Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
MICHAEL
“Would you just relax? One fun night out won’t kill you,” Amar said to Sofiane, tossing an arm around his shoulders as we entered Rubis Rouge, the famous pub downtown.
It was a Saturday night and the evening after a highly anticipated game, which meant the place was packed. Dev, the owner, streamed the games every weekend on the large screens that plastered the back wall of the property, so a sea of red and blue alike were scattered around the room.
“I’m relaxed. I just don’t adhere to your type of fun nights,” Sofiane retorted, clearly counting the minutes until he’d get to go home by the way he was playing with his ring.
We both were, but where I just preferred the comfort of my home, Sofiane craved it after a day like this. He had social anxiety, and easily got overwhelmed when we were crowded with so many people, especially when Amar was around.
Amar was the outgoing one in our group. While I could turn it on when needed, he carried most conversations and loved meeting—and charming—new people. There wasn’t a room Amar entered where people didn’t love him and craved to get an ounce of his attention.
He meant well, and he didn’t know about Sofiane’s anxiety, which the latter made me swear never to tell Amar about. Sofiane didn’t want to hurt his feelings and promised that if it ever became too much, he’d let me know one way or another so I could bail him out.
Neither of us usually went to football games, but Amar’s father had gotten us tickets for today’s match and we couldn’t find it in ourselves to tell him no. If I thought my father was scary, Nacer Belkacem was frightening.
The Algerian business tycoon and philanthropist had founded and owned the Tassili hotel chain, a multinational hospitality company, which was the global hotel of the Atlas FC amongst several other sports organizations.
The Atlas FC had won 4-1 against Sufax so Amar had made Sofiane and I go celebrate their victory. I hated going out, but I’d only accepted because I needed to keep an eye on them and Sofiane would have never forgiven me if I’d left him alone with Amar.
Well at least that’s what I was telling myself.
I definitely hadn’t said yes to coming here tonight in the hopes that I’d see her because I’d overheard Azara and her friends mention the pub’s name. We’d been seated two rows behind them at the game and my attention was on her the entire time.
Throughout, I’d replayed our conversation in my mind, the cheers of the crowd barely piercing through long enough to divert my attention to anything else.
When I saw her in the hospitality lounge, I’d know better than to approach her, but the moment I’d seen Tobias come up to her, I’d acted before thinking.
I might have glazed over this type of reckless behavior before I’d gotten my task, but now that my initiation was officially underway, I shouldn’t, couldn’t , let any distractions in.
And yet, I couldn’t help myself when it came to her.
She obliterated every shred of common sense I had.
“Nonsense, you just need to spend more time with me,” Amar replied with a boisterous laugh. “Tell him, Michael.”
The sound of my name pulled me out of my reverie.
Sofiane gave me an imploring look that said, get us out of here. I wish we could, but I knew Amar wouldn’t let us off that easily. So I did the next best thing I could think of.
Buy us some alone time.
“Why don’t Sofiane and I find us a table, while you go get us drinks,” I proposed to Amar, knowing all too well he’d be more than happy too. He loved chatting with the bartenders and anyone who’d be willing to listen to him talk.
“That’s a great idea,” he replied, squeezing Sofiane’s shoulder.
Thank you, Sofiane mouthed as Amar walked away toward the bar.
I gave him a curt nod as I spotted a vacant high-table. We swiftly made our way toward it and each took a seat. I remained quiet, wishing to give him a few moments of reprieve, but he surprised me when he spoke up.
“So, how’s your research going?” he asked, twirling the matching ring we all wore. Most would think he was asking me about work, but I knew exactly what he was referring to.
My Order.
I propped a hand under my chin. “It’s not there yet, but we’re making progress.”
“That’s good. Let me know if you ever need?—”
“You know we can’t,” I said, cutting him off.
“How would they know?”
“Do I need to remind you of your fifteenth birthday?”
The instant dread that took over his features was answer enough.
We weren’t allowed to discuss the House and anything related to it amongst each other until each of us completed our Ascension. Amar and I had snuck Sofiane out for his fifteenth birthday and we’d gone to my favorite place at the time—where I’d used to escape my father and the responsibilities I’d felt burdened with.
