Chapter 25
Xavier
I open the computer in the library and fish out my phone to open the pictures I took from Sunny’s contacts. I don’t recognize any of these names or numbers, but let’s see I can find out any information about them online.
I type in their phone numbers one by one.
“I have no clue who she’s looking for, or who these people are,” I mutter.
Barely any of them get a hit. It’s like she has invisible friends, or they’re all operating under fake names.
Orion plants his hand on the desk. “Wait. Scroll back.” I do what he says, and he points at the screen. “I know that name.”
I frown. “You do?”
“Not the guy, the gang name,” he says.
I lick my lips and look at the name he’s pointing at. “Bones Brotherhood.”
“That’s it. Dad talked about them once. Said he helped Felix, Alistair, Nathan, Kai, Milo, and all the others bust out Sunny’s mom when she got captured by the Bones Brotherhood.”
“Wait, aren’t they a bunch of traffickers?” I immediately slam my own hand in front of my mouth when I realize I said that out loud in a public space.
“Who is?”
Orion’s brother Atlas leans over the cubicle with a book in his hands, and we both look at him like we’ve seen a ghost.
“Nothing,” we say in sync.
His brother raises his brow and moves in closer. “A bunch of traffickers is nothing?”
Orion swiftly slams his hand in front of his brother’s mouth. “Shhh! Do you want the whole library to hear?”
Atlas pushes his hand away. “Then tell me the truth.”
Orion looks at me like I fucking know. Our families don’t like to talk about the past, especially not when it could endanger us in the present. But the cat’s already out of the bag now.
“I’m not gonna spill, I swear,” Atlas adds.
“Fine.” Orion sighs out loud.
I grumble, “This is going to bite us in the ass so badly.”
“I’m not going to do anything. I just want to know more, that’s all,” Atlas says. “So why are you guys looking up the Bones Brotherhood? Didn’t Felix say we could never talk about that again?”
“Yeah, but since when is Felix the boss of anyone?” Orion mutters.
Atlas grabs a chair and sits down behind us. “What did they do?”
“Drugs, trafficking, you name it, they do it all. The Bones Brotherhood is one of the most wanted criminal organizations.”
No wonder Sunny is chasing them.
Atlas frowns like he’s taking it all in.
“And you’re searching for them, why?” Atlas asks.
I stare him down. “It’s private.”
He glares back at me. “Fine. I get it. You don’t want me around.” He raises his hands. “No harm. I just wanted to see what was up, since y’all apparently got more information that my dad will ever divulge to me.”
“Don’t tell me Ares never spoke to you about the Bones Brotherhood.” Orion frowns. “His late dad literally had dealings with them at his casino.”
Atlas’s eyes widen, and he drops the book on the floor, then swiftly picks it up again. “No.”
“Oh. Well, maybe he wanted to protect you,” Orion says.
Atlas’s nostrils flare. “You know what? Maybe he was right. I … I gotta go.”
He takes off before I can say another word, and I watch as he disappears through the library doors.
“That was an odd conversation,” Orion says.
“Tell me about it,” I reply.
I focus on the computer and search for the names until I find the guy I watched her take out in the alley. Paul Lockley. Nurse in the elderly care. Looks like a regular old dude, yet she butchered him like he was the shit stuck underneath her shoe.
He’s part of the Bones Brotherhood.
Just like all the others.
But why is she targeting them?
I search the next few numbers until I find Perry, the drug seller I brought to her.
He works as a pharmacist at a private hospital in Crescent Vale City.
Oh fuck.
My skin erupts into goose bumps.
They work at hospitals with sick people who can be easily displaced.
I feel sick to my stomach.
“This is it,” I mutter. “I was right. It’s a hit list. And she’s targeting the Bones Brotherhood.”
Orion steals my phone out of my hand and sends the picture I took to himself.
“Hey!”
“What? We’re in this together now,” he says. “For better or worse.”
I snatch my phone back from him. “I promised her I would keep it to myself.”
“She already knows I’m involved.”
I swipe down until I find another pic with different phone numbers, and I type in one of them to find a name.
Jim “Jimmy” Farrell. Taxi driver who works for a company that does daily trips … to the remote, private hospital.
“Holy shit.”
“What?”
I run my fingers through my hair. “It’s all connected. All of them.”
“How?”
“That hospital. They all work there or used to work there.”
My whole body feels like it’s on fire.
“Him.” I tap my finger on the screen. “This is her next target.” A smile slowly forms on my lips. “And we’re going to find him for her.”
Suddenly, my phone buzzes, so I take it out of my pocket and check the messages.
