42. Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Two
Reaper
The mansion feels too full. Not noisy just… full. Like every room is holding its breath, Doc took Daisy down the hall to check her over, leaving the rest of us in the family room. The mood is calm, but the tension sits under the surface, humming low.
Wrenley curls up at the end of the couch, one knee pulled to her chest, hair still damp from the shower.
Max sits beside her, her ankle hooked over his knee, arms folded.
I’m leaning against the wall behind them, watching the way everyone shifts, waiting for the conversation to hit its boiling point.
Wrecker stands with his back to the window, hands on his hips, bouncing between worry and hope like he can’t settle on either.
Margot and Elias sit at the table, papers spread out because of course they have done their homework.
Torque is pacing and Riot is eating something he stole from the kitchen.
All of us are circling the same truth. Wrenley breaks the silence first.
“She can’t go back there,” she says quietly. “She’ll run away again, she doesn’t feel safe. And she obviously feels safer here with us.”
Wrecker lets out a breath like he’s been holding it for an hour. “She wants to stay,” he says. “She told me that the second Doc walked her out of the room.”
Max runs a hand over his jaw. “Then she stays.”
It’s not a suggestion. He’s been stone-sure since he saw her in that hammock.
Torque stops pacing. “If she stays here, that’s not a simple thing.” He says. “She can’t go to public school. She can’t be out running around the city.”
“No one said she could,” Wrenley murmurs.
Elias slides a notebook closer. “She’ll need structured education. I can help with the basics. Math, reading, writing, science.”
Margot lifts her hand. “I’ll help cover tech. And security awareness. She needs to know how to spot threats.”
Riot wipes his mouth. “I’ll teach her how to pick locks.”
“Riot,” I say.
“What?” He shrugs. “Skill set.”
Wrecker groans into his hands. “That ‘s not—She doesn’t need—Jesus Christ.”
Wrenley hides a smile behind her knee.
Max glances at me over her head. “You’re quiet.”
I shrug. “Just listening.”
“You agree?” Wrenley asks softly, turning to look at me.
I push off the wall, crossing my arms. “If she stays, she’s protected. And she’ll learn more in this house than any school could teach her.”
Wrecker’s shoulders sag in relief.
“But,” I add, “This place is dangerous. It’s always been dangerous. This won’t be easy.”
Wrenley nods, determined. “She’ll learn what she needs to. And she’ll be part of this family. We raise kids differently here.”
Margot snorts. “Understatement.”
Torque mutters, “She’ll need combat lessons eventually.”
“Eventually,” Wrenley says. “Not yet.”
Max shifts forward. “She needs stability. Routine. A room of her own. Someone she can go to when she’s overwhelmed.”
“She already goes to Wrecker,” Riot points out.
Wrecker’s face softens. “I don’t mind. She’s a good kid.”
The tone shifts then. Heavier. Books rustle. Chairs scrape. It’s not an argument, but everyone’s speaking at once, voice overlapping.
“She needs schooling…”
“We’ll need to child-proof the armory…”
“She should know basic first aid…”
“She can’t wander the grounds at night…”
“What about legal guardianship…”
“She needs therapy, too…”
It goes in circles, heated sometimes, emotional always, but not one person argues that she shouldn’t stay. Not one. I glance toward the hallway where Daisy disappeared with Doc. All this chaos. All this planning. All the noise. It means something simple, she belongs here.
Wrenley looks at me again, eyes bright with the realization. “We’re really doing this.”
I nod once, slow and certain. “We are.”
For the first time since yesterday, the room feels lighter as if we hadn’t just added weight. We added purpose.
Doc returns before any of us can reach a full consensus, guiding Daisy back into the room with a hand on her shoulder. She looks small in the doorway, not fragile, just… bracing for impact. Wrecker straightens instantly. Wrenley stands too, her face softening in a way she doesn’t show many people.
“Hey,” Wrecker says, stepping forward. “Come here, kiddo.”
