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“Hiiiiii,” Destiny squeals to the group, and their conversation stops, gazes turning towards us. My cheeks instantly heat, not liking them all looking at me. Panic has seized my body this whole time, being around huge amounts of people. My mind hasn’t stopped running.

They all exchange greetings at the same time, their gazes flicking to others in the group with confusion. Destiny looks at a boy sitting in a seat in between two empty ones, and he moves over, leaving two empty seats right next to each other. She sets the plates of food down in the empty spaces and sits down, urging me to as well.

“This is Penelope. Riot’s girl,” Destiny says, and the entire table stops breathing, eyes widen, and full of fear. Why is everyone scared of that man? “Don’t look at her like that. She’s more scared of you guys than you should be of her. She’s harmless.” Some of their postures relaxed, but others stayed tense, avoiding eye contact with me.

After the initial awkwardness wore off, they all chatted like normal, trying to include me the best they could, but some things I just didn’t understand. I used a whiteboard to talk for a little while, but it became annoying, so I started speaking in small sentences. Making myself speak to people I don’t know will help me talk more openly to strangers later. Plus, this group is really nice.

I told them I’ve been under lock and key since I was six, so I don’t know a lot of things going on with famous people or today’s generation. They walk me through everything when they talk about something I don’t know.

We talked for hours, the other people of the house having gone to their respective places long ago. The lights are dimmed out of respect for the people living in this house. The group explained how most of the house works.

All the families have their own house on Riot’s land. If they are single, there are luxurious apartment buildings for them to live in until they start a family. A few places on the land are charred due to house explosions of traitors. Valid.

Nobody working under him gets paid, they just live for free and luxuriously. If they need something, they submit a paper for the money, and it gets sent to them the same day. If someone wants something extreme, like a Bugatti or a plane, it gets sent to Damien, who is Riot’s third. He’ll go through their chart. If they’ve been in the organization for a certain number of years, they get more privileges.

Once someone wishes to retire, they do. They reside on the manor and live the rest of their life lavishly. Or, if they would like to live off the property, they can. The house is paid for, and they get a yearly payment of seven hundred thousand dollars for whatever they want since they don’t have to worry about bills other than food and a car if they choose.

I learned all their names. Luna sits to the right of me, Destiny on the left. Luna has blonde hair like me, just to her mid-back instead. Her eyes are the color of honey. She has a button nose and pink heart-shaped lips, with skin as white as paper.

Kai sits next to Destiny. He has deeply tanned skin and brown eyes that complement his light brown shaggy hair. A pair of nerdy glasses sits perched on the bridge of his nose. He has a crooked nose.

Anna sits next to him. Her skin is the most beautiful shade of brown. Her eyes match her skin, but her hair is something totally different. It’s straight, falling to her shoulders, and it’s a dark shade of pink. It looks amazing.

Sitting between Luna and Anna is Melody. Her eyes captivated me since I sat down. They’re violet. Her eyes are big, the purple really popping. She has strawberry blonde hair that is up in a messy bun. Freckles cover her face, and her lips are plump from the filler she told me she got. She looks fucking gorgeous.

A throat-clearing has all our necks snapping to the sound of the noise. A short, skinny man stands in the doorway. “I need Miss Penelope to come with me.” My eyes draw with confusion. Why does he need me?

“Why do you need her?” Destiny’s voice speaks first, coming to fend for me.

“Riot has requested her to return to the city tonight. He is already there.” When did he leave for the city?

I nod my head and get up, waving all of them goodbye. “See you soon, Pen,” Destiny says. The others ring out their agreements. I follow the man outside to a limo. It’s long as fuck, black, and so sleek. The man opens the door and ushers me in, closing it without a word. Off to the city.

*This book is an advance reader copy and is to not be distributed anywhere. [email protected]*

18

Chapter Eighteen

Mama’s Boy - Dominic Fike

Riot

I’ve been pacing the hospital waiting room for an hour. Back and forth, back and forth. My mind races, and my anger rises with every passing second. She’s in surgery right now. Every time a doctor passes, they cower away in fear. I’ve yelled at four doctors and nine nurses to give me some fucking update, anything. Let me know if her fucking heart rate changed. I need something. My breath is hot in my mask, my face growing more and more sweaty.

She got shot in the shoulder, way too fucking close to her heart. I spent the three hours driving back to the city in a rage, planning every way to torture whoever did this to her. I want them to beg for death as people beg for mercy. I want them to kiss my fucking feet for the pain they put her through.

People are looking for him right now. Searching every corner of the city, every camera, doing whatever they can to find out who the fuck did this. I trust these guys, they have never let me down yet. So I can’t do anything except sit here and wait, and be there for Mama.

I got here, and Viktor rushed over to me. He said her house was broken into, and she was cornered in the kitchen. Viktor spent the hours I was driving combing through every camera in the area of her home. Not a single one caught their faces, besides a small snake coiled around itself on a few of the men’s necks.

The Mexicans. Specifically, Adrian’s son. His son’s logo is the snake coiled around itself. Adrian’s is a snake wrapped around the barrel of a gun. Mine is a replica of the face on my mask.

Viktor sits in one of the hospital chairs, bent over with his head held in his hands. When I got here, my heart was broken an impossible amount more when I saw the look on his face, the blood that coated his hands. Her blood. Since then, he’s visited the bathroom and washed it off.

I sent someone to retrieve Penelope, but nobody at the manor was available to drive her, so someone from the city is on their way right now to get her. She won’t even get here for several more hours.

There are only three drivers that are employed for me, and they are the only people besides Damien, Viktor, and Linda that I trust to drive me around.