Chapter 50
MONROE
Present Day
Gabi gives me a slight nod as she exits the back seat of the car my step-cousins let me keep for helping them out this summer. I return the nod and pull away like a nameless, faceless Uber driver dropping off another passenger. Unless she changes her mind, I’ll see her again tomorrow morning.
Guilt eats away at my mind for roping my best friend into this bullshit.
She has no idea how suicidal this mission is because she thankfully has not had to experience the horrors happening inside Sigma.
Kieren is lawless and out for blood. My blood.
I’m sure he looked for me this summer. My step-cousins were convinced they saw him in his black BMW driving around Jackson Heights, but this alleged sighting happened at three p.m. on a Tuesday and I had assumed he would spend the summer in Connecticut working for his father’s firm.
They begged me to let them take care of Kieren, but he's my mess to clean up.
To paraphrase the words that my dear, piece of shit ex-boyfriend said to the freak show they call X, if he's going to die, I get to spill his blood.
Not that I actually plan on killing him, but lord knows I’ve thought about it.
I’ll admit, breaking into his room through the same window I used to escape and slitting his throat in the middle of the night is tempting, but then I would be the villain, and I refuse to become the bad guy in this story.
Besides, I have bigger plans for Kieren, and I think it’s time he has a taste of his own medicine.
I should be more forthcoming with Gabi about said plans.
I should tell her the full scope of the revenge scheme I’ve been plotting for months, especially since I suspect her true underlying motives have nothing to do with making Kieren pay and everything to do with making Jace suffer.
She didn’t ask if I saw Jace participating in the orgy part of the Full Moon Ceremonies, but I know it was at the forefront of her mind.
Truthfully, I don’t remember seeing Jace indulge.
He was always standing against a wall, observing and monitoring the night to make sure nothing got out of hand, like breath play gone wrong for example.
Maybe I should have told her as much. But my hardened heart is a more selfish, vengeful version of who I once was, and I don’t think I’ll ever make my way back to the girl I was before Kieren trapped me in his literal and figurative cage.
It hurts to dwell on the past, so I don’t.
I need to maintain my laser-like focus on the tasks ahead.
Today’s setting sun will mark nine days until the next Full Moon Ceremony, and I can’t risk my emotions getting the best of me.
The taking of innocent lives ends now – innocent being the key differentiator.
Perhaps I’m just as soulless as Kieren, which I hate to admit at this juncture in my life is fine by me.
I always knew we’d end up in hell together.
Gabi is one of the strongest people I know, but even the strongest can be broken.
The success of my plan requires a woman on the inside, something that can only happen if Gabi is captured.
Kieren won’t harm Gabi himself, but he’ll take sick satisfaction in making Jace do it.
If Jace is still the man I think he is, he’ll crack, which Gabi knows she can wield to her advantage.
I was foolish to think maybe I could scrap my grand plans and infiltrate Sigma myself.
The target on my back is too large, which, as initially suspected, is why I need to remove myself from the equation.
This is the part I can’t share with Gabi. She might never speak to me again after all this is over, but maybe one day she’ll understand why I needed her to believe I was gone. It’s the fucked up fuel she’ll need to survive when they try to make her break.
We have nine days. Nine days for Gabi to overcome all odds and confiscate the evidence we need. Nine days as a phantom to become the final nail in Kieren’s coffin. Nine days to stop Sigma, at least on this campus.
Nine days to enact justice, assuming neither of us gets killed in the process.