Chapter 26
ELLIE
I’m so fucking angry, I can barely speak.
At first, I was shocked. Horrified, even. But those emotions were quickly eclipsed by a tidal wave of anger so pronounced, it consumed all rational thought.
Aria—The Divine One—is going to pay for this.
I’m belatedly aware of being shepherded out of the room by a few of Aria’s goons. They say something to me, but their words go in one ear and out the other. The only thing keeping me relatively sane is the hand on the small of my back applying the tiniest amount of pressure.
Dominic.
They lead the four of us into an office and then leave, locking the door behind them. I don’t even care that they locked me away like some sort of wild animal. Right now, the descriptor is fitting. I feel feral. Out of control. Wild.
Anger pumps through my veins, bitter and caustic, and makes my heart pound even harder.
Aria killed Lenny and Robbie. Murdered them in cold blood. She’s a monster.
Did Reece escape?
Did we make the right decision trusting Doyle?
Are we—?
“Ellie. Love. Darling.” Beckett attempts to grab my arm, but I pull free, continuing my incessant pacing. My feet wear a hole in the carpeting.
“She’s going to pay for this,” I seethe. Heat prickles the tips of my fingers, migrating up my arms until it congregates on the back of my neck. My entire body becomes ablaze in an incandescent inferno.
“She will. Ellie.” Beckett grabs my shoulders and gently turns me around to face him. His mismatched eyes—one dark green and the other buttery brown—ensnare my own, holding both me and my thoughts hostage. “Ellie, she will pay. I promise you. But you can’t lose your shit. Not now.”
Anger and fear pump into my veins with every erratic surge of my heart.
“She killed them,” I whisper.
Beckett’s eyes soften. “I know.”
“She fucking murdered them—”
“I know,” he repeats.
“And she’ll be punished for it,” Zane promises me, his voice sounding from over my shoulder. “Soon.”
I open my mouth to respond but snap it closed when the door behind me opens. I whirl in Beckett’s arms, instantly on alert, and frown at the two masked men standing sentry.
The one on the right speaks first. “The Divine One wishes to see you.”
“What the hell does she want?” Suspicion lends an angry edge to Dom’s voice.
The two goons don’t answer, though the one on the left shifts his cloak slightly, allowing us to see the gun holstered on his waist.
The message is supremely clear.
We don’t have a choice.
“Let’s get this over with,” I growl, wondering what my sadistic bio mom has planned now. She obviously wasn’t pleased with my little stunt, though I have no idea what she has planned. Will she kill me?
I'd like to see her try.
Anger fuels my movements as I’m led back into the ballroom—which is now empty, save for a few staff members who are cleaning up—and toward a door at the end of the hall.
“Enter,” the man who first spoke instructs, jerking his chin toward the door.
Zane gives the asshole a one-finger salute and then skips ahead, Beckett behind him. Dominic remains at my back, so close I can feel his heat permeating my clothes and his breath on the nape of my neck.
I don’t know what I plan to say to Aria, but the words get trapped on my tongue when I enter the sparse bedroom and see what she has in store for us.
Aria has removed her mask, though her robe remains in place, dwarfing her figure. Her blonde hair sticks in all directions like she stuck her finger in an electric socket. Those icy eyes are, for once, not impassive.
They burn with unfettered fury.
In the center of the room, tied to two separate chairs, are Doyle and Harvey.
Dominic’s brother and father both look worse for wear. Harvey’s face is peppered in bruises and lacerations—a sight that brings me a tiny bit of demented pleasure. He’s struggling against the ropes securing him, though his words of outrage are muffled by the gag in his mouth.
Doyle, on the other hand, stares blankly ahead. A strand of limp hair falls in front of his right eye, obscuring it from view. He doesn’t move, doesn’t struggle, doesn’t do anything but gaze at the wall directly behind his father.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Dominic demands, stepping around me, his eyes intent on his father and half brother. A tiny furrow manifests between his brows.
I know his relationship with these two has been strained, even before it was discovered that they’re members of POP.
