Drayton
“Dray, are you okay? What do you think?” Quinn’s voice was low as my brother and father sorted through files and pulled up accounts.
My eyes squinted through the steady throb in my head. I was tired. Angry. So unbelievably drained.
“I’m good. What I think is, they’re about to not like what I’m going to say.
Hold on.” I put my hand up to Quinton, looking back up to my family.
“Just make a copy of the accounts and save them as they are. I want to see the numbers before we merge with LaRoe. I don’t want any of their numbers cushioning any of ours.
I want to see just how far you’ve all let us fall.
” I turned back to Quinn. “I need something for my head. I’m getting a headache. ”
“Let me go see—”
“No.” Marian reached over, grabbing her purse. “I have aspirin. He takes it from me.”
My father’s head lifted from staring at the monitor.
“Are you implying we’d kill our own son?”
Marian didn’t pause in opening the bottle.
“What I’m doing Mr. Pennington is keeping my husband safe and protected the only way I know how.
No offense, but with my past, trust doesn’t come easily.
No one here is happy to see us. No one wants Drayton taking his rightful spot.
A spot I’m responsible for him losing. You can’t blame me or Drayton for being cautious.
Families have killed for a lot less. My own mother tried to kill me,” she mumbled, handing me two pills.
“So, I’m sorry if I’m coming off paranoid, but frankly, I am. ”
He didn’t argue back, but my mother took slow steps towards us. I headed over to the bar, pouring some whiskey and shooting it back with the pills.
“Marian, what happened after your mother took you from here? I know Drayton went to find you a few times with no success. What was your life like? You went to college. You even went into the circle’s special training program.
I heard about that. Good for you. I just want to understand what happened.
I know how badly everything ended, but I thought…
I really thought for a while before that…
” She kept trailing off, but I knew where she was going with it.
She thought Marian and I would marry. We all did, even me after getting rejected from her parents.
I refused to give up. Looking back, I shouldn’t have asked them at all.
I should have just taken Marian the way I wanted. The way that felt right.
“I went to a secure, private college in London. When I was there, I was interning at our main office. I put my life into work. My mother put her time into matchmaking. I stayed mostly in our building. I lived and worked there. I have travelled a lot the last few years for work.” She shrugged, looking at me, but going back to my mother.
“Work has been my life. Even Bastian was a business arrangement.”
“And we know how that turned out.” Jaxson met my stare, but my mother shushed him, going back to Marian.
“Did you ever try to reach out to any of us? To Drayton?”
Marian nodded. “Numerous times. I called, but the calls wouldn’t go through. Emails were the same. When I did get through to others in the circle, no one wanted to listen to me. I called here once, and I got through but...” Her voice trailed off.
“You got through?” My thumb settled on the side of her chin, moving her face so that she could look at me. “You got through to whom?”
“To me,” Jaxson said, crossing his arms over his chest. “She told me who she was, and I told her exactly what I thought of her calling. I told her to never—
I was racing across the office before I could think of what I was doing.
I could see my father shooting to his feet in my peripheral.
My mother’s yells were somewhere in the mass of crashing books as she moved even more out of the way.
But Jaxson was ready and rushing for me, just as I was to him.
We hit hard, but my power sent us crashing over the side of the desk.
“Dammit, Quinton! Stop this fight right now.”
“Have you learned nothing, Edward” my mother snapped. “There’s nothing he can do. We knew this was coming. It never truly ends until it does. Let them get it out of their system. I need a drink.”
“Aunt Evelyn, can I have one too?”
“The shadow doesn’t drink on duty, Quinton.”
Their words were a blur as I connected with Jaxson’s cheek. We were going hit for hit. I knew my nose was bleeding. I could taste the blood in the back of my throat, but I was far from done.
“You didn’t think to tell me?” I hit Jaxson again. “All those trips, and she called?” Whack! “When?”
I went to hit him again, rolling as he tried to pin me with his weight.
We both hit the wall, but I was still on top.
Jaxson’s hand flattened against the side of my face, but I wasn’t a kid anymore.
I pulled out my knife, leveling it to the side of his neck.
My mother yelped and gasped, and the room grew quieter than a grave.
“When. Did. She. Call?”
“What are you going to do, kill me too?”
“Is it not what condemned me? The Devil deals in death. Or have you forgotten who I am, little brother?” I pushed in the edge of the blade watching as blood oozed over the metal.
“You all abandoned me, washing your hands of the stain I left on this family, but who does it belong to now? Who’s going to make the Penningtons worthy in the eyes of this circle again?
