Chapter 46
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Eve
A sob bubbles up in my throat when I see him.
Sin is slumped forward in a metal chair, hands zip-tie d behind his back like something out of a fucking mafia movie. His hair is caked in dry blood, his face a mess of cuts and bruises, one eye swollen completely shut.
“Sin,” I whisper, falling to my knees on the hard cement floor in front of him. My hands hover over his face, afraid to make contact and cause more pain. “Hey, it’s me.”
For one terrifying second, I’m afraid he’s dead. Then his head lifts slightly, and his good eye cracks open, focusing on me.
“Eve?” he chokes out. “What the f–” He swallows, his words are cut off by the dryness in his throat. I grab a water bottle off a nearby table, unscrew the cap, and give him some. It spills down his chin, but when he’s gulped down enough, he tilts his head back with a sigh. “You shouldn’t be here.”
I set the bottle next to me, in case he wants more later. “What the fuck were you thinking?” I whisper harshly. “Why did you risk getting caught like that?”
He winces and shifts his body, like just breathing hurts. I’m guessing he has a few broken ribs. “I needed to get you out of here.”
I reach for the zip ties, my fingers trembling as I try to find a way to break them. There’s no breaking them, though. I’d need scissors or a knife. “How did that work out?” I can’t help the sarcasm. “I was fine. I had things under control.”
I mean, kinda. My plan wasn’t perfect, but Christian did eventually let me go. But…then Lucas tried to kill me…so, okay, maybe my plan was flawed, but still…
He coughs, wincing again at the pain. “One of the guys—Ash—said the Sacred Sons dug up information about us, our family. And there’s only one reason they’d do that shit, so I’m assuming they told you…”
I sit back on my heels. Even through the bruising, I can see the flash of guilt in his eyes. “About Mom?”
“I’m sorry you had to find out like that…” His head lolls to the side, like keeping it upright was costing him the last sliver of energy he has.
The room tilts around me, and I use his knees to steady myself. All these years, thinking I knew what happened, why she was taken from us. Thinking I understood the shape and contours of my own life...
We shouldn’t be talking about this now, but I can’t stop myself from asking, “How long have you known?”
“Aunt Lydia told me all of it when I took over Shadow and Ash.” His voice breaks a little. “She was afraid someone might try to use the information against us.” He coughs again. “I guess she was right.”
Yeah, for once.
“You should have told me,” I say quietly. “I could have handled it.”
“I just wanted to protect you,” he says, and all I can see is the big brother who built me a cardboard boat—not to deceive me, but to make me feel less afraid.
A hand on my shoulder makes me jolt. It’s Christian. “We need to go.”
Rising to my feet, I turn and face him. “They’ve done enough damage. Can’t they let him go?”
His eyes are gentle, his voice tight. “It’s not that simple.”
A sense of urgency bubbles up inside me. I can’t just leave my brother in their fucking torture chamber. “Please, Christian. I’m free, so he has no reason to attack the Sacred Sons again.”
But even as I say the words, I know they’re a lie. Sin won’t stop until the Burning Crown is no longer a threat—which is never. Because he doesn’t know what I know—the Sacred Sons are far too powerful to be taken down with brute force. If you want to strip them down, you have to play them at their own game, which is what I tried to do. But even that hope was crushed…
“They can’t kill him without a vote, so he’s safe for now,” Christian says.
I laugh. Safe? How could Sin possibly be safe in a dungeon with Cash Romano hovering over him?
Christian touches the underside of my chin and tilts it up. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll come up with something…”
I force a smile and nod, my own something already taking shape in my mind…
* * *
The next day, Zuma Beach is filled with students enjoying the hot afternoon sun, sprawled out on blankets, playing volleyball, paddling around in the water. I can’t help but envy them. Life is easy. Normal. Their biggest worry is the traffic they’ll face on the way home—not their brother being held, tortured…
Skye is standing at the edge of the water, looking out at the ocean, exactly where I texted her to meet me. Just seeing her makes my stomach twist, but I need her help, so…
“Hey,” I say stiffly, approaching.
“Hey,” she replies cautiously, like she’s nervous and trying to figure out why I asked her here. “Thanks for texting me. Listen, I just wanted to say that I feel sick about everything that happened?—”
“Let’s not,” I say, cutting her off. “I didn’t ask you here so we could hash everything out again.”
She nods. “Okay.”
Taking a deep breath, I scan the immediate area to make sure no one from the Burning Crown is around. “I asked to meet because I need your help with something.”
“Okay,” she says again, hope flickering in her eyes. “What do you need?”
Skye really hurt me, and I know I shouldn’t feel guilty for what I’m about to ask. But we were friends once, and I can’t help but feel that closeness still, even after everything…
“I need a book from the Humanities office,” I say.
