Chapter 61
Dash
Avery Hailstone attended Silverstone Preparatory. I never noticed her. All I cared about was Mila and saving my neck from being sliced open in The Cleansing.
Her father is wealthy and runs in the same circles as my dad. Oh, and he ’ s a board member on the council of The Rites of Passage.
The days of the council members remaining anonymous are no more. Funny thing, now that the council members are being killed off, those who don ’ t think my brothers had anything to do with it have come out in the open, begging for protection and help. Royce is one of them. The others who think we are trying to kill them have gone into hiding and are plotting out how to destroy us.
The Rites of Passage is officially in a civil war.
Royce gave up on Avery a long time ago. He would have killed her and used her younger sister as his puppet if he could have gotten away with it. The only reason her father puts up with her is because he has to. Once he dies, Avery takes his seat on the council. First-born shit and all.
My eyes are narrow as I watch Avery clench her fist; the scars on her knuckles are visible from a distance. She doesn ’ t like to fight; she craves it. She just has a hard time getting someone else in the ring to fight her. Pretty faces tend to do that. A man would rather slap her ass as she ’ s riding his cock than punch her in a fighting ring.
So, Avery has to resort to provoking fights out in the open, such as when she goes to nightclubs. She sought out bad attention in order to make her father shove her into a corner he never looked at.
I looked, and what I found was a girl who had a lot to answer for. From the outside, she has no friends. She attends a weekly yoga class followed by vigorous workouts with a private trainer who was a Navy Seal. They fuck in the showers after her class. The guy would commit treason if Avery would only commit to him, but she doesn ’ t give two shits about him, which only makes him fuck her harder.
She likes to get fresh juice after her workout, but the cafe is a cover for dark web hackers, whom I am sure have helped her hide the girls she has smuggled away.
She doesn ’ t party unless she feels the need to smash a beer bottle over some asshole ’ s head. Avery likes violence. That or she acts as a vigilante, waiting for guys to slip drugs into their date ’ s drinks, but then she steps in, and…shit gets messy.
Very, very messy.
Her inheritance has gone to paying off people and keeping her public image clean.
I imagine her and Nova getting along as they compare the cut-off dicks they have mounted on their walls.
“ She is very fuckable.” Anders comments as he sips his wine, looking all civilized, but his small hand ax is tucked into a specially made pocket in his tux.
“ She will cut off your balls with your own ax, Anders. Stay far away.”
“ She can ’ t find an ax big enough to try.” He grunts, lips tugging up.Anders is attracted to crazy. Too bad our plan doesn ’ t bind Avery to him.
Peeling my eyes off Avery, I look at Anders. “ What happened between you and Leo ’ s sister?”
His smile drops. He grabs the lapels of his tux, no doubt feeling the weight of his ax, wishing it were in his hand and the blade at my throat. “ Nothing.”
“ Sometimes, nothing means everything.”
“ Sometimes everything is nothing.” He spits. “ We ’ re here for you, not me.”
I tip my head back and release a soft laugh. “ One day, it will be your turn.”
“ I had my turn and decided to end it.” He mutters sharply, but his eyes look like a wishing well filled with lost hopes and dreams long forgotten by those who tossed a coin inside. Dark. Hollow. Bitter.
“ Shall we?” I suggest as I push off the bar.
“ Remember, you can ’ t kill her,” Anders purrs as the tips of his shoes bite at my heels.
“ Not yet.” Not ever. Mila would never look at me again.
Avery sees us coming but remains looking out at the dance floor. If she ’ s looking for her father ’ s help, Leo has him cornered in his car outside. “ Hello, Avery,”
“ Wow,” she exhales as she rolls her bitchy green eyes. Her sigh is longer than a queen ’ s wedding veil, slowly trudging up the stairs of an echoing cathedral. “ You must have found them after all.”
My eyes narrow into an arched line resembling a blade, but her eyes slowly slide to meet mine like an eight ball, leisurely sinking into its determined hole. She ’ s not shocked to see me, that ’ s for sure.
“ Found what?”
“ Your balls. You ’ ve been stalking me for two weeks. And this guy,” she grimaces at Anders as if his presence is lacking, “ If you want to blend in, then don ’ t carry an ax in your hand. Freak.”
“ This is New York. Axes in hands are normal here.”
“ It ’ s the Upper East Side, you idiot. You need to learn how to read the room.”
“ I ’ m wearing a tux.” Anders smugly looks at his attire.
I step closer and smile like this is a friendly conversation. “ If you know why I ’ m here, why didn ’ t you run? You know I will kill you for this.”
“ You want the truth?” She gives me a bored look.
“ They say it gets you far in life.”
“ Not in our world, but I ’ ll bite and tell you.” She flips her long blonde hair back, hiding her nervousness. However, her hair is so thick and curly that most of it remains dripping down her chest, drawing Anders's attention. “ I have a mission going down tomorrow, and if you were too scared to grab me, then I was hoping to pull it off.”
Anders snorts. “ A mission.”
“ Why are my plights different from the ones your daddy used to send you on?” She growls. “ My missions are no different. Actually, they are better, so fuck off.”
Anders's throat rumbles in a growl. “ Careful.”
“ Careful became boring years ago. I prefer straddling death.”
“ I ’ ll give you something to straddle.”
“ Yet again,” an exhausted sigh rumbles from her lungs. “ Not my type.”
“ Who are you helping to escape this time?” I demand to know.
“ So you can stop me?”
“ If I wanted to stop you, I would have.”
That gets her attention. “ I won ’ t tell you where Mila is.”
“ We ’ ll make you.” Anders steps closer and unbuttons his tux, showing off the hilt of his ax.