It’s sure as hell not you. It’s me. I’ll be the one they fear to cross.
Our family will be the name they crave to join but know to respect.
The weakness ends with me. The show of my strength may very well begin with ending you. …When?”
Jaxson growled, stopping from pushing against the knife. No one moved. No one even breathed.
“It was shortly after Delia’s death. You’d just been sent to California. The house was a wreck. We were grieving. Not just for Delia but you. You may have lost Marian, Dray, but I lost my brother. I lost my idol. God, I looked up to you. And you threw everything away. You went—”
“Crazy?” I nodded. “Yeah. That’s what happens when you hit rock bottom, Jaxson.
You can thank your lucky stars that you know nothing about that because when you do, you’ll kill over a phone call.
” I lifted the knife, pulling it back. “You’ll kill over a missed opportunity.
” I sat him up, pointing around the room at the anxiety everyone wore.
“For over ten years we’ve all suffered, and you could have saved us some of that grief.
For that, you’ll have to lose something. Part of yourself, like me.”
“Lose something? Have you lost your mind?”
“Drayton—” My mother walked forward but stopped as I stood and shook my head at her.
“Mistakes can’t be overlooked or else you don’t learn from them.” I glanced at my father. “That’s what you used to tell me, right?”
He paused but ultimately nodded as my brother stood.
“The rules of this family change today. You have to earn your place. I’m letting you live, Jaxson.
That’s a gift. Tell me what you want to lose.
Your ear or a finger? You’re entire hand for trying to attack me but hurting my wife?
Your foot? Your leg? There’s only one thing I need from you, and that’s your tongue so you can speak. The rest is irrelevant.”
Jaxson’s panicked gaze went between my mother and father, and I watched as the fear transitioned to anger at their silence.
“This isn’t medieval times or some sort of mafia, Drayton. You can’t just—”
I pointed the knife back at his neck. “Do you so easily forget who we are in the circle? In the world? I can do whatever I want to keep this family in line. That is what I can do. That means if I believe you put this family or my rule in jeopardy, I can kill you and no one can do anything about it. Sure, we can bring in law enforcement, and sure, I may even go to trial. But the Elders will make sure that I get free, and that still makes you dead. So… what will it be, little brother? What are you willing to sacrifice to get back on my good graces?”
“I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it. But understand what’s happening.
” I pushed the tip into his neck causing him to wince.
“Just like Marian, I love you and want you at my side. But not weak. Get the anger out and join me. Be a Pennington, Jaxson. Be one that you can be proud of. Let’s feel that pride again. Let’s do this together.”
He cursed, shaking his head as he pointed at Marian.
“I hated her. I did. I—I fucking hated her for what she did to us. But.” Deep breaths left him, and I saw his brow softened through his own pain.
“I didn’t know she was drugged or made to do those things.
” His attention shot to me. “And what you did to her fucking makes me sick. I hate it too. I said I wanted you to get revenge but…Jesus. I don’t hate her anymore.
I hate all of this. I hate what you’ve become, even if I understand why. Nothing is right.”
“No,” Marian agreed. “It’s not, but Drayton’s trying to fix it. Even if you don’t understand his ways, I believe they’ll work. To be strong, you have to sacrifice. We all do. Please, Jaxson, join us. Help your brother and this family. We want you with us.”
“Fingers, ear, or life? You choose.”
“Fingers? More than one?”
“Choose.”
Jaxson’s jaw clenched, and his face was hard as he stared me down. He slammed his hand on my father’s desk, not breaking his gaze. I grabbed to the side of his neck, feeling the blood smear as I put my forehead to his, keeping our eyes locked.
“New beginning. New era. Clean slate. Am I the heir?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re choosing to be on my side? To protect me? To stand by me?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to let the past go, and you’re never going to cross me?”
“Never.”
“Blood for loyalty. Death if you break it.”
I lifted, slamming the knife down over the pinky and ring finger of his right hand.
Jaxson’s deep voice roared through the office and my mother and father didn’t move.
They didn’t wince or even look afraid. There was something else on their faces as I lifted the fingers from the oak desk.
I held them up to Jaxson, letting Quinton in to apply pressure to his hand.
“One for me, one for my wife. She is everything to me. Now, you’ll make her everything to you too.
Protect her. Protect me. Have our backs, and you’ll never have to worry about anything again.
” I holstered the knife, going back to hold to his neck.
“We’re Penningtons, and we’re about to show the rest of the family who they need to be.
I’ve missed you, little brother. It’s good to be home. ”