She hesitates, shaking her head slowly. “Eve?—”
“They have my brother, Skye. He’s being held in the basement, and if I don’t get that book, then eventually, they’re going to kill him...”
The blood drains from her face. “Shit.”
I feel nauseous. “Yeah.”
“Can’t Christian help you?” she asks. “He’s one of them, so he’d know what to do.”
I shake my head. “Christian wants to wait, figure out a way to get the rest of the Sacred Sons to release him,” I say. “Me? I’d rather force them. But I can’t go near that office. They’re watching me like hawks.”
“But they won’t be watching me, ” she says slowly, realizing what I’m getting at…
“Yeah.”
She glances around, suddenly nervous. “Eve, if they catch me?—”
“They won’t,” I assure her, though I have no way of knowing that. “You’re not even on their radar.”
With a sigh, she glances back out at the ocean, but I can already see I’ve got her. “What’s in this book that’s so important?”
“It’s a blood ledger with names, dates, basically every crime the Burning Crown has committed over the last hundred years.”
Her eyes widen and she whispers, “ Fuck. ”
“Exactly. Now you see why I need it.”
“Are you going to hand it over to the police?”
I should, but I can’t do that to Christian. “I’m only using it as leverage—unless they step out of line.” I shrug. “Then I’ll do what I have to do.”
She nods again, but this one is sharp. “Okay. I’ll do it. I owe you this.”
I push out a breath, but the relief I feel is quickly chased by guilt. I know I’m putting her in danger. That I’m using her just like Christian did. The only difference—my brother’s life is on the line. Christian had a choice. I don’t.
I pull the office keys out of my pocket. I never gave them back, and Christian never came looking for them. I hand them to her.
Skye stares down at them like they might reach up and bite her. “What am I looking for?”
“A large leather book with a crown emblem on the front. It should be on a chair, unless Christian moved it.”
“Okay,” she says, the breath leaking from her lungs. “When are we doing this?”
“Tonight, after nine. The campus security guards change shifts at 9:15, and there’s a fifteen-minute window when no one’s patrolling that section.”
“Wow, how on earth do you know that?”
“I asked around,” I reply. I casually asked Lowe, actually. The guards at Rush House know everything there is to know about the security on campus. It’s their job to know. “Now, listen, once you have the book, bring it to the music room at Rush House. The Sacred Sons have a meeting tonight, so they’ll be occupied.”
She slips the keys into her pocket. “If we manage to pull this off…will it fix things between us?
I pause, caught off guard by the wobble in her voice. Will it? Can I ever really trust her again? She looks scared of what my answer will be. More scared than betraying the Burning Crown and possibly getting caught.
I flash her a faint smile. “It’ll be a start.”
She smiles back. “I’ve got you.”
As I walk back to the car, where Christian is waiting for me, I wonder if Skye knows—or if any of them know—that my birth mother was a Rush. That my blood ties me to the same society that’s torturing my brother.
It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around. But the irony isn’t lost on me. I’m half Burning Crown, half Shadow and Ash, torn between two societies that have been trying to rip each other apart for generations. Maybe that’s why Christian and I are drawn to each other, despite everything. We’re both caught between two worlds—loyalty and love…
* * *
“You okay?” Christian asks when I get back into the car.
“Yeah,” I say with a shrug. “I just wanted to clear things up with her, that’s all.”
His blue eyes search my face, looking for my tell—that thing I do when I lie. “You two worked it out?”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s going to take time,” I say. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”
He glances at his phone. “Shit, we need to get to campus. If we miss another lecture, Professor Sanders will drop us.”
“I doubt that. You have the faculty and administration at your whim.” My head falls back against the headrest. “But, you’re right. If we miss any more lectures, we’ll never catch up.”
His warm hand slides over my thigh. “Before I forget—I had someone from Exeter House deliver your things to Rush House this morning. Lucas is staying at Wyn’s apartment for now, so we don’t need to worry about him.”
I’d argue that Lucas will still be showing up at the house for Burning Crown business, but me staying at Rush House means being close to my brother, so I don’t say anything.
“I appreciate you dealing with that,” I say with a tight smile.
He starts the engine, and we peel out onto the Pacific Coast Highway, headed toward campus. “Oh, and, uh…” He glances at me, hat backwards, wrist slung causally over the steering wheel. “I texted Lux, and she made you a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow afternoon.”
I swallow, my gaze skating away. The reminder that I could be pregnant, hitting me square in the chest. I never did find my NuvaRing— gag —and I probably should have replaced it by now. But Christian is right—it’s better to talk to a doctor first. “Thanks. Just…text me the details.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He squeezes my thigh, and I glance over at him. He smiles reassuringly. “I’ll take you.”
