Revenge & Truth

Dear Readers, Revenge & Truth is a book that contains quite a bit of darkness, that could be triggering to some people. If you feel like this could be a problem for you, please protect yourself. No work of fiction is worth your mental health. The full list of content warnings is available on my website. Click or Scan for trigger warning: Revenge & Truth – Copyright © 2023 by Creative Wonder Publishing LLC All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be used to reproduce, scan, or be distributed in any printed or electronic form in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations for articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Knight, Elizabeth Revenge & Truth Editing: Swish Editing Cover artist: Jodielock Designs Formatting: Creative Wonder Publishing ISBN: 979-8-88958-028-7 (ebook) / 979-8-88958-029-4 (paperback) For those who have been so patient with me… Get ready for all the steam! Contents 1. Liu 2. Astin 3. Astin 4. Astin 5. Braxton 6. Astin 7. Astin 8. Astin 9. Astin 10. Atticus 11. Astin 12. Astin 13. Astin 14. Astin 15. Jace 16. Astin 17. Astin 18. Astin 19. Braxton 20. Astin 21. Astin 22. Astin 23. Astin 24. Hound 25. Astin 26. Astin 27. Astin 28. Astin About Author Also By one It’s been two weeks since the police came and took Luca away in cuffs from the estate. Their timing couldn’t have been more perfect to catch us when we were too vulnerable to fight. Luca knew this as well as I did, so he went without argument to protect Astin and the Caprioni Family like a good soldier. Since it was the weekend, they held him until Monday for his arraignment, then deemed him too much of a flight risk and denied bail. Luca was charged with first-degree murder for the alleged killing of Mayor Wilson. How they came to that conclusion is still evolving, but Luca has refused to utter a word to the police, no matter what they said or threaten. They even have him kept in solitary confinement as punishment, although they say it’s for his safety after a prison fight broke out in an attempt to kill him. The attacker ended up dead instead, and even though there was clear evidence to show Luca was acting in self-defense, the opposition was using it to their benefit. A knock sounded at my office door, pulling my attention away from the police reports I’d been pouring over for the tenth time. “Come in,” I called. Everyone quickly learned I wasn’t to be disturbed unless they had something of value to discuss. Astin was the one to put that rule in place. This woman was clearly a force to be reckoned with, but now it was like watching a caged animal pacing back and forth. She ran the Caprioni side of things with the others while Hound and I spent every waking moment getting Luca free. To my surprise, it was Astin who entered, not typically one to knock the past few weeks. “Hey,” she greeted with a smile. It shouldn’t make me feel suspicious that she was smiling at me, but since her mood had been worse than foul since Luca was arrested, I couldn’t help it. All of us close to her understood why she was lashing out. Hell, if I’d had to deal with all the shit she has dealt with in the past month, I’d be a dick too. While we did our best to tread carefully, unsure what might set off a swearing or throwing rampage as her alter ego, Darkness, reared her ugly head, there was only so much we could do. “Hi,” I answered and returned her smile as I rose, but she motioned for me to stay put. As she made her way over to my desk, I was relieved to see she was getting better every day. We’d been worried that all the damage she’d done to her leg on the day of the coronation would be permanent, but it didn’t seem to be the case. Her resilience was one of the things that captivated me about Astin from the start. My draw to her was hard to explain without sounding completely insane. Here I was, her adopted brother she knew nothing about, working as her father’s personal assistant, leaving her with no idea what to make of me. Flipping forward a few weeks, I’d become utterly infatuated with her. Honestly, it took me knowing her for all of ten minutes to decide I needed to get to know her. The problem was she saw me as a threat. I was the person who took her place at her father’s side all these years while she was hidden away. Not to mention how well I got along with her father’s second wife, Casimira, and Astin’s half-brother, Jamison. Things with them weren’t bad, but they were strangers, and it was another way for her to see me with the family she always wanted. With Colmazio Caprioni gone and Astin now in charge of the Family, things had begun to get better between Astin and me, especially when I gave her my oath, something I hadn’t even given to her father. Astin rested her cane on the corner of my desk as she hopped up to sit on it. “Do you have a minute?” “Astin,” I started, giving her a patronizing look before she raised her hand to cut me off. “Stop. I know what you’re going to say, and I get it… you always have time for whatever I need, no matter what you’re doing.” She huffed. Seeing she knew what I was