Chapter 16 – Drake
DRAKE
Later that night, I entered the second-floor library. Tate was keeping Olivia busy in the game room. Years ago, she learned not to ask questions about matters involving The Devil’s Knights.
In the library, I removed several books from the shelves and set them on the table. Every house on Founders Way had access to The Devil’s Knights temple via the catacombs.
I gained knowledge through computers and had no use for old, dusty books. But this room fit in with the rest of the house. No one would suspect a thing. They especially wouldn’t think a home this modern had ancient passageways.
After I cleared a path, I pulled on the lever at the bookshelf’s center. The founding families of Devil’s Creek had a similar secret door concealed behind a bookshelf. In every house, the lever was behind The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
I yanked open the creaky door, reaching into the dark channel to find the light. Lanterns illuminated the stone walls and a narrow staircase. My father believed in removing fear from the brain. That if he pulled on the right trigger points, I would stop feeling it altogether.
As a child, my father forced me to learn the twisted maze.
He’d blindfold me and tell me to find the Salvatore Estate.
Then, he’d send me to Wellington Manor. From there, I had to backtrack through the catacombs until I found the Cormac Compound and Fort Marshall. Only then would he let me return home.
Whenever Luca called a meeting at The Devil’s Knights temple, I thought of my father and his cruel games. He didn’t remove my fear. If anything, he intensified it.
The old man would have forced me to use Lovelace to attack The Lucaya Group and the Russian Mafia. He wouldn’t have blinked. My father lost the capacity to care long before I was born. By some miracle, I held on to my humanity. And I wanted to keep it.
As I descended the stairs, my nose twitched at the scent of mildew and salt water. The air was thick and heavy underground, making it harder to breathe.
The temple was the furthest from my house, accessible via The Founders Club entrance by the harbor. I walked for almost fifteen minutes before I spotted familiar markings carved into the walls. Skulls with knives driven into the bone. Knights with the eyes of a demon wearing a helmet.
I liked the knight in full armor holding the Scales of Justice. The weight was unbalanced, dipping to one side from a giant serpent holding it down, slithering up the knight’s arm. This one reminded me that The Knights straddled two worlds.
The balance between good and evil.
The Devil’s Knights did terrible things both for money and to protect the world from criminals. Citizens of this country did not know what monsters lurked in the shadows.
With the doors to the temple propped open, voices floated into the hallway. Inside the room, two thrones sat on top of a stone dais. Several knights grabbed their hooded robes from hooks, their backs to me.
Dressed in his robe, Luca Salvatore lounged on his throne, assuming his position as the Grand Master. He wore an angry scowl, which deepened when he saw me.
I slipped into my robe and took my place in front of the dais, waiting for Luca to lash out at me. He was an asshole of the highest degree. His verbal abuse and constant need to control every situation were frustrating, to say the least. But he possessed all the good qualities a leader needed.
At twenty-one, my cousin Cole was the youngest of The Knights. I move beside him, leaving room for Sonny Cormac to bump elbows with Marcello. Damian and Bastian Salvatore were on his right, joined at the hip. When Luca called local meetings, only members from the founding families attended.
We’d all grown up together, raised to be part of the organization. I knew from an early age that I never had a choice. Right or wrong, good or bad, my opinions didn’t matter.
This was my birthright.
Once I swore the oath and completed the grueling initiation, I was one of them. The Knights were not my brothers by blood, but we were a big, fucked-up family.
Luca sat on his throne, nostrils flared, his scary blue eyes aimed at me. “Where are we at with The Lucaya Group?”
“I’m making progress,” I said, though it sounded like a lie. “I just need more time. They’ve hired the best black-hat hacker in the world. His firewall is difficult to get past.”
“There is no room for error, Battle.” Luca curled his hand into a fist on his lap. “Our enemies are banging down our doors and know our movements before we make them. Alex is pregnant. If anyone touches a hair on her head, I will hold you responsible.”
“They almost got Grace,” Cole said, shifting his weight beside me. “The women in our lives are not safe in Devil’s Creek. You can do something about them, Drake. Lovelace—”
“No,” I fired back. “I’m not a terrorist.”
I’d had the same conversation with Tate earlier. Everyone wanted to use Lovelace as a weapon of mass destruction. Until they forced my hand, I was determined to dismantle their corrupt organization another way.
To some extent, the almost kidnapping of Grace Marshall was my fault.
I’d accidentally allowed Maverick into my system, but I would never repeat that mistake.
If I could have out-hacked Maverick, Alex Salvatore, the Queen of The Devil’s Knights, wouldn’t have been listed for sale on the Il Circo auction site.
If I had been better and done more with my technology, I could have saved everyone a world of pain. Tate often joked that I had the brain of a supercomputer, but I still had a heart. And that heart was telling me not to use Lovelace for evil. Once I crossed that line, there was no going back.
I couldn’t unhit the button.
Luca’s top lip curved upward like an animal ready to attack. “Try harder. Your best isn’t good enough.”
The heartless bastard never showed emotion to anyone—not even his brothers. But Alex made him care about something other than himself. For his wife, Luca would do anything.
“Give me more time,” I said, trying to keep my cool. “I’m one man. The Lucaya Group has teams of hackers.”
I should have confessed what I’d done. If I had the nerve to tell the Salvatore brothers and Cole that I’d doomed their women by making a mistake, then we could have planned differently.
But I held my tongue. The Knights considered me infallible.
They relied on my expertise and trusted me with their lives.
Luca studied each of our faces and blew out a deep breath. His rage simmered beneath the surface. Most of the time, he kept it in check, which made him a good leader. On the rare occasions he completely lost his shit, he left a bloodbath in his wake.
Luca’s satellite phone rang. He reached under his robe to retrieve it and glanced at the screen. “Alex is awake and looking for us.”
His brothers nodded.
He feared losing Alex, and so did his brothers. The four agreed to share the Wellington heir. I didn’t understand what they got out of the arrangement. Marcello had hated his brothers for years, yet when Alex came into their lives, everything changed.
“Meeting adjourned,” Luca said to the rest of us with a wave of his hand. “And Battle, do your fucking job.”
Cole pulled me to the side after the Salvatore brothers left the room. My cousin slid a hand through his short, white-blond hair and sighed.
“Tell me the truth, Drake. Is Grace safe? Are any of us?”
I shook my head. “They will never stop coming for us.”
He looked down at his feet, deflated. “That’s what I thought.”
“War is coming.” I patted him on the shoulder. “Prepare for the worst.”