34. Damon
Misty’s shouldersare folded in, making her already short frame smaller as her eyes dart around the room, looking for some unknown source of unease. I hate myself for dragging her here. I shouldn’t have let her leave my side.
I tighten the arm I have banded around her back, gently guiding her gaze back to mine, and lower my forehead to rest on hers. “You really hate it here?”
Her eyes widen before she releases a long breath. “I’m just tired. Between your mom and the crowd, all I can think about is crawling into my bed.”
“Our bed.”
A pink blush covers her cheeks, but she’s back to looking around the hall.
Men are rapidly disappearing from the room, heading to the meeting that’s about to start in the Vaults. Everything in me screams not to leave her like this. That whatever she is, it’s not fine. I’m about to tell Matthias to fuck off when Misty smiles gently at me and pulls out of my arms.
“Mrs. Everette. Are you ready?” Nicholas’s standing beside us, black suit impeccably pressed. If I didn’t know the truth, I’d think he was born to this.
“Yup. Let’s go.” She nods, but there’s a false levity to her tone.
There’s a look of concern and a silent promise that has the tension in my shoulders easing.
“Take care of my wife.”
“You know I will, sir.”
My fists clench at my sides as I watch them weave through the crowd, then disappear through the large double doors.
“I’m so fucking ready for this.” Bash appears out of nowhere, clapping his hands together. The curl of his lip and the gleam in his eyes are the opposite of Xander’s serious expression.
For the first time, I’m more interested in going home than I am in doling out punishment.
Matthias wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Burn off some of that anger before you go back to your wife.”
Fuck, he’s right. I crack my knuckles as anticipation buzzes in my veins. I’ll just have to make it quick.
The Everette hotel is one of the oldest in the city. Where the upstairs is newly renovated, the underlevels have been maintained in their original version.
I follow my brothers down the twisting marble staircase, grooves worn into it from the years of use. The entire place is lit by the soft glow of sconces that line the sides. Noise filters up to us before we reach the bottom, men gossiping in whispered tones as they wait for us to arrive.
“Don’t forget this.” Bash tosses me my gold mask with a grin as he slides his on.
The three of them transform in front of me into men to be feared. Gone is the playfulness they show each other, morphed into a predatory display of dominance.
They keep their postures relaxed, an illusion to put you at ease, but there’s no mistaking the warning underneath.
We’d been raised for this, and when they tried to take it away from us, we destroyed to get it back. Even as boys, we’d been feared. I’ve made sure to hone that fear, to twist it into power so no one dares come after us again.
The room goes completely silent as my brothers enter one by one. It’s dimmer than the stairwell, the lights from the high ceilings casting the members in shadows as we walk down the aisle. Men are lined on both sides, silver masks in place. Their heads are bowed in respect as we make our way up to the front.
An Unsainted I don’t recognize stirs, his gaze meeting mine before Anthony grabs his arm and drags him lower. He’d petitioned to introduce his cousin in hopes of him entering the Order of Saints. It’s not going well.
I take my spot at the end of the hall, my brothers lined behind me, and stand in front of my throne, daring them to challenge the Everette family.
The silence is broken as two men are dragged in front of us and pushed to their knees. Their faces are bruised and mangled to the point they are nearly unrecognizable. They’re both Unsainted members, not protected by a specific family.
I lift a dagger from the nearby table and clean my nails with it as I examine them. They’d been worked over thoroughly, neither of them fully able to see through swollen lids. Their fists are wrapped in gauze, stained a deep brown, and they’re hunched low, collapsed in on themselves. Matthias caught them two days ago. Looks like he’s been busy.
They flinch simultaneously when I step toward them.
“You’ve both been charged with being traitors to the Order. You have been found guilty of killing Unsainted,” I say in a low voice.
They tremble as I approach closer. My feet stop directly in front of the blond’s knees.
I fist his hair and yank his head up to look at me. “Who did you work for?”
“We don’t know.”
I raise my knife to his eye, the sharp edge cutting the thin lid. “You don’t need eyes to answer.”
The man still looking at the ground beside us whimpers, and the acrid smell of piss fills the air.
“Tell me who you work for, and I’ll make it all stop.”
“We don’t know. We never saw them. They texted a name, then money was deposited.” The bowed man’s voice shakes, barely able to get out the words.
I lift the man in front of me by his collar. “Is that true?”
“Y…yes. We don’t know.”
“What if I ask your family? Your wife? Do you think she’ll know?” It’s an empty threat, but it does what I want.
The man shakes violently in my arms. “I swear. I swear to God, we don’t know.”
I hum under my breath. “I believe you.”
The man relaxes prematurely right before I slice through his throat, the sharp blade sliding without resistance.
The other tries to scramble away, but his broken body doesn’t allow him to flee. “How about you? Do you have any information for me?”
His eyes widen, and his mouth gapes open, searching for anything he can say that would be useful. Unfortunately for him, whoever hired them was smart, and there’s nothing left to tell.
“I didn’t think so.” Blood splatters on my white cuff as the blade does its job.
I turn to the crowd. Someone here is the traitor. “I will hunt you down in whatever crevice you’re hiding in. I will find you and gut you like the rat you are. It’s only a matter of time.”
I wipe the blade on the dead man’s shirt and toss it back on the table.
“Clean this up.”
I don’t bother sticking around. I have a wife to get back to.