CHAPTER NINE
Ihaven't slept in three fucking days.
Every time I close my eyes, I see Blair sitting on the floor of Beau's stall, struggling to breathe while some coward stood there long enough to steal her inhaler and leave her to die.
Then the picture changes, and all I can see are the scars on her back and the way she flinched before I ever had the chance to touch her.
I've replayed that last conversation I had with her so many times, but no matter how hard I try, I can't make it end any differently.
My brothers and I have not let her out of our sight since the incident at the barn.
I’ve arranged for Ramsey Blackwood to visit and install some cameras in her room.
I, of course, will be the only one who will be able to view the footage.
I could have my father’s men do the job, but I don’t know who I can trust at this point.
My father is so wrapped up with The Society that I can’t risk anything I’m doing getting back to them.
Except today, I waited outside her dorm for her to leave at her usual time, but she didn’t show.
I waited an unreasonable amount of time for someone who isn’t obsessed with her, but a very reasonable time for someone who is.
When I let myself into her room, fully prepared to take whatever verbal lashing she might have for me, but she wasn’t there.
I went into full panic mode and called both of my brothers.
There was no way she left without us seeing her.
After finding her gasping for air, I’m not willing to take any chances on her safety.
I have no clue where she could be, but Noah got some info the other day that Blair was at Onyx Dominion when I couldn’t find her.
Apparently, she went on the run to avoid being sent there, but was ultimately captured and held there.
I don’t know if she got those scars from someone there or before she was found, but I intend on finding out.
Every single person who touched her is going to die by my hands.
No wonder she didn’t want me to touch her.
I wasn’t there to save her when she needed me the most, and consistently she has always been there when I needed her.
I decide to look in the only place where someone would know who turned Blair over to Onyx Dominion, and why they would have wanted her in the first place.
The Black Crown Society in none other than the Saints’ Cathedral.
And if I don’t get the answers I want, I’m ripping it apart stone by stone, pew by pew, until someone tells me everything they know. I’m already late for the mandatory meeting, so I’m sure everyone will be super excited to see me.
I’m not dressed for the occasion, and I didn’t bother bringing my mask.
They can take it up with my father since he was so unhelpful when I was looking for Blair.
I am fully prepared to burn every bridge and every connection I have for the girl I love.
I’m willing to die for her, because I know my brothers will make sure she’s okay in my absence.
The heavy wooden doors swing open, slamming against the stone walls hard enough that everyone turns to look at me.
They’re not in the basement tonight, and instead, The Saints are using the altar to do some initiation for the freshmen this year.
I roll my eyes because I’m so fucking fed up with this bullshit.
All of this performative shit means nothing.
The whole point of a brotherhood, of a secret society, is to be able to rely on its members, and instead they just use us for their own gain.
They choose partnerships to ensure businesses can merge and flourish.
It’s all about keeping old money flowing, and I will never choose anyone or anything over the girl I’ve loved since I was a kid.
I’ve already reached out to a contact in Castlebrook Falls to help me out with a loophole Benjamin found when he was looking through the archives of The Society before it branched off into three separate factions.
“What the fuck, man?” Brandford whines when he sees that everyone’s attention has turned from him and is now centered on me.
Ah, right on time, and just who I wanted to see.
Bradford is standing up at the pulpit, giving some speech he probably made someone else write for him. Some bullshit about character and integrity, both of which he’s lacking massively.
The Elders are seated beneath the enormous Black Crown crest at the front of the chamber. They’re watching me with unamused expressions, and my father is the one who speaks to me.
“I’m disappointed in your behavior,” he says mechanically. I roll my eyes when he continues, “Are you the reason your brothers are missing as well?”
“I’m not really pleased with your behavior either, father,” I tell him petulantly, because I really don’t give a damn about anyone or anything in this fucking room.
“And I assume they’re looking for Blair, since she’s missing again.
Would you like to enlighten me on where she is?
