Chapter Twenty-Five
Amelie
A myriad of emotions wage war inside of me as I storm back up the grand staircase of the hotel’s lavish foyer and make my way to my room.
I’m aware of the guys following me, but I don’t turn around to acknowledge them.
I’m raging, confused, curious, and damn proud of myself for smashing that course today.
Grandpa Knox is an asshole.
The guys look distractingly good in their tuxedos.
Gah! It’s not fair. I’m not about to be distracted by a pretty face or four, but damn if I wouldn’t like to peel those suits from their bodies and leave them crumpled on the floor.
We reach my room and I slip my room key from inside my strapless bra, seeing Kalen’s mouth hang open in shock out of the corner of my eye.
I toss him a smirk and let us all in. When the door clicks closed, I cross to the minibar, bend down and dump the entire contents into the skirt of my dress, using it as a makeshift bag to carry everything back to the bed.
Kicking off my shoes, I bounce onto the bed and sit cross legged, grabbing the first miniature I can get my hands on and pouring it down my throat without checking.
And then I gag. Checking the label, I see it’s a bottle of gin.
Gross. I hunt for the bourbon and when I locate the good stuff, I squirrel the entire stash away.
Looking up, I notice all four guys staring at me in silent trepidation, though of course Onyx’s is more of a cocky smirk. He’s not fooling anyone though. I raise a brow at them in silent challenge.
“Sit,” I order. “Drink.”
Unsurprisingly, Kalen and Slate do as they’re told. Sawyer and Onyx exchange glances and then follow suit. While they battle it out for their poison of choice, I down another couple of bottles of bourbon. Stupid miniatures.
“Sawyer, can you call room service and get some decent sized drinks sent up please?”
He nods in response and leans over to use the hotel phone on my bedside table.
Monty has booked everyone their own room for tonight, despite Kalen insisting we could share to save him some money.
Watching Sawyer stretch out so that his shirt lifts as he orders drinks, makes my mouth water, and I more than wish he were my bunk buddy tonight.
“You have to explain what the hell just happened down there,” I say to the room once he hangs up.
“We have to explain?” Onyx scoffs. “You have to explain. How the hell did you manage to get one of the all-time highest individual scores on that damn obstacle course?”
I smirk and shrug because it’ll drive Onyx wild, but in all honesty, I don’t know how I did it.
“There were assholes from our school there! I didn’t want to get caught.” It’s a true enough explanation. “You didn’t exactly prepare me well for today. I felt like the only person in the dark there. And why the hell was I the only girl?”
“We know you must have a hundred questions—” Sawyer begins, calmly.
“More like a thousand,” I interrupt.
“Ok. So ask some. We can’t tell you everything, but we will tell you what we can,” Sawyer promises.
“No lies. No bullshit.”
“Agreed.” He nods.
“But if we tell you that we can’t answer something, you have to accept that,” Onyx adds.
“Fine.” I pout. It’s not fine, but at least I’ll have some answers.
I have no idea where to start with my questions.
It would be so much easier if they’d just crumble and confess everything.
The pressure’s on me to ask the right questions.
“Fine, so, first question: why did everyone taking part today, apart from those I raced against, have a matching tattoo?”
“The tattoo identifies us as all belonging to the same...group,” Sawyer begins cautiously.
“What group?”
“It’s called The Order of The Snaidhm,” Slate explains.
“What does spleen mean?”
“Not spleen, Snaidhm.”
“That’s what I said,” I huff. “Whatever. What is it? What language even is it?”
“It’s Irish for knot,” Kalen says.
“Knot?”
“Knot.” Kalen grins and lifts up his shirt to show me the tattoo inked down the right side of his ribs.
“Why is your tattoo the only one on the right?” I frown. I’m sure everyone’s I saw was somewhere on the left of their body. Kalen’s cheeks turn pink and the others all laugh uproariously. “What?”
“Tell her, Kalen,” Onyx crows, slapping him on the back and tossing back another drink.
There’s a knock on the door and Sawyer goes to take care of our drinks delivery.
Coming back with a small tray laden with bottles he gets to work mixing me a bourbon and coke.
Hmmm, he’s obviously not wanting me to drink too much or else he would have given me it neat.
“Aren’t you going to get us one?” Kalen pouts.
“Get your own. And don’t change the subject,” Sawyer snaps with a chuckle. “Amelie is dying to hear your explanation.”
