Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Enzo
Although he was drunk and in a mood, Brooks was right. Technically, Blair wasn’t allowed in the Devil’s Lair.
We all had a silent understanding that Current Fawns didn’t come here. They stayed in their own space.
The Devil’s Lair was exclusively for Sons and Havens. We didn’t want our Fawns to come crawling to us here when they were unwanted.
Before, most Havens hadn’t known about Fawns. Immunity from becoming a Fawn didn’t automatically grant them access to our secrets. We were still protecting them in that way as well.
But now that they’d let more of the Mafia families in, our Havens knew. They were smart, and quite frankly, we made it clear not to befriend them. It happened sometimes because our Havens tended to be stubborn as shit.
I’d debated whether to have Blair come here or go to her room in the Fawn Quarters, but I’d yet to show her the entry in there.
I also wanted her to be comfortable with the other girls. She was already close with Daphne. I’d never allowed Clarissa to hang out with them here, and look how that had turned out.
I didn’t need to build a reputation for another Fawn ending up institutionalized or dead.
Plus, I wanted Blair here, in my element.
For some reason, being with her felt different. I couldn’t put my finger on why that was.
A prideful smirk stretched across my face as I guided Blair, her palm slick with nervous sweat, toward the room I’d taken her the other night.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Brooks charging away from the girls toward the exit that led to the tunnels.
Good. Hopefully, he was leaving to chill out.
While I personally didn’t give two fucks about Daphne, I didn’t want to deal with the other girls getting pissed if Brooks kicked her out of the Devil’s Lair. Seraphina would start bitching, and I’d have to deal with that.
Plus, I didn’t want to hear any more shit about Blair being here. The other guys were thankfully keeping their mouths shut.
Alcohol typically wasn’t Brooks’s vice, so I wondered what had happened. These past few weeks, I could tell something had been bugging him more than usual. I figured it was his father. He was always on Brooks’s ass about everything. That pressure intensified as midterms approached.
When we landed in the room, I shut the door behind us and released Blair. Her shoulders slumped as she took the few steps toward the chair she’d sat in before, but I grabbed the back of her sweater, tugging her flush against me.
For a moment, I draped my arm around her neck, holding her in place.
I couldn’t stop myself from pulling her hair free from its ponytail.
Unlike the horrid perfume she’d worn her first day in class, her scent had improved.
Tonight, she smelled like the roses my mom kept in the rose garden at the mansion. She’d taken over the garden from my father’s first wife, who had passed away when Benny and Gigi were younger.
Even though my mom never knew her, she always tried to find ways to respect her in the home.
After three slow inhales, I shoved her toward the booth that ran along the wall. She fell onto her hands and knees on the crimson leather that suddenly reminded me so much of blood.
I climbed in behind her, and she scooted until her back was against the wall. I completely cornered her.
This time, I didn’t want her across from me.
I needed her within arm’s reach so I could do whatever was necessary to extract information from her.
I had to go a different route than I normally did in situations like this. Typically, if someone didn’t tell me what I wanted, I’d torture the answers out of them.
Cut off fingers. Pull teeth. Saw off limbs. Bring their family in and do the same with them until they finally cracked.
Those were my typical means to get what I wanted.
But I couldn’t do that to Blair. I didn’t want to.
For the first time ever, not only was I taking it easy on someone, but there was a twinge of empathy for this girl.
Also, for the first time ever, I’d felt a pinch of guilt during an Initiation. But I couldn’t say anything or ask to stop. It would’ve made me look weak.
Just as much as a Fawn had to prove herself during Initiation, so did we.
We had to prove our spines were strong enough to watch their torture. That we could watch our Fawn scream and plead to stop the Initiation. Normally, I had no problem. I’d grab a drink, kick my feet up, and enjoy the show.
But with Blair, it was different.
And I fucking hated that.
During her Initiation, as I watched, I wanted to tell them to shut that lullaby off. My fingers curled around the chair’s armrests, and I hated that anyone else had seen her wearing only those bra and panties.
I wanted her for my eyes only.
Wanted her for me only.
There was more of a sense of ownership with her than I’d ever had with any Fawn.
I shook my head, bringing myself back to the present.
Us in this room.
We had several rooms like it in the Devil’s Lair. They were like private rooms in a strip club.
