Chapter 74 Sable
SABLE
Delicious aromas fill the room as servers walk around offering canapés.
It’s incredible how easy it is to buy quality food that comes with guaranteed silence from any witness.
The guys are responsible for the first part of the evening, but I don’t want to miss a moment of it.
My hands shake with anticipation as I watch from my hiding place.
I’m at the top of the room, where a small stage is, perfect for a respectful string quartet.
But tonight there’s no live music, just me waiting on the side in a red dress.
Bloody images drip through my mind as they mingle and chat, but it will be a while still before I can act.
We need them all in the correct positions or this won’t work.
All of them have to die before they have a chance to alert anyone else, and we are ready.
A cell jammer waits in my pocket, and a knife is strapped to my leg.
Yet both stay where they are, waiting for the right moment.
If I turn it on too soon, they may leave before we get them where we want them, and right now, we’re still waiting for a few people to show up.
My nerves spike as I fear they’re not coming, but my guys were right—everyone will show.
They all want me dead bad enough to make sure they’re here.
To my surprise, there are a few people here we did not invite, but if they’re invested enough in my death to come here tonight, then that’s fine.
They can go on the list too. I’m nothing but adaptable.
Some of those faces I recognize, others I don’t, but I know my family will finally be vindicated tonight. Maybe not to the public, but to me.
Once everyone is inside, they close the door but do not lock it.
Luring them all into the perfect, slightly drunk sense of complacency will make all the difference between this plan working and all of us winding up dead instead.
There are enough people here to turn on us if we don’t act fast enough.
Before we move to the next section of the evening, everyone finds their place, each marked by a handwritten card.
Ideally, I’ll add those to my scrapbook when we’re all done here, each of their names splashed in their blood.
I’ll have more time for arts and crafts when I stop running for my life.
Drinks are served, and the first course arrives.
The important discussion of how to get rid of me once and for all will take place over after-dinner drinks, as any cultured gathering would.
I keep thinking the families will press the boys before time, but no one wonders why they have to eat and drink before business.
My heart hammers so hard I can barely breathe, yet nothing is amiss.
The guys were right, the four families love this kind of display. To them, this is how you plan a murder.
“Got you, bitch,” a voice says from behind me.
A knife pierces the sensitive skin of my neck while his other arm wraps around my waist. I suck in a breath, confused for a second before I see it’s Cillian.
I knew there must be a reason for all his strange behavior, but what the hell is he doing here right now? He’s not a Founder.
“Nice of you to come back,” I say calmly.
He snickers and puts a little more pressure on my neck. It stings as it slices me, and I’m sure it draws blood. Of all the things that could happen, I never thought Cillian was the one who would ruin my plans. Nina called him a vermin, and I assumed he ran scared. But now he’s here, and he’s armed.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Oh, you’ll see. We are about to crash a dinner party, cousin.”
What?
Before I can ask more, he pushes me from my hiding place into everyone’s view. I stumble into the room, cursing Cillian for ruining such a beautiful plan. Heads turn our way. He breathes fast behind me, his hot, sticky exhale touching the skin of my neck.
“What the fuck are you doing, Cillian?” Lex roars.
“What is this? What is she doing here?” someone from Hadrian’s side of the room shouts.
“This party is Founders only.” Parker smooths things over, but anyone watching can see how the knife at my throat is making him seethe with anger.
I take the opportunity to dip my hand into my pocket and turn on the cell jammer.
Cillian is making a mess out of this, but the four families are here, and I watch as Orion slides to the doors and locks them.
The only way they are getting out of the room is in a body bag.
“Founding families only?” Cillian asks from behind me. “The Colefaxes are lacking a male representative, and I’m finally here to take the spot.”
Murmurs fill the room, their eyebrows hiding under their hairline as they say Colefax as if it were a ghost. But I don’t pay attention to them.
I turn to my captor, who apparently is a long-lost member of my family too.
The revelation would shock me if I hadn’t already gotten a flesh-and-blood sister this week.
“Is that so?” I ask in a bored tone.
“Oh yes.” He chuckles to himself. “My mother gave birth to the male heir after years, but no one cared because we were in the wrong branch of the family. Your grandfather made sure we never got our deserved place. He preferred to ruin everything rather than—”
“The Colefaxes are no longer Founders!” someone shouts, interrupting his train of thought.
His eyes fill with anger, and his attention flicks away from me.
