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“No mask for you, unfortunately. We have to make sure that your face is clearly visible for the entire recording, not just the end, like we normally do. I’m sure you can understand why the alumni feel that the precaution is necessary. You’re going to put on these robes. Then you will go into the next room and do what every other Initiate has been required to do since our founding. Out of respect, I’ve ensured there will be no more witnesses than necessary.”
“They’re making you stand behind the camera, right?” I don’t wait for his nod, because I already know the answer. Part of this has to be his punishment for bring such a liability into Havoc House in the first place. I’ve been around long enough to know how this works. “This might be the sickest shit that I’ve ever heard. If this is how Havoc House gets its rocks off, then I’m happy to be kicked out. You’re all fucking sick.”
“Don’t be crude,” he snaps. “No one wants this.”
“You want me to rape my sister.”
“Half-sister,” he corrects, like the distinction matters. “And none of your Havoc brothers will know that she is your relative until it’s over. The alumni will allow you to keep it a secret until then.”
“How kind of them,” I reply sarcastically. The irony of it isn’t lost on me. All the effort I took to keep Felicia out of Havoc House bullshit is blowing up in my face. If I’d just told the other Havoc Boys to stay the fuck away from my sister instead of hiding our relationship, then this wouldn’t be happening. They would never agree to let this happen if they knew the truth. “But this isn’t fucking happening. I don’t care what the alumni do to me.”
“I understand it will be difficult. There are chemical aids available, if it comes to that.”
“I’m not popping a Viagra so you can watch me plow my own sister, you sick fuck.”
He pulls a syringe from his pocket and sets it down on the table with a dull click. “I don’t recall asking for your permission.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I do what has to be done. The alumni will only accept collateral from you that has sufficient…” he pauses, as if searching for a word that isn’t more monstrous than it has to be, “…gravity.”
“Felicia will go to the police,” I challenge. “It’ll be Olivia all over again. Only worse.”
“Felicia has been drugged enough that she won’t remember anything that happens tonight. We are capable of learning from our mistakes. There will only be one copy of the tape and it will be kept here where only alumni of the highest level can access it. As long as you do what is asked of you, no one else will ever have to know.”
“Did the guys from last year actually believe that line? Because I’m pretty sure no one asked their permission before we played a video of their Initiation at a party.”
“This has been quite a mess,” he agrees. “But you’ll note that the only face visible in the video you saw belonged to Olivia. Some might guess at the identities of the Havoc Boys involved, but they won’t be able to confirm it.”
Unless they had a copy of the ledger, a list of every Havoc Boy to make it through Initiation. The thought forms and floats away before I can grab onto it too firmly. There is an important connection there, I realize, but I’ve got bigger things to worry about at the moment.
My gaze moves to the coffee table in front of me. The ledger rests there, where my father must have tossed it after having me dragged in here.
His voice floats over me, but I’m only half-listening to it.
“We keep each other’s secrets. Because we all have secrets. The Initiation makes sure of that. If one of us turns his back on the rest, this collateral ensures that a knife will end up in it. Every single man in Havoc House has a piece of collateral hidden here. It is how we ensure that when Havoc House calls, every single one of us answers.”
Which explains why Gigi and Olivia’s father had no problem whisking his daughter away and pretending like the attack on her never happened.
Blood is just water with more shit floating in it.
“And if I refuse?”
His expression doesn’t change from the one of annoyed disappointment that I’ve seen a hundred times before. With a gloved hand, he pulls a gun from his waistband and levels it at my chest. “We’re not giving you a choice.”
“I don’t care if you kill me, I’m not doing it,” I bite out. “Go ahead and shoot me.”
“The gun isn’t for you, at least not directly.” With the ruthless efficiency of a striking snake, he grabs my hand and presses it to the gun’s grip, painfully squeezing my fingers until they wrap around it enough to mimic pulling the trigger. “Although, since the gun only has your fingerprints on it, the police will have every reason to believe that you were the one who killed her when Felicia is found shot to death.”
“You evil piece of shit…”
“Just to make things obvious for a jury, your precious Olivia might even be found dead of an overdose with a suicide note implicating you in her attack last year. There isn’t enough evidence to get you convicted of that, but I’m sure your violent nature will be taken into account.” He sets the gun on the table and removes his glove. “There at least a dozen people under this very roof who will swear under penalty of perjury that they saw you with a gun in your hand over the body of your dead sister. I’m sure the jury will draw their own conclusions when the prosecution tells them she was drugged and raped before she died, no matter how much you might protest your innocence. There is no death penalty in the state of New York, but life in prison and the shame of being known as a sister-fucking murderer is probably punishment enough.”
Air expands in my chest until it feels like my lungs might pop. When I finally let myself breathe again, the pain of it is excruciating. “This is wrong.”
“Yes, it is.” His reply is devoid of any emotion. “Neither of us has to like it because neither of us has a choice. We will do what must be done.”
My father would let everyone I care about die. Probably even help get the job done, if he was told to do it. I want to ask what Havoc House has on him, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. The perks — his money and position — are too important for him to give them up. Not for anything, or anyone.