Daisy walks to them, eyes flicking between all of us like she’s worried the decision has already been made without her. Wrenley takes Daisy’s hands in her own.
“So,” she says gently, “We’ve been talking.”
Daisy’s fingers knot together. “Am I… in trouble?”
“No,” Wrecker says quickly. “But there will be rules if you stay.”
Her head snaps up. “Stay?”
Wrecker pulls a breath, glancing at Wrenley, then back to Daisy. “If you want to. If this feels like home to you. You can stay here. With us.”
Daisy’s mouth falls open. She looks at Wrenley like she needs confirmation. Wrenley smiles. Warm. Sure. “But there will be rules. Non-negotiable ones.”
Daisy nods so fast I almost laugh.
Doc steps beside me, crossing her arms. “Physically, she’s fine,” she says quietly. “Bruises are old, nothing’s infected. But she’s carrying a lot.” She pauses. “She needs therapy. Regularly. And since I’m practically living here now, I don’t mind taking on that role.”
I nod my thanks.
Wrecker starts talking to Daisy about the basics, curfews, staying inside the main house, never going off alone, and safety protocols. She listens with surprising seriousness, chin lifted.
“And,” Wrecker adds, “You need to understand something else. Things are dangerous around here, Daisy. They’ve always been dangerous. That means—”
“I know,” Daisy says quietly.
All conversation stops. Even Max, who had moved to lean against the table, straightens.
Wrenley shifts forward, her voice gentler than I’ve heard it all day. “What do you mean you know?”
Daisy hesitates, then looks at her feet. “I heard things. Back at the House of Silk.”
The room goes still. The name alone is enough to choke out the air. I see Wrenley’s jaw lock. Max goes rigid beside her. Wrecker puts a steadying hand on Daisy’s shoulder.
“What things?” Wrenley asks carefully.
Daisy swallows hard. “The men who ran it,” she whispers. “They talked like. Like they were untouchable. Like no one could stop them.” Her voice trembles. “They talked about people getting taken. Kids. Women. It was just business to them.”
Torque curses under his breath.
Daisy squeezes her eyes shut. “And I heard them say your name, Wrenley.”
The room freezes. Wrenley’s breath hitches, a soft, barely-there sound I only catch because I’m standing closest.
Daisy keeps going, voice thin. “They said you and your people were trouble. That you were messing things up for them. And that they had orders.” She wrings her hands. “Orders from a man. Someone they called The Serpent.”
The temperature in the room drops. My heart slams once, hard. Wrenley goes stone still. Max’s fists curl. Wrecker bows his head like he already suspected as much.
Daisy looks up, tears threatening. “I thought if I stayed here, I could warn you.”
Wrenley cups her cheeks with both hands, steady and sure. “Thank you,” she says. “You did exactly the right thing.”
Daisy nods, blinking fast. “I just. I don’t want him to hurt you.”
Wrenley pulls her into her arms, hugging her so tightly that Daisy’s feet leave the ground for a second.
Around us, the whole family is silent. Not from shock, but from resolve.
Because now we know something new. Sebastian wasn’t running the House of Silk.
He was building an empire under their noses.
The second Daisy finishes speaking, the room changes.
Not loud. Not chaotic. Worse. Silent. Calculated.
Predatory. Wrenley holds Daisy against her chest, murmuring something soft and steady into her hair.
Wrecker stands behind them like a wall. Torque’s jaw flexes, murder glowing behind his eyes.
Riot stops pacing for once, arms folding as he processes the pieces.
Margot and Elias exchange sharp glances, the kind that means they’ve already pulled up ten files in their heads.
Max looks at me. I look at him. We both know what Daisy just confirmed. Sebastian didn’t just infiltrate. He’s been building roots, deep, patient, meant to survive. Wrenley sets Daisy down gently and sends her with Doc to get breakfast. The moment the door clicks shut, everything erupts at once.
