VII
Royal
T ori had called the XXX a secret society, but that seems too insignificant for the reach the organization has—and that’s just the little I’m aware of.
Originally, there were thirty-seven founding members. Thirty-seven men from twenty-nine different families whose original purpose was to help each other gain—and retain—power and wealth.
At some point as the years passed, intentions changed, and slowly, the number of families dropped by half. According to official records, their deaths were natural, but knowing what I do, I doubt that’s really the case.
Between Syn’s father’s high standing, my family’s connections, and Gemini’s disregard for legal boundaries, we’ve figured out with relative certainty who fourteen members of the inner circle are. Only, it’s still a guess.
Only the inner circle knows who the members of the inner circle are. And after you leave that and consider people like me, Syn, Gemini, and even Preston, the numbers and identities become even more uncertain.
We’d gotten the tattoos because we were dumb. They were placed where few people would see them, and no one would ever understand what they meant.
Or they shouldn’t have been able to.
At the time, passing the test and being welcomed in seemed like we were becoming part of something incredible.
Something that stopped being incredible the moment I saw Tori laying lifeless in the snow.
I’ve spent weeks trying to convince myself I’m not falling for her. It took her almost dying to admit how I really feel. I wanted her here, in this house, so I can keep her safe and look after her.
The more Syn reasons it out, the more I’m inclined to believe his father has nothing to do with what’s happened—even if, at the very least, Tori’s death would have had too much of a negative impact on Syn’s future.
If the members of the XXX are who we think they are, they’re dangerous men with even more dangerous connections. They might not be pulling the trigger themselves, but they can orchestrate company collapses, plane crashes, and even make murders look like accidents.
The only likely reason the XXX is involved is because of Preston using the resources they offer. Given the optics of what Tori’s death would be, he’s probably not informing them of what’s happening.
Salaway wasn’t anyone special. At the beginning of his initiation, we’d been told he would be leaving, and then suddenly, he didn’t.
Because Preston decided he was staying.
Syn and Gemini like to underestimate Preston’s intelligence, but just because he has the personality of a wet tissue, doesn’t make him stupid. While Gemini was looking up phone records, I was googling the Salaway family. His mom is in a long-term care facility, and there are rumors that his younger sister was just caught up in a DUI scandal.
Hell, if Gemini could cause the stocks of the company that belonged to the father of the guy who’d screwed his sister over for a bag of coke, Preston could easily have found the same information and then had the foresight to keep Salaway here to be able to use him later for the purpose of blackmailing Salaway to hurt Tori.
“You think you three can protect me?” Tori asks, disturbing my thoughts. “You couldn’t protect me from Declan.”
“You stand zero chance without us,” Syn calmly counters.
I open my mouth to agree with Tori, but something else comes out. “If I have to take a life to save yours, I will. Even if it’s my own.”
The fact that I’ve verbalized them surprises me, but what I actually said and the fact I meant it, doesn’t.
Like a strange, possessed doll, Tori slowly turns her head to face me. She stares at me, and I feel like her gaze is going to bring me to my knees. Then she lets out a soft sigh and drops her attention to the mug in her hands.
“If you think Cole didn’t do it, then who did? Who’s blackmailing him? The XXX?” She looks back at Syn, frowning. “Is this about that video I found of JP?”
“What was on the video?” I ask. I was there the night she presented Syn with a phone and a threat, but even now, Syn’s never told me what the video was of.
“It wasn’t the video,” Syn tells me in a clipped tone.
“Are you sure?”
“It wasn’t the damn video,” he snaps, then he rubs his face. “It was a video of JP and some guy having sex.”
JP was gay? I’ve known Syn and JP all of my life, and at no point had I ever even suspected that. Then again, it is the twenty-first century, and if it’s still impossible for so many people to be who they really are and love who they truly love, for JP in his position? I wouldn’t have breathed a word of it either.
“It wasn’t the video.” Gemini agrees. “I mean, everyone loves butt stuff.”
I fold my arms. “No, we don’t.”
“If my brother was still alive, it might have been an issue, because they were never going to allow JP to be the first gay president—”
“JP was gay?” Gemini asks in genuine surprise.
