Page 38 of Boneyard HEA

“Will do.” I stand and head for the door. Tomás follows me without speaking, and Karsten never confronted him or asked him to say anything. I might be getting paranoid, but it seems odd.

I’m reaching for the handle, when Karsten says, “Wait, please.” He’s holding up one finger while he listens. “Your girl has interfered with the privacy of other guests.” A long pause. “I hope this isn’t connected to the other matter.” Pause. Again, I simply say nothing. “I expect some public punishment of her for this. At the least. Go. And be careful with what you say to her.”

I resist making a biting remark, like fuck the hell off. Since when do we treat fellow members like children?

Once we’re outside the door I ask Tomás, “How well do you know Karsten?”

“I have done some work for him, for the fraternity. I’m supposed to keep that private.”

“Okay. Understood.” Through the crowd, I see the big door guard, Shawn, standing next to Juniper, and she is kneeling. “What are we going to do?”

“To her? Something tasty. Something up there?” He indicates the stage where the crosses are set up, probably for shows all the attendees can watch. “If she’s done what he said, we should make the apology public.”

“Yes.” Past the crosses are a couple of table-height benches and some machinery I think I recognize. “That’s settled. Now we find out exactly who the fuck she offended.”

As we come to a halt before her and Shawn, she looks up, pouting—those lips are pink, pillowlike, and inviting desecration of the filthiest kind.

I jerk my focus off her to speak to Shawn. “What happened?”

“That happened.” He points to a door. “Herself went in while they were happily engaged in doing stuff. Things went a bit assways.”

“Assways?” The accent sounds Irish. I could hear the R in assways from a mile off. “So, people got angry? And herself went in.” I tsk at Juniper, who has the grace to look sheepish. “Anything else I need to know?”

“I am not supposed to say names. Go easy on her, though, she seems a sweet…” He clears his throat. “Not-so-innocent girl.”

“That might not be possible. Karsten has instructed us to punish her.”

For a second, there’s a speculative heat in his eyes. “Fair play. I have to get back to work.” He clicks his tongue at Juniper before walking away.

“You made a friend?” I ask her.

She purses her mouth. “He was okay.”

“Okay?” I muse. “Considering you fucked up in there that is a shock.”

“What did you do?” Tomás moves in until we are both standing over her. She has her bound hands clasped meekly between her knees. “Is the clamp still on?”

“It is.” She shifts her knees and winces. “Can you take it off?”

“It’s not been that long yet, has it?” I ask him.

“No. It can stay on a while longer. What did you do, exactly?”

She tilts her head and puts on that woeful look from before. The girl is acting, I think. “I went in there to see if they had any scars you-know-where. It was Baxter and Ethan and some others. They didn’t, so that’s good?”

I bark out a laugh, imagining the scene. The balls on this woman. In a hall of weird strangers, and we are thoroughly weird, rich, and powerful, and she dares to interrupt some of them while they’re fucking. Have I ever been this dedicated to avenging anyone?

No. I have not.

Tomás has been quietly shaking his head, as if he cannot believe what she did.

This doesn’t change anything, even if I am impressed.

“Are you planning on checking every cock in here?”

She nods, and I can only laugh. I must remind myself she murdered a man with a shovel, and I kidnapped her, because I’m not fucking Prince Charming, and how often do I normally laugh at one of these parties?

Tomás merely stands there, saying nothing.