We were a few beers in and daring. The moment we uttered the name of the House, a man (who we now knew was their Fixer) had all of a sudden shown up and taken us without a word to our fathers.
To this day, we still hadn't figured out how they’d found out, but after meeting the wrath of all three of our fathers together that night, we’d decided it was best not to break that rule ever again.
So, we’d come up with ways to broach the subject that didn’t have the mysterious and quiet stranger who’d shown up that first and last time we’d spoken about the House without being permitted to.
Amar came back a few minutes later with our drinks.
“So what are you two gossiping about?” he said, taking the seat between us and dropping their pints and my soda in the middle of the table. I was in charge of taking them home and at my age, hangovers weren’t as fun as they'd used to be.
“Sofiane’s fifteenth birthday,” I said, grabbing the bottle of Coke and taking a sip.
A haunted look flashed through Amar’s eyes at the mention of that night, before it quickly disappeared. “Ah, yes. Such a memorable night,” he said with a laugh, but I could tell from his tone he was deflecting.
After that night we hadn’t seen or heard from him for almost an entire week, until he’d suddenly shown up to our weekly Saturday football games. We’d tried asking him what happened, but he’d just brushed it off as being busy studying for finals even though I knew he’d already finished his.
I shot him a quizzical look over the rim of my bottle before placing it on the table. “I wouldn’t call being locked in a dark room with you two for an entire night while drunk, then taken home and constantly getting lectured over the following weeks about how much of a disappointment we were for risking the House, on top of being grounded for weeks ‘memorable’. My father still even brings it up.”
Amar rubbed the small scar above his right eyebrow with his thumb before taking a large swig of his beer. “Count yourself lucky that’s all you got,” he said nonchalantly, but before I could ask what he meant, he changed the subject. “Alright, birthday boy, which one?” he asked him, placing a hand on Sofiane’s shoulder.
“I turned twenty-eight two weeks ago so technically I’m no longer a birthday boy and what do you mean ‘which one’?”
“Well, which one is more your type?” Amar clarified, nudging his head forward.
We both looked to the side to realize what he was referring to. A group of women wearing bridesmaid sashes and one wearing all white were blatantly staring at us.
Amar shot them his signature smile, his deep left dimple making its appearance, as he waggled his fingers at them. A few of them waved back before they all giggled to each other behind their hands.
I turned my attention away, my mind already occupied with images of luscious dark hair and eyes that you couldn’t look away from, even when you tried.
Sofiane’s gaze briefly flitted to the group of women again before he returned his attention to Amar. “I’m okay,” he replied, hoping Amar would drop it. But we both knew Amar didn’t give up so easily.
“Oh, come on, Sousou. Have a little fun for once,” Amar pleaded as he leaned closer to him and gave Sofiane puppy dog eyes.
Sofiane shrugged him off. “Firstly, I’ve told you to stop calling me that. Secondly, not if it means…”
“Yes, yes. All members of the House must remain virgins until A?—”
Sofiane’s eyes widened as he brought his hand over Amar’s mouth, effectively stopping him from saying rule IV of the Book of Aman. One of the things we were strictly prohibited from ever saying out loud. Much less in a public space.
We’d all been reckless with the rules before—except Sofiane—and pushed their limits, but this was deliberately irresponsible, even for Amar.
We were introduced to the Code on our thirteenth birthday after we debuted society at the annual masquerade ball and were responsible for memorizing it and abiding by it until we took our last breath.
No one except the Atlases were allowed to know of its existence.
“You have a death wish. Did my fifteenth birthday teach you nothing?”
Amar visibly stiffened at Sofiane’s comment before he shrugged him off, and stood from his seat. “Suit yourself,” he said before finishing his pint in two large swigs and placing it back down on the table with a large thunk.
He moved to leave but Sofiane placed a hand on his forearm to stop him.
“Do you have no care for consequences?” he asked, concerned.
We were used to Amar doing whatever he wanted, but he’d been different recently. He was next in line after me and still had two years before he got his Order.
Only if you complete yours.
