Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 4-6) ✓

143 | Making Plans

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I CAN'T BELIEVE UNCLE kept this from me. And the fact that I wore that brooch so proudly too. I should have—"

     "Don't think like that Max," Krist quickly says. "To be honest with you, one of the reasons why Jokers didn't accept you before was because of that same brooch. We thought that you were another Sinclaire that was going to cause problems for us, but knowing you better made it clear that we were wrong."

     "I can attest to that as well," Hans adds, and Cj nodded his head to agree with it too.

     "I've only heard a few things about Paradox since the kings were already Busters when I arrived in J.S High, but I never expected that their leader would be a Sinclaire," River says, glancing at Max who looked at him like he was guilty of something.

     River sighs and grabs hold of Max's hand. "Why are you looking at me like that? Just because you're a Sinclaire, it doesn't mean that you were involved with what happened to my sister."

     "He's right, Leigh. Whatever Donato did has nothing to do with you." Cindy assures him.

     Max takes a deep breath and nods his head. "Thank you, everyone, but now that it has come to this, what do we do now? River, what's your plan after finding out about what happened to your sister?" Max asks, and River pulls his hand away from Max and looks out of the window to properly think about it.

     "For years all I've done is look for the truth. I've followed Siren and did all kinds of things for her, but now that I know everything..." River pauses and takes a deep breath. For a quick second, his soft expression changed, and that frighted the people at the table a little.

     "I...I want to know where those members are now. I want them to pay. They can't continue living so happily after doing such a thing to Serenity. I won't allow it," River then reveals.

    The others were honestly unsure, but at the same time, they couldn't help but agree. The Paradox wasn't just some high school bullies. With what they did in the past, especially with Serenity, they're considered criminals now.

     "What should we do? The members of Paradox are from very powerful families. Even Max would have a hard time going against them, considering how their leader's his cousin. Directly going against them is like Max going against his family." Hans points out, making Max sigh in frustration because he was right.

     "Even though I'm not really on good terms with the Sinclaire family either, I don't think they'd just let me take Donato and send him to jail like that. If worse comes to worst, they might even change the situation and turn things around. As disgusting as it may seem, someone with loads of money can turn any situation to their advantage. I've learned that the hard way," Max says with a dishearted expression.

     "Well, like what you said, money and power can do a lot of things. And lucky for us, we have both," Cj suddenly says, making the rest of them look back at him with their right eyebrow raised. "There's actually a reason why I wanted all of us to meet here." He then adds, now grinning at his friends, an expression that showed that the fearsome count was back in the game.

     "With that look of yours, it's pretty obvious that you already have a plan," Krist comments, and Cj chuckled before saying, "The owner of this restaurant...they're connected to one of the members of Paradox."

     "What?!" Everyone shouted in unison.

     "Are you fucking crazy? We just talked about all sorts of things in this room. What if someone heard us?!" Hans angrily shouts, but Cj didn't look fazed at all.