me, leaning over to press a kiss to the back of my head and hissing through his teeth when he straightened up again.

“Lie down, moron,” Dominic snapped. “You’ll rip your stitches.”

“Okay, Mom.”

“You wish your mom was this gorgeous.”

Nate laughed, then grabbed his stomach with a wince. “Shut up.”

Dominic didn’t laugh with him, and it was obvious there was still tension there. Confessions needed to be made and discussions to deal with anger, but I saw the slow thaw in their interactions too. Dominic understood that we were better together. He could hate Nate if he wanted, but it wouldn’t last. He was already halfway to forgiveness, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

I heard the rustling of sheets behind me and Nate’s half-pained, half-relieved sigh. Were his burns hurting him? It wasn’t all that long ago that he’d run into a burning building for me, and then he’d been shot. I felt like his bad-luck charm, though I doubted he’d agree.

After deciding to corner him with the doctor later, I snuggled deeper into Greyson’s side as he reclined us again. Bone-deep exhaustion made my eyes sandy and dry.

“We should discuss his proposal,” he said.

“Not today,” Nate said, his voice getting further and further away. “She hasn’t slept since we got here.”

It was true. I’d had some catnaps here and there, plus falling asleep upright in the one shower they’d forced me into that first night, but that was it.

A hand on my hair, a soft, slow sigh, followed by, “Later, then.”

Grey hauled me against him until my nose was pressed to his neck like he knew that was what I needed. The scent of him, the sound of my men talking quietly, the reminder that we were all together. All safe. It was everything to me, even if I wasn’t sure how to make it last.