Dominic grew up under the care of two amazing women who love and cherish him.
He only recently rekindled his relationship with his father, after the bastard bothered him incessantly for months.
And Doyle? It’s complicated. He’s an asshole, but he helped us not once, but twice.
Unless…
Unless he merely pretended to be on our side.
Why are they here?
What sick game is Aria playing this time?
“I’ve been lenient with you, daughter,” Aria says, stepping forward, her robe sashaying around her legs like a midnight-colored waterfall. She purses her lips with distaste. “But my leniency only extends so far.”
My rage from before sweeps over me yet again, loosening my tongue. “You murdered those people.”
“I killed a few useless sheep,” she corrects. At her side, her hand curls into a fist, her nails biting into her palm. She takes a deep breath and simultaneously loosens fingers. “I did what I had to do.”
“How can you possibly justify that?” I don’t expect an answer from her. After all, you can’t reason with crazy.
But she surprises me by saying, “Sometimes, a few must be sacrificed for the good of all.” She takes another step closer, those ice-blue eyes never straying from my face.
“What you need to understand is that the Paragons of Prosperity is more than a cult or secret society or religion. It’s a…
lifestyle.” A wistful sigh escapes her. “Our members join because they have urges that only we can satiate. In return, they help us.”
“And how exactly do they help you?” Zane’s jaw ticks.
Aria barely spares him a glance. “We have some very powerful people in our organization, as you’re well aware.
We allow them to…partake in their more primal urges, and in return, they look the other way.
Help lead investigators down a different path.
Stop laws that will harm our members’ businesses. And more. So much more.”
I swallow down the bile rushing up my throat. “You’re sick.”
“I’m practical,” she says. “And, more importantly, I’m a businesswoman.
” She reaches for something on the bedroom desk, and my heart drops to my feet when I spot a gun in her hand.
“I don’t like when others fuck with my business.
” Those icy orbs of hers narrow nearly imperceptibly, the crease between her brow becoming more prominent.
“Wait.” I move immediately, instinctually, putting myself between my mother and my men. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt us.”
“Did I?” She cants her head to the side, and a strand of hair catches in the artificial lighting, making the color appear almost silver, like the moon gilding half of her face.
“Aria…” I warn, trying to hide the way my hands tremble. “If you want me to be your prodigy or whatever the fuck you have planned, you can’t hurt them. Any of them. If you do, I won’t stop making your life a living hell.”
“Ellie.” Both Zane and Beckett reach for me, trying to pull me behind them. I struggle against their grasp.
“I could just kill one.” Aria shrugs a slender shoulder. “Then I’ll still have two more as collateral.”
“I’ll kill you,” I vow, and I mean it. I wonder if she can hear the sincerity in my tone, see the truth in my eyes. “If you hurt any of them, I’ll kill you. Fuck the consequences.”
Aria laughs then, the noise light and lilting. An undercurrent of darkness laces the almost musical sound.
“You allowed Reece to escape,” she tells me, the smile diminishing from her face.
My heart begins to pound even faster, relief threading through the panic.
Reece…escaped?
Is that why she’s mad?
I’m so fucking relieved, I actually almost sag forward.
Reece escaped.
He made it.
Fuck.
“You need to be punished for your disobedience,” Aria continues, a scowl descending over her features. She sweeps her arm to the side, the gun still clutched tightly in her grip, and says, “Choose one to die. Doyle or Harvey.”
“What?!” That one word, rife with incredulity, bursts from Dom’s lips. I don’t look over my shoulder to see his expression.
“Pick one,” Aria repeats, pronouncing each word slowly, carefully, succinctly.
Dread hardens to form an icy lump in my throat. “Fuck you.”
“Pick one, or I’ll shoot him in the head.” This time, Aria raises the gun and levels it on Beckett, directly between his eyebrows.
Beckett swallows, tension stealing through his shoulders.
But he doesn’t move away or cower. He simply stands there, his chin lifted in the air imperiously, his jaw clenched, his gaze locked on the bitch threatening his life.