This was news to me too, but I’d manage to put two and two together when Syn said it was a video of him and another guy. “Gem, guys don’t fuck guys unless they’re either gay, or bi like you… or basically blackmailed into it.”
“Hang on,” Tori says, her voice breaking when she doesn’t quite hit the volume she intended. “Are you saying JP was killed because he was gay? That my brother didn’t just confess to murder, but to a hate crime as well? Cole would never—”
“That tape is the only evidence I’m aware of that showed JP’s sexual preference.” Syn gets up and walks over to the fireplace, placing both hands on the mantle as he leans his weight into them. “If your brother had killed JP because he was gay, they’d have made a point of it in the charges, because my father did everything he could to make sure the death penalty was on the table, and that might have been the deciding factor.”
“My brother didn’t kill JP,” Tori tells him through gritted teeth.
Syn’s shoulders sag before he turns around. For the first time in as long as I can remember, he looks lost. “I know, Victoria. I know Cole didn’t kill JP. At this point, it’s the only thing I do know…” Syn looks up to me, and I see the helplessness.
“If someone had found out that JP was gay and threatened to release evidence of that, or even if they did release it, the XXX would have moved so fast that, at worst, the world would be convinced it was AI. And JP…” Fuck, I felt awful for the guy. “He’d have continued pretending he was straight because that is what he was required to do. It’s not like he was actually running for president when he died. He was still in college. By the time he did run, everyone would have forgotten about it, and the opposition would hardly bring it up because it would make them look bad.”
Tori chews her lip, then she takes a few sips of her drink before setting the mug down on the floor beside the chair. “You said you think Preston gave the order to Declan to kill me. Does he know about JP? He was his best friend.”
I bring my attention to Syn, finding him already looking at me. I’ve done my best to hide my feelings for Tori, but he’s still figured them out.
Maybe it was possible Preston did know about JP?
“He might think he’s protecting his friend’s memory,” Syn says, though he’s still looking at me.
“Then all I need to do is speak to Preston and tell him the truth. Even if you refused to allow me to join the Initiation, I was never going to release it. That was a bluff. I deleted the only copy of it that I had.”
Gemini lets out a derisive snort. “You’ll never get close to du Pomp-ass. You don’t have access to the types of places he goes, or the circles he moves in.” Then he cocks his head. “Unless you tried your luck at being a call girl.”
“That’s…” Syn frowns. “That’s true,” he says, slowly.
Tori folds her arms, a challenge in her eyes as she glares back at Syn. “Let me guess: exactly what you’d expect of me? Well, I don’t care what you think, because if that’s what I need to do, I’ll do it.”
“That’s not—”
“No one needs to be using sex to accomplish anything,” I say, earning a look of disbelief from Tori. Clearing my throat, I shift my weight and fold my arms. “Anymore.”
Tori reaches for her mug and takes a long sip. I can hear the strain in her voice getting worse as she speaks, but before I can suggest we take a break, she sets the mug back down. “Staying here makes less and less sense. If Preston wants me dead, he’ll try again, and I can tell him then. That’s not important. What is, is seeing Cole and telling him to tell the truth. We could spend Christmas together.”
Syn cocks his head, looking at her in surprise. “If he changed his story today and said he didn’t really do it, do you think he’d just be released?”
Tori shifts, uncrossing and recrossing her legs. “Well, if he explained what happened… Not right away. There’d have to be an investigation…”
“Tori, it’s not that simple,” I tell her, as gently as I can. “Even if we do find out the truth of what really happened and provide a truckful of evidence, Cole confessed to murder, and he’s already been charged. You’d need a really good lawyer and to get an appeal, and even then, it’s not a guaranteed acquittal. It might require a retrial. The fact that he’s not facing a death sentence is a bonus because time isn’t going to run out, but this whole process could still take years.”
I’ve tried to be as kind as possible, but my words seem to take all the hope out of Tori’s eyes. Just as I’ve witnessed hopelessness in Syn for the first time, I’m also seeing it in Tori.
“Your brother confessed. Given that we don’t think he’s guilty, the only reason he’d do that is to protect someone—probably you and your family,” Syn tells Tori, surprising me with the gentleness to his tone. “To willingly spend his life in prison means he’s scared of whoever’s forcing him to do that. So you should be scared, too.”