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Chapter 14
Oh, fuck, I’m so dead.
He smiled back, but only with his mouth. “Good. That was a little test. Betas should kneel to no one. I don’t like people who bow, scrape, and panda to their superiors. Because their superiors are almost always alphas.”
I nodded and told him what he wanted to hear. “Weak people.”
“You’re a valuable asset. And you can be trusted to get into places that other gang members can’t. You’re not a familiar face to the Enforcers, and you’ve no criminal record. You’ve never been cowed by alphas.”
“I broke free.” A flash of annoyance underscored my words. This random beta had no place telling me what my life had been like. Then my ears caught up with what else he’d said. “You looked me up?” There was no other way he’d know if I had a criminal record or not.
“Yes. Due diligence.”
“What for?”
“I don’t reveal myself to any random crew member. I’m here to make you an offer, on Ghil’s recommendation. Pass a test, tonight, and you are going straight to the top, tomorrow, to carry out averyimportant task.”
I didn’t like the sound of this at all. Another fucking test? When were these people going to stop pissing around and actually give me a real job? I bit my tongue and tried to be polite.
“What’s the test?”
“There’s an alpha enforcer who is investigating us. He’s getting too close. Berin Falstar. His vice is betas. He has very dark tastes. Seduce him, and eliminate him. It must be done tonight.”
My stomach clenched painfully but I kept my eyes impassive as I gazed up at him with no emotion. I knew I couldn’t hesitate right now. There was no time to think about my answer.
“Where can I find him?”
I was dying inside as Lenor gave me all the details, along with a weapon. Somehow, through the ringing in my ears, I managed to make a mental note of everything I needed to know, and I walked out of Ghil’s flat without falling down.
I had to kill someone. Tonight. It was the only way to make any progress on finding out who Lenor worked for. And I was sure he worked for someone. He didn’t strike me as a boss so much as a yes-man who probably bowed and scraped and pandered to someone higher, despite his obvious distaste for sycophants. Or maybe because of it. Plenty of people hated seeing themselves in others.
I walked back to Ryon’s flat and flopped on the couch. Closing my eyes, I wondered how the fuck I was going to get around this. I couldn’t kill anyone. I knew that. But now I had a weapon in my pocket and orders from a powerful beta to murder someone in cold blood.
This was so far out of my depth that I was drowning.
Too numb to cry, I just sat there with my eyes shut and tried to breathe through my fear. The sound of the front door closing shook me out of my cocoon. I looked up. Ryon was covered in blood.
“Yours or someone else’s?” Was he hurt? I didn’t want to make a big deal of it if he was fine.
“Both.” He ripped his torn shirt off, revealing his usually-perfect body. There was a deep gash in one of his pecs and a long, angry line across his middle abs.
“Did something go wrong?” I don’t know why, but I genuinely never expected his job to bring him into direct confrontation with people. As soon as I’d asked the question I felt like a dolly.
“Knife fight with a traitor.” He didn’t elaborate.
“You’re working for a different gang to me at the moment, aren’t you?” To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what Ryon did all day.
“I don’t workforany of them. But today’s assignment came from Regin. His crew’s much bigger than Ghil’s. He has fingers in a lot of pies. There’s more room for betrayal. And this asshole squealed his last.”
“You killed him?” I don’t know why it bothered me, except it was a big wedge that separated Ryon and me.
“Yeah. That’s the job. This guy got eight people killed, yesterday. Including a pregnant beta female.”
“Does that justify it?” I moved closer and peered at his wound. I’d never been great with injuries, but I knew how to tell if something was serious or not. These weren’t scratches.
“To me, it does.” He opened a box on a shelf and pulled out a needle and thread. I winced as he stitched himself up.
“I got introduced to Ghil’s boss, from Beta Liberation, today. He’s testing me tonight.”