My heart skips a beat, and if I’m being honest with myself, having a little version of him might not be so terrible…
* * *
That night, it’s well after nine, and Christian came downstairs about thirty minutes ago to meet with the other Sacred Sons about my brother.
I’m pacing the length of the music room, my footsteps echoing on the hardwood floor. The room is empty except for a beautiful grand piano in the corner and The room is empty except for a beautiful grand piano in the corner and that portrait that drew my attention when I first got here. The girl with dark hair and a faint smile, seated at a piano just like the one in this room. Something about her haunting eyes makes me stop breathing for a second…
I inch closer to the painting, and read the little gold plaque attached to the ornate frame—Elena Vivian Rush.
My birthmother.
I study her face, my throat thick, tight. I don’t even know how to feel—sadness for someone I’ve never met? Honestly, it just makes me miss my adoptive mother more. Adoptive. I reject the word the second it flutters into my brain. My mom was my mom, regardless. Nothing is going to change that.
Still, I can’t help but wonder what my life with Elena would have been like if she hadn’t died so tragically….
The sound of footsteps snaps me back to the present. I suck in a deep breath, both terrified and excited that this is all going to come to an end soon. Still, a wave of guilt swamps me. But there’s no way around it—this is blackmail, and exposing the Burning Crown would mean exposing Christian, too. Just the thought of that makes me feel nauseous…
The footsteps get louder, and I turn around, expecting to see Skye walk through the door.
It’s Christian.
“Oh, hey.” My voice catches before I can mask it. How do I explain why I’m just randomly standing in the music room? “I was just waiting for Skye.”
“She’s not coming.”
My heart skips like a rock across water. “She told you our plan,” I say, somehow shocked by this new betrayal, even after everything. I’m such an idiot.
“Skye didn’t say anything.” He steps deeper into the room. “I suspected you’d try something. I saw it on your face down in the basement when I told you to give me time. Then, when you met with Skye this morning, I knew for sure.”
I shake my head. No. She told him, I know it. “How could you know?”
“Because I know you better than you think,” he says quietly, lifting something up. It’s the blood ledger I sent Skye to steal.
He hands it to me.
“You’re just…giving this to me?” I ask, confused.
Okay, this is suspicious.
He shoves his hands into his pockets and shrugs. “Do what you need to do. I’m not going to stop you this time.”
I pull the heavy book against my chest, half-expecting him to snatch it back. He doesn’t.
“Why are you letting me have this?” I ask. “The information in this book could take down the entire Burning Crown, including you.”
I have no idea why I’m trying to talk him out of this.
Christian’s eyes meet mine. “Because you and I want the same thing—you safe, your brother free. But I need you to trust me.”
I shake my head. “You’re asking me to trust you while my brother is chained up in the basement being beaten day in and day out.”
“I’ve already negotiated medical treatment for him, food, better conditions…” he says. “But convincing the guys to free him is going to take time.” He gestures to the book in my arms. “Trust me when I say, blackmail is only going to fan the flames. If you take that, the Burning Crown will rip through every single member of Shadow and Ash until they get to you and Sin—and this time, they won’t hesitate to kill you. Even if I try to stop them.”
His words are like a shard of glass being launched into my chest.
“And you’d help them…” I say, my voice wobbly.
“I’ve already chosen you, Eve. I didn’t know it then, but I chose you the second you stepped into our study like a terrified little fox.” He steps close and brushes his lips against mine. “Please. Trust me.”
“Trust is a big ask,” I say. “Especially when you kept so much from me.”
“I know I don’t deserve it.” His voice is low. Quiet. “But if we have any hope of saving your brother, then we need to be a united front.”
I squeeze the book more tightly against my chest. I finally have it—the leverage and power I need. And now he just wants me to give it up?
“I love you, Eve,” he whispers. “And I swear to God, I’ll spend every day of my life proving that you can trust me.”
He loves me.
Christian West loves me.
Tears slide down my cheeks, and my heart cracks wide open. “I love you, too,” I confess, feeling it. Knowing it. “That’s what makes this so impossible. Because I also love my brother.”
He pulls back and brushes my tears away with the pad of his thumb, the gesture so intimate, it makes me crumble inside. “I know, baby.”
Pulling in a trembling breath, I take a step back. He is a Sacred Son, and he knows better than anyone how they operate. If he’s telling me he can get my brother out, then…I don’t know, maybe he can.
“Okay,” I finally say. “We’ll do it your way, but …” I hold a finger up. “...I want to see my brother. Every day.”
A smile touches the edges of his lips. “I can work with that.”
With a nod, I melt against his hard chest, breathing him in, a tiny spark of hope lighting up in my chest…