Aspen: earth to Xav, did you forget the family dinner is tonight? You didn’t check in when Mom asked for a time.
“Shit,” I mumble to myself. “It’s my sister. Family dinner is tonight, so we’ll have to reschedule.”
“Aw, bummer,” Orion replies.
Me: Great. Thx for the reminder.
Aspen: YW. U gonna bring Sunny and shock our family?
The mere mention of her name still makes me squeeze my ass cheeks together.
Me: Absolutely not
Aspen: Y? You got cold feet?
I don’t even have to be near her to know my sister is gloating.
Me: And who was it again that couldn’t admit to being in love with Levi for a whole ass decade?
Aspen: That’s different.
Me: Yeah, thought so
I snort to myself.
Aspen: I’m being serious tho. You should tell her.
Me: I don’t have a death wish. C U tonight.
I tuck my phone back into my pocket and take a deep breath. Guess our killer plans will have to wait.
Sunny
After finishing a few of my classes for the day, I head out of the main Spine Ridge University building together with Delilah and my other friends, but I stop in my tracks from the ruckus up ahead near the Tartarus House.
“What’s going on?” Delilah asks.
Frowning, I reply, “I don’t know.”
And I don’t like not knowing what’s going on one bit.
We speed-walk toward the Tartarus House, and I clench my bag tightly as I push through the crowd to see what’s actually happening there, but I stop in my tracks the second I spot the police tape being wrapped around the porch.
Several cops are marking off spots on the ground and taking photographs, and my otherwise calm demeanor in public is shot to bits.
Someone talked.
Dean Felix barges through the people beside me and stops right in front of two officers. “What is going on?”
“This is an active crime scene as of now.”
He frowns. “Why was I not informed of this beforehand?”
“Because we do not want to give anyone the opportunity to cover up.” A familiar voice makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Foley.
He casually strolls out of the rose garden with a notebook in his hand and a pen in the other, and the absolute gall of the smirk that slowly forms on his face when he sees Felix’s fury makes me fall only that much harder for him.
This fucker … he’s truly got a death wish going up against the Riveras.
“Since your campus is obviously not a safe haven,” he adds.
“Nonsense,” Felix rebukes, and he points at Foley’s chest. “You’d better have a good explanation for this. We agreed to active police protection, not taping off entire sections of the campus. This is outrageous, and you fucking know it.”
Foley doesn’t waver. “A possible murder on campus is anything but outrageous.”
Shocking gasps emanate from the people behind me.
“What murder?” Felix barks.
“An officer was taken from the grounds. We’ve found traces of blood.”
More audible gasps fill the air.
Foley hands Rivera a bunch of papers. “This whole area will be off-limits for the foreseeable future.”
Dean Rivera inspects the papers. “How long?”
“As long as necessary until we find the culprit. Or the missing officer. Whichever comes first.”
Foley tilts his head and smiles, but then his eyes filter through the crowd and stop once they connect with mine.
The air feels knocked out of my lungs.
This is bad.
Very fucking bad.
The chance of them finding something is huge, since those boys were amateurs and didn’t know how to properly clean up after a killing spree.
Besides, they killed him because of me.
I swallow.
I have to fix this.
But this sure puts a wrench in my plans to kill my next victim.
My fist balls from the way Foley’s gaze is fixated on me.
God, he’s so infuriatingly handsome when he’s laser-focused on finding his target, no matter the cost. It turns me on like nothing else, and I would jump his fucking bones if it weren’t for everyone around us watching.
And the fact that he doesn’t know I’m his stalker.
I hide my intentions behind a graceful smile.
He smiles back.
Game on.
Atreus
I throw my keys on the table and grab a bottle of wine from the cupboard, then pour myself a glass before I sit down on the couch and stare out the window like an absolute crazed man.
The more information that comes out of that school, the more disgusted I become.
It truly is a pile of dung covered in a ribbon, and every one of them lying bastards is guilty.
And I can’t help but wonder if my stalker goes there too.
I take a sip.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit with the amount of inside knowledge she proclaimed to have.
Who is she protecting?
My fingers clench around the glass tightly.
I can’t fucking believe one of my own officers is missing at the scene of the crime. Not one but two students were seen driving off in a hurry, yet not a single partygoer actually saw a license plate or a face. Nothing they could be identified with.
Goddammit.
For all I know, he could already be dead in a ditch somewhere.
Coldhearted killers.
I take another sip, but it won’t quench my thirst for vengeance. Not one bit.
The lights from downtown dazzle through my window, casting an ominous glare that reminds me of a dancing flame. A woman, slithering through my home, trapping me in her claws, enchanting me with those coy fingers and that delectable pussy she forced onto me.