“ Oh, you ’ re so predictable, Anders. I know all about you and what you prefer to do to your enemies.” She holds her hands out, examining her nails, “ I just got a manicure, so at least when you pull my fingernails off, they will land on the floor looking pretty.” She steps closer to him, chest to chest, tipping her chin so high you think she is taller than him. “ Pain doesn ’ t scare me, and neither does death.”
“ What about torture?”
“ I ’ m a woman. We torture ourselves daily. Try brushing out curly hair when it ’ s knotted and wet. It hurts like a bitch. Try harder to scare me.”
Reaching out, I push Anders back and take his spot. “ Your little sister dying scares you. How does it feel to save so many women but not be able to get your hands on your little sister?”
Her pupils dilate for a fraction of a second before her face reddens.
“ Your father keeps her tucked away, so very far from you. He didn ’ t want your behavior to rub off, that, and he knows you ’ d run with her, shaming her name along with yours and stripping your family of the power The Rites of Passage grants them.”
“ Let me guess. I ’ ll tell you where Mila is, and you ’ ll tell me where he ’ s keeping my sister.”
I step back and cross my arms. “ I don ’ t know where he ’ s keeping your sister, but I will soon.” I grab her arm and lower my lips to her ear. “ Your dad ’ s been stressed lately. That ’ s because someone has been killing off the council members.”
“ How do you—”
“ How do I know he ’ s a council member?” I grin. “ I know a lot of things. Right now, Leo, my brother, is proposing an engagement to your father.”
“ I ’ ll never—”
I tug her closer. “ Not for you, but your sister.” Her heart just plummeted. I felt it hit the tip of my shoes. “Your father will agree, and he will take your sister out of hiding so Leo can meet her. Then he will kill you. He won ’ t need you to keep his power because your sister will marry a ruler. It ’ s a step up.” I smirk. “ Your days are ticking away so fast. Blink, and you might miss your final breath.”
Her jaw grinds.
“ If you play by my rules, I ’ ll give your sister to you.” All her walls and bitchy attitude turn into a thin veil that I can see through. She ’ s considering it, betraying not just Mila but all the girls she has helped, all for the single trade of her little sister. It ’ s the definition of love ’ s weakness, comparing one life to dozens.
“ You will let my sister and me go?”
“ No.” I laugh. Life isn ’ t easy. Strings bind us. “ You will take her place. Your father isn ’ t stupid. He will want a contract signed. Mila ’ s father wants Mila back, too; he will make a clause in the marriage contract stating that on the wedding day, Leo can choose which sister he wants. He will bury it in the writing. Your father is a lazy man. He won ’ t bother reading the contract, anyway. Leo will pick you, and your little sister will have freedom. We all win. The end. It ’ s this, or your father pawns her off to someone else. Someone who won ’ t keep her safe like you and Leo can.”
Her throat rolls, and the swallow gets stuck, causing her to cough. “ Leo ’ s handsome,” I add.
“ Fuck you.”
“ I ’ m married. You can have Leo to fuck.”
Her exhales rival a wild boar running through a jungle for the kill.
“ You need us. If you don ’ t take my deal, then the person trying to kill you will do it themselves.”
“ What are you talking about?”
“ Someone wants you dead. They were hoping I did it so the Kings would look guilty.” I continue as the violinist hits a high note, making the crowd applaud him. “ They wanted me to kill you, so it looked like I was killing off The Rites of Passage ’ s secret council and their heirs. Your life is in my hands, and obviously, I need you alive so you can tell me where my wife is.”
It ’ s almost like my words were the voice of god himself. A server steps in front of us, silver tray in hand, offering champagne. It ’ s the amount of sweat dripping down his face that alerts my senses. I almost miss the muzzle of the gun pointing out from under the tray, but the long silencer he has attached to it causes it to stick out.
I grab Avery, but her body jerks. Fuck, she ’ s hit! Her black dress takes on a new shade of darkness as a bullet wound to her shoulder begins to flood the fabric.
Anders is already moving, Ax in hand and then. He moves it, cutting the blade through the air so fast it creates a whistle, and then… gross! The assassin ’ s head hangs halfway off his neck; the ax cut through half of it. He falls to the ground, making a scene that ripples through the gala like a tidal wave.
Screams, chaos, madness. People run, pushing others in a stampede to escape. Anders stands, ax still in hand, as he covers us.
Instead of crying and fainting, Avery tries to do something stupid, turning on her heels to run with the crowd.
I pull her into me, chest to chest, feeling the warmth of her blood pressing into my suit. “ What? No, thank you?” Using the chaos I act, no one notices me pressing my finger into the gunshot wound; Avery ’ s screams blend with the crowd. “ Is that a yes or no? Do you accept my terms?”
“ Fuck you!” She pants.
“ Do you want my protection?” Her face is pale, making the rapid beads of sweat on her forehead look like fresh, untouched snow. I press my finger into her bleeding wound further.
“ I can ’ t betray Mila.” Her chest sinks.
“ You won ’ t.”I hold her stare. “ I fucked up, and I ’ m prepared to beg for forgiveness if she will have me, that is.”
Her pain clears as she judges me, slowly nodding.
“ The car is waiting.” Anders taps my shoulder.
“ We find my sister first,” Avery says.
“ Deal.”
“ Take your finger out of me now, you asshole!”
I sandwich her between Anders and me as cover. “ Asshole?” I joke, “ Here I was, helping my new friend.”
“ Helping?”
“ I was trying to stop the bleeding.”
“ I ’ m gonna kill you!”
“ Join the club.” I snicker as we push through the crowd. I ’ m one more step closer to getting my wife back.