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“She’s right. And you’d know that if you memorized the bylaws like you were supposed to do,” Brady interrupts, surprising me. His fingers gently play with the pin on his lapel, straightening it so that it flashes a dull gold in the light. “The bylaws can be changed, of course, but not tonight and not by us. The intent of our founders is obviously implied, but not stated. Clever of you to notice, Ms. Pratt.”
I give him a mocking curtsey. “Thanks.”
Brady slides the papers closer to his side of the table and idly flips through them. “And I assume you don’t plan to tell me where you got these.”
“You can find anything on the Internet these days,” I reply with a casual shrug, careful to keep myself from looking at Drake. We’re on a tightrope, and a misstep from either of us means we both fall. “Now might be a good time to discuss these naming conventions, by the way. Calling yourself the Havoc Boys is more than a little outdated. Maybe it should be the Havoc Ladyboys, since it’ll be one lady and a bunch of little boys…”
Nolan takes a threatening step forward, but Brady stops him with a hand on his chest. The outrage on all their faces is more than a little disappointing. The easiest way to get under the skin of a faux-Alpha male is to suggest that they might be anything aside from a strict man’s man.
At this point, transphobia is just boring.
“You can’t actually think this is going to work.” Cole crosses his arms over his burly chest, an expression that almost looks like sympathy on his face. “You might want to run while you still can.”
A smarter girl might heed his warning, but I’m in way too deep for that.
And there is only one person in this room that I need to convince.
My gaze moves to Brady’s face, where I know the bland expression he wears is a cover for whatever it is he’s actually thinking. “So what do you say? Am I pledge? Or does none of the shit you probably have written in blood on ancient parchment somewhere around here actually mean anything at all.”
Brady’s lip quirks, even as his eyes narrow with malevolent intent. “Welcome to Havoc House, pledge.”
“You can’t actually mean to let this happen?” Nolan explodes. “This is bullshit. She can’t be one of us.”
“A pledge is not an Initiate and an Initiate is not a full member of Havoc House, you should keep that in mind. Not everyone makes it through their pledge year,” Brady replies blandly. He picks up the photocopied bodies and tosses them across the room to land at my feet. “You’ve already got a head-start on memorizing these, Pratt. The next challenge won’t be anywhere near as easy.”
I wait a beat, thinking that it can’t possibly be this simple. “That’s it?”
“That’s it for now, pledge. You might be sorry that you didn’t walk away when you had the chance.” Brady smiles like the devil that just made the deal of a lifetime with an unsuspecting soul. “Now, this is meeting for seniors only so make yourself scarce like the other pledges. I promise you’ll be back here again soon.”
Cole just shakes his head with a rueful sigh. “Good luck.”
“Run along, little pledge.” Nolan’s voice is full of menace. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”
I risk a quick glance at Drake, who gives me the smallest nod. This is as far as I’m going to get for now, and it’s time to go.
My smile is wide enough that it hurts the corners of my mouth. “See you next time.”
Not taking my eyes off them, I blindly reach behind me to open the door. Just as I touch the knob, it twists open, and the door is yanked open quickly enough that I stumble and have to catch myself against the wall.
“Hey, guys. What’d I miss? Oh, shit, sorry—the fuck?”
Vaughn practically crashes into me as he hobbles through the door, clearly not expecting anyone to be standing just on the other side. His bruised face fills with horror as he catches sight of the person he just ran into, and I’m sure that my expression matches his.
The last time that I saw Vaughn Ashbridge, he’d been holding a gun to my head.
He seems just as surprised to see me as I am to see him. The side of his face is so bruised that one eye is practically swollen shut, but he stares at me like I’m some apparition from a nightmare he forgot he’d had until this very moment.
But I don’t realize just how angry I am with him until the look in his eyes transforms from shock into anger, like he can’t believe that I have the nerve to be here. Horror turns into outrage and I know the next thing out of his mouth won’t be him welcoming the newest pledge to Havoc House.
Vaughn’s lips start to form a word, and I realize that he’s going to say my name.
My real name.
“Ev…”
He barely gets out the first syllable and I’m already moving. Anger gives me more power than I would have otherwise and he’s injured, that’s the only explanation for what happens next.
All I’m thinking is that I have to shut him up, and it doesn’t matter how I have to do it.