Not all Havens were family members. Sometimes, they were girlfriends or just girls we wanted to fuck. So, occasionally, we’d bring them into these rooms and do just that.
I held out my hand, palm flat. “Your secrets.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Seriously, that sounded ridiculous.”
As I scooted closer, I noticed the poor Fawn had bags under her glazed eyes as she sagged against the wall.
She slowly pulled a folded note from her pocket and slid it toward me.
She watched me open it and read the few items listed.
The list was fucking pathetic.
She failed.
I gave no fucks about her favorite color.
The shit she’d put down was all surface-level. I hated surface-level. It meant you hadn’t dug deep enough.
I wanted to dig my claws deep inside my Fawn and cut away everything that was her.
Not in the mood to play games, I pulled the revolver from my waistband and dropped it onto the table with a heavy thud. While I was normally a Glock guy, I needed a revolver for tonight.
Cracking my neck from side to side, I turned to meet her eyes.
Eyes that were now wide and fully alert as her gaze bounced between me and the gun.
I released a long, mocking sigh. “I had a feeling your list would be lacking. You disappoint me, Blair.”
“Enzo—” she started, and I held up my hand, cutting off her words, not wanting to hear any worthless excuses.
She was given an assignment and failed.
I’d punish her for that.
I laced my fingers together, cracking my knuckles while keeping my eyes on her. “Let’s play a game, Blair.”
She tried to scoot away, but her back only rammed into the wall. “Pass on whatever that”—her eyes traveled back to the gun—“game is.”
Weapon games were my favorite games. Hard pass on Twister or Monopoly.
When I played darts with people who refused to give me the answers I wanted, I used my knife and aimed for their eye. Darts were for pussies.
With bullets, I preferred a few shots first—places where the pain would spread until they gave me what I wanted. Then I’d press the barrel to their skull and pull the trigger.
Those were the only games I truly enjoyed.
Well, those, and the ones I played with Blair. Though I was sure she didn’t share that enjoyment.
Blair quivered, practically flattening her back to the wall. I smirked at that.
I shifted to face her and pulled out a single bullet from my pocket.
“You ever play the game Russian roulette, Blair?” I asked, inserting the bullet into the revolver before spinning the cylinder.
“This is my version. Each time I ask you a question, and you don’t answer, I hold this gun to your head and pull the trigger.
You have a one in six chance of that bullet being the one that tears into your temple, shattering your skull and splattering your brain matter around this room.
” I lifted the gun and ran the muzzle along her cheek.
She shuddered, her eyes darkening, and she flinched as the cold metal grazed her skin.
“Are your secrets worth your life, Blair?”
Her chin trembled as she whimpered out a word I didn’t understand.
She gulped slowly. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I shook my head, and her body relaxed an inch when I pulled the gun away from her face.
“Daphne … your sister … they’ll hear the bullet,” she said in urgency.
I motioned toward the room with the revolver. “Soundproof room.”
“You can’t kill me …” she sputtered out. “Not without the other Sons’ permission.”
“There’s no rule about playing deadly games with you.
It was …” I scratched my cheek with the revolver muzzle.
“Simply an accident. I don’t get in trouble for accidents, Blair.
” I cocked my head to the side, tapping the muzzle against my cheek now.
“Come to think of it, I don’t get in trouble for anything. Even when I don’t follow rules.”
I leaned in closer, lowering the gun, and she tried to push me away when I ran it along her thigh.
“As you learned with Jett, I have no consequences for the crimes that I commit.” I rested my forehead against hers as the gun stayed in her lap.
“I do whatever I want. I kill who I want. Fuck who I want.” My lips met hers, and I bit down on her bottom lip.
“Men like me don’t suffer consequences for our sins.
But Fawns like you, you not only suffer for your own, but for ours as well. ”
I lied to her.
I could absolutely get in trouble if I killed her. But it wasn’t against our rules not to lie.
The Fawns really needed a handbook that explained their rights, but where was the fun in that?
She cleared her throat. “Move the gun from my lap, and I’ll answer your questions.”
I reared back a few inches. “Aw, you don’t want to play my game with me?”
She shook her head, a single tear falling down her cheek, and I captured it with the revolver’s muzzle.
See how kind I am?
Removing it from her lap.
This curiosity I had with Blair was something I’d never experienced before. Not only because I wanted the answers so damn desperately, but because she didn’t open up.