“Fine!” Kalen snatches a handful of miniatures off the bed and downs three before speaking. “Long story short. I’m an asshole. Move on.”
“Hey! No!” I cry in outrage along with his brothers. “I want the proper story!”
“The others were all initiated into The Order before me. When I saw their tattoos, I got jealous, and decided to sneak out and get mine done early. I didn’t know that it had to be in a certain place, and I thought it looked cool.
” He grimaced. “Grandfather tanned my hide so bad when he found out what I’d done.
Threatened to stop me from joining altogether.
..but luckily our dad talked him round.”
“As if he’d have ever stopped the golden child from joining,” Onyx snorts.
“Awww, don’t be bitter, O, it doesn’t suit you.”
Onyx flips him the bird and everyone laughs.
“Okay, so why wasn’t I on your team today?” I ask, though I figure I now know the answer to this one already.
“Rucks are never on a family team.”
“I hate that term,” I screw my face up. “What’s a Ruck?”
“Well, I’m sure you know it’s the lowest of the low, but in this instance, it’s simply a person who hasn’t yet joined The Order. They’re also called pledges, sponsors, candidates...that sort of thing.”
“Okay, so what is The Order?” For the first time they hesitate. Before they can shut me down I plow on. “Is it a cult?”
“No.” Onyx laughs.
“Is it like a frat house thing?”
“No.”
“Mafia?”
Hesitation.
“No.”
“But like the mafia? Dangerous?”
“Potentially.”
“Criminal?”
“Sometimes.”
“Guys,” Sawyer warns. I’m obviously skirting close to Monty’s list of banned topics.
“What does The Order do?” I ask, but Sawyer shakes his head apologetically. I grit my teeth, frustrated. I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere! “Who are the candidates? How do they get chosen? How do they get in? Is that it, are we in now? Is there more?”
“Whoa, slow down, eager beaver!” Kalen laughs. “No, you’re not in. This is a freaking exclusive club and getting muddy – no matter how hot you looked doing it – is not going to cut the mustard, lady!”
“Cut the mustard?” I frown.
“Whatever. There’s more. A lot more.”
“Okay, what about the other stuff?”
“Can’t tell you that.”
“Ugh! Fine! What else do we have to do to join? Is there going to be hazing and shit?”
“Do you even want to join, Amelie?” Onyx snaps, interrupting me and ignoring my questions.
“Well it’s kinda hard to decide when I’m being kept in the dark like this,” I snap back.
Just then the tension is broken by Sawyer’s phone going off. It’s just a message, but with the five of us in my room together, I can’t help but assume it must be Monty messaging him.
Or a girl. Oh my god, what if it’s a girl? Is he still seeing that teacher? We never talked about exclusivity did we?
“Sawyer, bro, you’d better read that message out before Amelie bursts a blood vessel stressing out,” Kalen quips.
Haha. “Fuck off.” I give him the finger, smiling sweetly as I do.
“It was Dad, saying that Grandfather has decided to return home tonight, and so family dinner tomorrow is cancelled. He says to have a good night, keep our mouths shut, and to not get arrested.”
The others all whoop and cheer as Sawyer catches my eye. He smirks as he easily sees through where my thoughts were headed, calling me out on my jealousy with a single look. However, the way his eyes heat with forbidden promise, makes me think he doesn’t mind me being possessive one little bit.
“Let’s go downstairs and party. The plinky plonk musicians should have fucked off by now and the DJ will be setting up!” Kalen bounces with excitement. “Let’s really celebrate! Amelie kicked fucking ass today, and we all did great! Well, except Slate.”
“Fuck off!” Slate punches Kalen on the arm then grins at me. “How about it? Will you come down and dance with me?”
“I’d love to,” I give him a soft smile. “But I’m not putting those shoes back on!
” They all laugh and move off the bed to begin getting ready.
Bowties and jackets remain off, shirts untucked and undone slightly.
I like this look a lot. I’m a little tempted to ask them all to stay and party with me, but then I remember that I’m supposed to be making them pay, or wait, or beg or something.
“Ok, I have a few more questions before we go. Why aren’t there any females? Why do they want females now? And if so, why only have me? More to the point, why me? And why does your grandfather hate me so much?”
They all exchange looks once again, and this time I don’t feel like they’re communicating what they can and can’t tell me. Sawyer steps forward and takes my hand in his, kissing the back of it like a perfect gentleman. He gazes at me with complete sincerity in his eyes.
“We don’t know. But when we do, we will tell you.”