“I’m Cillian Colefax, I’m the male heir.
I have the right to be here as much as any of you, and I’m the one with a knife and a willingness to get this done. ”
He laughs to himself and presses the blade into my neck.
The pain is sharp, and a hot stream of my blood follows after the sting.
Cillian cuts me deep, and the warmth of the blood drips into the neckline, matching the red dress.
Cillian might be overcome with rage, but he’s shaking, and there’s something else in his voice. He is afraid.
“How did you think this was going to go, Cillian?” I ask loudly enough for the room to hear. “That they would welcome you with open arms?”
“You can’t rewrite history, not really. You can just hope people forget,” he replies, eyes on the four families. “Unfortunately for you all, I have not forgotten.”
“What is going on here?” the older man beside Lex asks, eyes moving around the room as he starts putting two and two together. “She shouldn’t be here.”
“You are so full of yourself,” Cillian spits as if the question was directed to him. “Do you really think your sons gave her up for you? They are obsessed with this fucking whore. Everyone is always so obsessed with this fucking whore!”
Well, that’s exceptionally rude. Every single eye turns to me.
It feels hot under my skin being the recipient of their scrutiny, but I tip my chin high, as if there isn’t a deranged possible cousin threatening me with a knife.
And really, after my dad drove me off a bridge and my sister tried to drown me, what is this?
“You’re willing to betray me all because of this whore, Alexander?” The man who spoke turns his gaze to Lex, and I realize they do bear quite a resemblance.
“Sit down, Father.” Lex places a firm hand over his shoulders and pushes him down.
He obliges since Lex is stronger, but the families are getting restless, finally realizing something is wrong.
Fucking Cillian ruined everything, and now this is about to be a mess.
My eyes find Lex, Soren, Orion, Hadrian, and finally Parker.
They guard each section of the room, and we have seconds before the families start forgetting about dinner altogether.
Parker steps my way, but I shake my head quickly.
Cillian is too busy watching everyone’s reaction to his claim to even notice anything about me.
I can overpower him. Parker showed me how, and Cillian’s a third of Parker’s build.
Plus, it’s clear he’s scared of doing anything.
His grand reveal is going down the drain.
He blamed my family for ignoring his status as the male heir, but he forgot that rich people don’t like to share.
I bet the moment they pushed the Colefaxes aside, they started to fight who was going next.
Shifting into position, I show Parker I can do it. He’s not happy, of course he’s not, but he needs to take care of his family so that I can take care of mine.
“They are still fucking her?” an older man closer to Hadrian asks. “Fuck this generation. The Offering is just a whore, not a wife!”
“She’s a Colefax!” Cillian yells in response. “You brought a Colefax as the Offering! That’s simply not done!”
“What do you know about what is done?” A man beside Parker scoffs. He’s the older version of my stalker boyfriend, and I instantly know it has to be an older brother. “You’re nothing. Please kill the whore. What are you waiting for?”
My eyes flick to Parker. This is my chance. Cillian is shaking with anger at being called nothing in front of all four families. Sure, he’s weak and stupid, but he might go for the kill if they all goad him into it.
“Shut the fuck up, Arthur,” Parker says as he slices his brother’s throat in one fluid movement.
Screams fill the room as his blood sprays.
Chairs drag against the stone floor, and people quickly get up to run for the exit.
I don’t have time to appreciate the terror in every asshole’s eyes.
I use the distraction to elbow Cillian, as he stumbles out of my reach.
The knife cuts my neck, but it’s not a fatal wound.
Cillian folds in two from the assault, and as his head aligns with mine, I headbutt him quickly.
His hold is loose now, and I don’t miss the opportunity.
I turn around and put space between us. Before he’s even over the first hits, I knee his balls, and he stumbles once again, the knife falling from his hand.
I take it quickly and put it against his neck.
“You fucking bitch!” he whines.
“Me? You’re the one looking like a little bitch from where I’m standing.”
He can barely hear the words over the screams behind us. My guys are efficiently following their plan, and bodies are falling one after another. Cillian can see now how crashing this banquet was the worst decision of his life.
“You’re going to kill me?” He laughs.
I press the knife against his neck, drawing blood like he did to me. The only difference is that I don’t shake. “Look around, cousin. Do you see a way to leave this room alive?”
He swallows a lump in his throat, but before he can answer, Soren arrives. They struggle for a moment, but my man quickly overpowers Cillian and ties his hands behind his back with a rope.