“Harvey,” I grit out, not giving myself a chance to second-guess my decision or focus on the fact I’m sentencing a man to die. “Kill Harvey.”
Aria tsks her tongue in mock disapproval. “Not you, Ellie.” Her glacial gaze slides over my shoulder and locks on Dominic, who has gone frozen behind me, a statue of flesh against my back. “You. Choose who you want to die—your father or your brother.”
What the fuck?
“I…” Dominic’s hands land on my shoulders, steel bands, and he subtly pushes me to the side and behind him. I allow him to, simply because my brain is still trying to process Aria’s request.
She wants Dominic to choose which of his family members has to die?
He hates his father, I know that, but could he live with himself if he sentenced him to death?
I don’t want him to live with that guilt, but at the same time, I can’t allow Aria to hurt Beckett. That’s not an option.
Dominic’s hands curl into fists at his sides. “You’re a goddamn bitch.”
Aria flicks the safety off. “You have five seconds.”
“Harvey! Kill Harvey!” Dominic screams, an angry red flush erupting up his neck. Just like when I answered, he doesn’t hesitate. We may not trust Doyle completely, but he’s helped us. And if he’s truly trying to make amends with his brother—
Aria whips the gun to the side and fires.
The bullet hits Doyle between the eyes.
All of us freeze. Zane, who has been inching closer to Beckett, as if he intends to shove him out of the way, goes perfectly still. Beckett’s face takes on an unnatural green tint.
And Dominic?
He looks shattered.
Tremors reverberate through his shoulders as he stares at his brother’s dead body and the bullet in the center of his forehead. It almost reminds me of a spiderweb. Finite lines expand in all directions, intermingling with the blood steadily dripping from the wound.
Harvey begins to scream, though the noise is muffled with the gag still in his mouth. His wide, terrified eyes flick from Dominic’s face to Doyle’s and back again.
Then, without giving us a chance to process what the fuck just happened, Aria aims the gun at Harvey as well. The older man begins to sob, shaking his head in denial.
The pop of the gun rattles my teeth.
Harvey’s head drops forward, blood oozing from the wound on his head.
Breathing is impossible. The air seems to be made up of nothing but tiny razor blades, and every time I inhale, I swallow one down.
No. No. No. No.
“You said…” My voice breaks. “You said only one—”
“I lied,” Aria tells me, her voice flat. She lifts her gaze to mine, and I can see an unspoken promise in those cold blue eyes.
This is what will happen to your men if you betray me.
This is what will happen to you.
“Now, get the fuck out of my sight,” Aria says, waving a flippant hand in the air.
We don’t immediately move. Dominic can’t seem to tear his gaze away from the bodies of his brother and father.
Zane comes to his senses first. His movements jerky, he stumbles forward, placing a hand on Dominic’s shoulder.
Dom flinches, as if he’s been physically struck.
“Dom, we have to go,” Zane whispers to him in a hushed voice. Then again, louder, more urgent, “Dominic!”
“Come on,” Beckett says to me, grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the door.
Zane is attempting to herd Dominic out, but Dom can’t seem to move.
Is he in shock?
My heart breaks for him, splintering into thousands of minuscule pieces. I’m not sure if it’ll ever be whole again.
“Dom!” Zane tries again. “Ellie needs you. We need to get the fuck out of here. Ellie isn’t safe.”
“Ellie…” Dom whispers, as if in a daze. He blinks repeatedly.
But it’s as if my name is some magical cure because he seems to come back to himself. Gradually, one second at a time.
Dom whips his head in my direction, and his gaze roams my body from head to toe, as if searching for injury.
“Ellie!” Alarm pitches his voice, and he clumsily steps toward me.
“I’m fine,” I assure him, desperately wanting to cup his cheeks and hold him to me but knowing that now isn’t the time. “We need to go.”
Who knows what Aria will do next?
Behind Dominic, Aria’s lips stretch into a fiendish smile.
And she continues smiling as we hurry out the door.