“She heard that in their building?” Torque growls.
Margot runs a shaking hand through her hair. “That means Sebastian was already embedded in their infrastructure. Possibly their leadership.”
Elias taps furiously at his tablet. “I need to cross-reference the House of Silk employee logs with the timeline—”
“They had orders,” Max repeats, eyes narrowing. “Orders to go after Wrenley.”
Wrenley stands in the center of the room, arms crossed, head bowed slightly. Listening. Processing. Sharpening. I know that posture. She’s turning pain into strategy. Finally, she speaks. “War room. Now.”
No one argues.
Screens glow to life, casting cold electric light across the table. Maps. Timelines. Missing persons. Financial trails. Names we’ve taken down and ones still breathing. Wrenley stands at the head of the table, Max on her right, me on her left. She’s calm. Too calm.
“What Daisy heard wasn’t random,” Wrenley says, tapping her fingers on the table. “There’s a structure to this. A hierarchy. Sebastian’s building something that didn’t end with the House of Silk.”
Elias brings up a digital board. “If Daisy heard the men say ‘The Serpent’, that may have been code for Sebastian—or someone he answers to.”
Torque scoffs. “Sebastian doesn’t answer to anyone but his own insanity.”
“Maybe not anymore,” Margot says quietly. “But he might’ve once.”
The room hums with unease.
Max leans forward, forearms braced on the table. “So what are we dealing with? A network?”
“A network,” Margot confirms. “With enough reach to hide in plain sight.”
Wrecker cracks his neck. “And enough arrogance to think they can come after not just any Black Serpent but our Queen.”
“They already did,” I say. Everyone looks at me. “Wrenley has been on their radar,” I remind them, voice low. “Long before the crash. Long before Noah. Daisy overhearing that wasn’t a coincidence. It was a warning that we were too late to intercept.”
Wrenley meets my eyes. Her expression is unreadable, but her spine is forged in iron.
“Then we intercept now.”
Max exhales slowly, a dark smile pulling at his mouth. “We tear the whole damn network down.”
Plans fly from every direction. Elias suggests digital infiltration, Margot outlining the financial trails, and Riot volunteering more kinetic solutions.
Torque offering manpower. Wrecker is ready to raze cities to keep Daisy safe.
It’s unified. Focused. Deadly. And at the center of it all is Wrenley. Our Queen. Our purpose. Our focus.
The others disperse to gather intel, leaving just Max and me lingering near the door. He leans against the wall, arms crossed. “You’re thinking about something,” he says.
He’s always too perceptive. “You’re thinking it too,” I reply.
He doesn’t deny it. The hallway feels too small. Too quiet after the chaos.
Max finally asks. “How do we keep her safe, Liam? Really safe?”
I look toward the armory door where Wrenley disappeared to gather her weapons. Then back at him. “There’s only one way,” I say quietly. “And we both know it.”
Max’s jaw flexes, tension rolling off him. “Say it.”
I exhale through my nose.
“We end this. At the root. No more chasing shadows. No more reacting. We go for Sebastian’s throat—and whatever he’s built under it. We take him out before he gets close enough to touch her again.”
Max looks down at the floor, then up at me. “And if that means going places she can’t follow yet?”
My chest tightens. “Then we go,” I say. “And we don’t tell her until it’s done.”
His brows rise. “She’ll kill us.”
“Probably,” I admit. “We’ll deserve it.”
Max huffs a humorless laugh. But he nods. Because he knows. Because he feels it too. Wrenley is strong. Unbreakable. A force. But Sebastian isn’t just trying to kill her. He’s trying to unmake her. There’s only one way to stop a man like that.
My mind settles into the truth like a blade into its sheath. To keep her safe… I’ll have to become the monster he thinks he is. I’ll have to go after him first. Before he ever gets close. I may not survive it, if that’s the cost. But she will. She has to. Whatever it takes.