“I do fucking care, ” Amar replied with a bite, and the sharpness in his tone took us both by surprise. He never raised his voice, swore, nor spoke to anyone, much less Sofiane, with anything but softness. Realizing it, he shot us a laconic smile. “But there’s always ways to bend the rules without breaking them,” he added before making his way through the crowd toward the group of women.
They all gathered around him and laughter boomed from them at whatever he was telling them. He’d slipped back into his charming persona like what just transpired here never even happened.
I looked over to Sofiane, a guilty expression covering his features. “Did I say something?”
I shook my head. “You did nothing wrong, mate. He’s just been on edge,” I lied, using the only thing I could think of and hoping it’d be enough to reassure him.
I could tell he didn’t believe me but he’d dropped it.
We didn’t talk again about my ‘research’ or Amar’s sudden shift in behavior for the next hour, instead choosing safer conversations like our work or the next societal event we were required to attend at the end of next month that was honoring his father’s philanthropic work.
It was almost ten at night when we’d decided to call it. I was walking toward where Amar stood in the corner, cozying up with one of the bridesmaids, when a flash of familiar dark curly hair caught my attention.
Against my better judgment, I followed it as it rushed through the crowd and walked out of the pub. By the time I stepped out after her, there was no one outside. My imagination must be playing tricks on me.
Get it together, Michael.
I stood there for a moment, to see if I hadn’t imagined her, before walking back inside.
“Everything alright?” Sofiane asked, grabbing his coat from the back of his seat. “I saw you going outside.”
“Yeah, I just thought I saw someone,” I replied absentmindedly, grabbing my own jacket. “Wanna call it a night?”
Amar had decided to stay back so Sofiane and I headed to my car parked on the other side of the street. Once we were inside, a flitting reflection of someone watching us appeared in my rearview mirror but when I adjusted it, it was gone.
You’ve been thinking about her so much, you’re now imagining her.
I shook the thought away and placed my car in drive, navigating toward Mayfair where Sofiane lived. It wasn’t really his scene, but it was the closest to his work and he hated commuting or driving.
After dropping him off at his place, I checked on Amar’s location to see he was still at the bar before I made my way toward my flat. Once home, I quickly showered and heated up leftovers from last night.
I settled on my couch to eat and scrutinized my wall that had been transformed into something straight out of a thriller movie, hoping it would be enough of a distraction from thinking about Azara.
Not that my current leads would help with any of it.
After a few hours of wondering how the hell I would become the new medical director of AGH, I’d gotten to work. I’d spent the last six weeks working on leads and finally had settled on the two weakest links on the board of directors after using some hacking tricks Sofiane had taught me over the years.
Julian Hayes, AGH’s consultant and divisional director of emergency medicine, and none other than Adnan Ziani, the father of the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about no matter how hard I tried to.
Some of the other members also had secrets I could hold against them, but a cheating scandal rarely hurt anyone. People could always apologize to their spouses and promise to never do it again.
I needed something substantial, something that could ruin someone’s life in a way that it can never be taken back, and these two were the ones who had the most to lose.
Besides that, Dr. Hayes and Dr. Ziani had the most power on the board. Their opinions were highly valued and the most consequential. Something I’d determined from looking at previous board voting results.
When it came to Dr. Hayes, I’d overheard the nurses gossip about his excessive flirting with patients. At first, I thought it was harmless because I knew many doctors who did the same, myself included when it came to more shy patients so they’d feel more at ease.
But I’d never crossed a line or been inappropriate.
Unlike Julian.
I’d started paying more attention whenever I was in A&E for consults and that’s when I noticed that his flirty behavior was more than what a doctor-patient relationship should be.
He was pushy and I’d eventually even discovered that he’d abused his power and had slept with more than one patient. I’d even found inappropriate pictures on his Cloud storage that clearly were taken without their subject’s knowledge.
I could use the information to my advantage, but there was more than him at stake. I didn’t want to expose the patients involved against their consent.
I would figure out a way to and he’d get what was coming for him, but for now, I’d have to focus on my last option.
Adnan Ziani.
He wasn’t as easy to solve.
The man was practically a saint.
But in every saint, there was a sinner.
Now, I just had to figure out his blight.