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“Last week I was pulled aside by someone. Don’t know who it was or what she wanted at the time, but I pulled my Glock on her. She escorted me into a waiting town car where two other people were seated inside.”
I needed to get this conversation over with so I could take Meraki her gift and make sure that fucking cunt Luca didn’t touch her again.
“Ma, can this wait until I’ve come home from Meraki’s birthday? She will literally have my balls if I’m late.” I wasn’t joking. It’d be hot, but she’d still have them.
She took a deep inhale of her cigarette, her eyes remaining passive on mine. “You won’t be going, boy. And you and your brother have about twenty minutes before you’re being collected.”
“I’m what?” I shot up from the table, searching her eyes. “What the fuck.”
“Continue reading.” She didn’t flinch, and I didn’t take my eyes off her as I snatched up the piece of paper and continued reading.
Nikolai Ares Davis
You have been summoned. You are to be waiting outside your residence at 6:05 p.m. where a car will arrive for collection. The consequences of you not being there at the time stated will be unyielding.
Your decision is yours, but there will be only one. I have left a letter in the side of the limo for you to read. I trust you will make the right decision, son.
Sincerely, Ghost.
I stared up at Ma, raising a brow. “What is this shit?” Tossing the paper back onto the table, I chuckled. “You don’t actually believe this horseshit.”
Ma stubbed out her burning smoke and pushed up from her seat. “Nikolai. This is real. These people who found me explained it all. I had heard about them, you know.” Her eyes widened, and for the first time ever I watched as pain marred into her skin. “Through your father and the club. The organization is made up of four people. No one knows how they’re chosen or why they are, and although I didn’t know it was four, mainly people knew one name.”
The smooth urgency of her tone stopped all of my racing thoughts about Meraki’s birthday. Whatever was going on, Ma was serious.
“Ghost,” Ari whispered out from behind and I spun around to face him, catching him wiping his hands with an old rag.
“Who the fuck is Ghost?” I snorted. This was beginning to feel a lot like I had walked into a bad sitcom.
Ma slowly raised her eyes to mine, straightening her shoulders. “You, as of today.”
I caught my phone screen lighting up on the table with the selfie Meraki and I took out on the canary right after we fucked, but all I could see was the time. Six p.m.
Ma rounded the table and grabbed both mine and Ari’s hands. “You both need to do this. You don’t have a choice, and for some reason, you’ve both been chosen for different roles. Ari”—Ma swiped the stray tear that fell down her cheek—“I think they have you on something tech. With that big brain, it’s gotta be that.”
Then her smile fell, and the corners of her eyes wrinkled further as she came to me. She raised her warm hand to my cheek, and I rested into it, closing my eyes at the comfort of her palm. “My boy.”
When I opened my eyes, she was crying.
“I’m so sorry for what you will have to do.”
“Ma, I’ll figure this out and I’ll be home.”
She shook her head, the sharp ends of her hair grazing over her collarbone. “You won’t be back until it’s time, but I know you’ll both be okay.”
How could she say that after unloading all of that information onto us? I didn’t bother raising it with her, because if these were our final moments together with her, they needed to matter.
“Next time I see you, you won’t be my boy.”
The words stung, but I swallowed them anyway, looking between her and Ari.
“Ghost is a monster, Niko. The worst kind, and I’m sorry I can’t do more to help, son. I tried—I—” She absently made her way to the kitchen sink, looking out the window to the road. “I really tried, but they, we have no choice.” She spun around and rested against the counter. “They have too much power. Go.” Ma brushed her hands toward the door, the tears coming faster.
My heart cracked in my chest and splintered up through my throat.
“Ma?” I stepped closer to her, but she turned her face away.
“Please. Both of you. I’ll see you soon.”
Ari grabbed my hand and pulled me through the door, looking left and right down the street. He looked down at his watch. “We have two minutes, so here’s the gist. I hacked Ma’s phone a couple months ago because Dad thought she was cheating on him and wanted to make sure it wasn’t true. Anyway, that’s not important.” He squeezes my wrist. “I heard the conversation between Ma and the other four in the car, and Nik? We are fucked. We have no way out of this. Ghost? That’s you. You are taking over the old one who is going into retirement with his sixty-year-old ass. Every twenty years, another four are chosen—”