Or where she was, for that matter? Do you know anything about the scars she has or why she trembles when anyone comes near her? ”
I want my girl, and I want her now.
My father sighs, the sound I remember from childhood. He’s always disappointed about something, but never his own behavior. I’m over him, and this whole charade.
"What the fuck did you do to Blair?" I don’t address the question to anyone in particular, but I narrow my eyes on Bradford. Mostly because I think he’s their little scapegoat.
I think he lets the elders dictate what he does and how low-down and dirty he’ll fight because he’s stupid enough to believe their false promises.
His face is still fucked up from what I did to him on the ice, and I’m not leaving this room without his blood dripping from my knuckles.
“Anyone? Anyone want to be a man and tell me what the fuck you did to Blair Winthrop?” My voice echoes through the room, bouncing off the vaulted ceilings as I walk straight down the center aisle without slowing.
A few Saints exchange uneasy looks, and one of the Elders has the audacity to frown at me like I'm the one disrupting something important.
I look at him pointedly and flip him my middle finger, because fuck him, and fuck Black Crown, too.
"Initiate Moretti," one of them says calmly. "This ceremony is already underway; I suggest you take it as a gift that we’re going to overlook this display and…"
"I don't give a fuck what you’re doing. I want answers, and I want them now.” The words leave my mouth before he's even finished speaking. I continue before anyone can get a word in. I know this can end really badly for me, but my brothers both know where I am, and I have to trust that they’ll show up if I need them.
"I know she was taken to Onyx Dominion, and I know she didn't come back looking like that because they treated her with kindness.
" My eyes sweep across every Elder seated at the front of the room, daring one of them to deny it.
"So either one of you starts talking, or I'm going to assume every single person sitting up there had a hand in what happened to her. "
“I can assure you that we, The Saints as a whole, did not do any sort of thing to Ms. Winthrop. She’s our most sought-after Chosen One this year, as you well know.
” The fucker I flipped off earlier says, and I think he actually thinks he’s helping his case by telling me that every guy in here wants to fuck my girl.
I think my head is actually going to explode.
"You’re digging everyone’s fucking grave,” I grit out.
“Somebody wearing a fucking Saints mask cornered her in the barn, stole her inhaler, and left her locked in a horse stall knowing she couldn’t breathe.
" My jaw clenches so hard it aches. "If that's what you call protecting your Chosen Ones, your standards are a hell of a lot lower than I thought. "
I mostly spell out the scenario because I want to see their reactions. Surprise appears in every Elder’s expression, and that tells me that they didn’t put the fucker up to the incident in the barn. Which means she also has a target on her back coming from another direction.
The eldest man at the center of the table folds his hands together as though we're discussing the weather instead of Blair's life. "You would be wise to remember who you're speaking to."
I laugh. It's short, humorless, and angry enough that several people in the room visibly tense.
"No." I take another step toward them until I'm standing close enough that he can see the absolute psychopath inside of me clawing to get out. I would have done the whole Saints thing. I would have played by the rules if they’d only let me have Blair and keep her safe.
"I think you're the ones who need a reminder of who you’re talking to. "
“Elijah,” My father starts, and he pushes like he’s going to stand up, but decides otherwise when my eyes snap to his.
“You, of all people, know what I’m capable of,” I tell him.
“What was it the psychiatrist told you when I was a kid? That I’m incapable of empathy?
You’d have to really keep an eye on me? I’m dangerous?
That stopped when I met Blair. I behave because of her.
I don’t want to ever upset her or make her feel bad.
” I can feel emotion clawing at the back of my throat.
I don’t fucking cry, but it very much feels like I’m going to right now.
“If you take her away from me, I will show you how absolutely destructive I can fucking be. She won’t let me near her long enough to find out what was done to her, so I’m giving you a heads-up.
It’s probably already too late. You’re all fucked. ”
“Elijah, you don’t understand what you’re doing,” my father starts, but it’s my brother Noah from somewhere behind me who answers him.