My Alpha Husband Forgot I Was The Blackridge Reaper Chapter 11
They Turn on Each Other
The first trap closes inside the kitchen.
The head chef takes one sip of the ceremonial wine and immediately grabs his stomach.
He drops to the floor, groaning and rolling in pain.
The concentrated wolfsbane Caleb’s men brought into the estate was replaced three days ago.
The bottle contains a powerful laxative now.
The two rogues posing as caterers realize something is wrong.
They turn and run.
They do not make it three steps.
Knox’s Enforcers slam them facedown against the kitchen counter.
Then the ballroom doors burst open.
Caleb knows his plan has failed.
He charges toward the head table with eight armed rogues behind him.
The guns in their hands were hidden inside the estate by the Hale family’s driver.
Unfortunately for them, that driver has been working for Knox for the past two weeks.
Every weapon is loaded with blanks.
The rogues pull their triggers.
Gunshots explode across the ballroom.
No one falls.
Guests scream, duck beneath the tables, and shove one another as they try to escape.
Caleb’s eyes widen.
Then he reaches into his boot and pulls out one last pistol.
That weapon never passed through the driver’s hands.
He aims directly at my father.
Knox is already beside me.
Knox presses his pistol into my palm.
I raise the pistol and fire.
One shot.
Caleb’s gun flies from his hand.
Blood sprays from the torn flesh between his thumb and index finger.
He screams and drops to his knees.
Every wolf in the ballroom turns toward me.
I stand in front of my table with Knox’s pistol in my hand.
Smoke curls from the barrel.
It has been ten years.
My aim is as steady as if I never put my gun away.
“Father,” I say.
“I told you I had prepared a special gift.”
The Twelve Enforcers close in.
Within seconds, every rogue is disarmed and pinned to the floor.
They drag Caleb into the center of the ballroom.
Ivy suddenly launches herself out of her chair.
She throws herself over Caleb in front of more than four hundred guests.
“Caleb!” she screams.
She clutches his shoulders.
“Don’t hurt my brother!”
The ballroom erupts.
Those two words reveal more than any interrogation could.
Adrian is dragged in from the kitchen and forced to his knees beside them.
He immediately lowers his head to my father.
“Alpha Halston, I was deceived by them. I knew nothing about this.”
Ivy whips around to face him.
Tears streak her face as she starts laughing.
“Deceived?”
Her voice turns shrill.
“You went to meet Caleb yourself!”
“You were the one who demanded the Beta position!”
She points at him with a shaking hand.
“You held me and promised that after Alpha Marcus died, you would divorce Scarlett and marry me in front of the entire pack. Now you claim they deceived you?”
“Shut up!” Adrian roars.
A vein bulges in his neck.
“I won’t!”
More than four hundred guests fall silent.
They listen as Adrian and Ivy tear each other apart.
Every word of their confession reaches the highest-ranking wolves in Blackridge and the visiting Alphas.
No interrogation is necessary.
They have confessed to everything themselves.
My father rises from his seat.
He walks toward Adrian and looks down at him.
“I gave you my only daughter.”
His voice is quiet.
“And you tried to murder me.”
Then he turns away.
“Scarlett will decide their fate.”
A shocked murmur moves through the ballroom.
No one dares to object.
I walk to Adrian and crouch in front of him.
His face has lost all color.
I speak softly enough that only he can hear me.
“Adrian Hale, do you remember what I did when I was thirteen?”
His pupils contract.
“Do you think ten years made me softer?”
I smile.
“Or do you think they made me worse?”
Adrian’s legs give out.
He collapses onto the floor and makes a broken sound deep in his throat.
It is not a cry.
It is not a scream.
It sounds like the whimper of a dying animal.
The same sound my father’s mistress made ten years ago when I walked into her room with a gun.