Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Echo
There’s a special place in hell for people with an exorbitant amount of wealth. And tonight, our club is filled to the brim with them.
Billionaires. Founders. CEOs. Board Members.
They all flock to this place like it’s their fucking house of worship. And I suppose, in a lot of ways, it is. Only, there are no gods that roam these dimly lit spaces, only devils. And the only ones being worshipped here are them.
Question.
What does one offer to someone who has everything they could want?
Answer.
Every fucking thing they can’t.
Our club provides a service.
These rich assholes pay to play in our space and in turn, we take extra precautions to make sure that their deepest fucked-up desires never see the light of day.
Oracle is the one place where they can lower their carefully crafted masks. The one place where every single person in their vicinity has their own secrets to protect.
Harry, our head bartender, notices me approaching the bar and immediately sets down the glass he’s drying. He pours a double shot of vodka and wordlessly slides it over.
I take a long sip and let the weight of tonight’s decisions settle over me. Four of Casello’s men are dead. That doesn’t come without consequences.
From the corner of my eye, I catch one of our newer waitresses whispering to another. Her eyes flick towards me, and when she notices me looking, she immediately averts her gaze and walks in the opposite direction.
My jaw ticks.
They all think I’m unstable. That I’m a monster with a mean streak and a propensity for violence. They’re not wrong. Still, it would be nice for my reputation not to precede me everywhere I go.
I drain the rest of my glass and am just about to signal to Harry to pour me another, when I sense someone coming up behind me.
“Echo, thank god!” Athena exclaims, looping her arms around me. She pulls back and studies me for a moment, concern shining in her hazel eyes.
Earlier tonight flashes through my mind. Athena at the bar, laughing with some friends. Those four assholes backing her into a corner by herself. The look of terror on my baby sister’s face.
Athena reaches her hand towards the cut above my brow. I cleaned up before coming back here, but it’s probably still noticeable. “What happened?”
“Nothing.” I say dismissively. “Just a work thing.”
Her brow furrows, and I can tell she wants me to say more, but she doesn’t press.
At twenty-six, she’s only two years younger than me and four years younger than River, our older brother, but he and I make it a point to protect her from the more gruesome details of our family business. She wasn’t raise for it like we were, so she’s used to getting non-answers from us.
“Well, I’m just glad you’re okay.”
I cock my head at her. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
She tucks a strand of wavy brown hair behind her ear and leans in closer. “Security found bodies in the back alley.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “When you didn’t answer my calls… I thought—”
“You thought I could be one of them.” I finish.
Athena nods, her expression tight. “Apparently, they were unrecognizable.”
Yeah.
Close-range shots to the head will do that to you.
“Where’s River?”
“In the office with Briggs.” She sighs. “As soon as word came in, they freaked and practically shoved me out.”
“I’ll talk to them.” I glance over her shoulder and give a subtle nod to her security. They close in around her before she can protest.
“Tread lightly.” She warns. “River looked ready to kill someone.”
I take the stairs two at a time. The music fades into a low pulse behind me.
Upstairs, the office door is open. River is pacing back and forth, tension etched into every step.
And Briggs, our right hand man and childhood best friend, is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking lost in thought.
I step in and shut the door behind me.
“Where the fuck have you been?” River asks, his dark eyes skimming over the fresh cuts on my face. “And why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?”
“I was occupied.”
River’s eyes narrow. “You don’t happen to know anything about the bodies we found outside, do you?”
I shrug, crossing the room and dropping onto the leather couch. “Should I?”
River stops pacing and turns to face me, his eyes cutting through the dim light of the office.
“Don’t play dumb, Echo. You go missing, and thirty minutes later, four of Casello’s men are dead. You expect me to believe that’s a coincidence?”
I meet his gaze, my expression neutral. “Coincidences happen.”
Briggs pushes off the wall, walks to the bar, and pours himself a drink. “Where were you tonight?”
“Out.” I reply cooly, leaning back and stretching my arms over my head. “I needed some air.”
The room falls silent save for the sound of the ice clinking in Briggs’s glass.
Neither of them believe me. That much is obvious.
“You know how delicate the ceasefire is.” Briggs warns. “If Casello finds out we had something to do with his men’s disappearance—”
“He won’t.”
River curses under his breath as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “What the hell were you thinking? What if someone saw you out there?”
Someone did.
But he doesn’t need to know that.
“Did we sweep for surveillance?” River asks, directing the question to Briggs.
“Yeah.” Briggs replies, taking a slow sip of his bourbon. “No cameras on that stretch. We cleared what little footage existed of the area.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.” I say.
River glares at me. “You still haven’t told us what the hell happened. Why did you go after them?”
Neither of them knows what happened to Athena tonight. If they did, this conversation would look very different, and we’d have an all-out war on our hands. Both of them are even more protective of her than I am.
“I needed to blow off some steam.” I say. “And things escalated.”
River looks at me the same way he always does.
Like he’s trying to find the piece of me he can fix and keeps coming up empty.
I’ve told him that what happened when we were kids wasn’t his fault.
That I was raised to be the weapon, he was raised to be the hand that wields it, and neither of us had a say in the matter.
Still, I can tell it haunts him every time he looks at me.
River lets out a tired sigh and waves his hand.
“Let’s just focus on cleaning this up before Casello starts sniffing around.”
Briggs nods. “Our guys are working on it now. The scene will be pristine within the hour.”
“You sure no one saw what happened?” River asks.
I hold his stare, knowing this is a line I’m intentionally crossing.
“Positive.”
He nods and takes a seat behind his desk, already attending to his next order of business.
I push off the couch and head for the door, eager to get away from the mess I know I’m making.
The second I’m in the hallway, I pull out my phone. The text I sent an hour ago still sits there, unanswered.
Echo: Did you get home okay?
I tap the screen, checking the delivery receipt. It went through. She has her phone, I’m sure she’s seen it.
Given our arrangement, I assumed she’d respond immediately. She should be eager to comply and desperate to stay on my good side, but she isn’t responding.
Interesting.
My message wasn’t invasive or threatening. If anything, it was friendly. So why does her silence feel like the first sign of resistance?
My jaw tightens.
I lock the screen and slide the phone back into my pocket. She can’t ignore me forever. I’ll make sure of it.