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“That was what I told her.” She made her eyes wide like she was agreeing with me.
“I can smell your fear.”
She glanced at me, then away again. “The cop thinks you’re dirty.” She shook her head. “That chick doesn’t know the fucking half of it.”
“Why’d you lie to me?” What I meant was why bother, but she looked at me with her big doe eyes, and her lower lip quivered.
“I was scared.” And the voice was as fake as the fucking tears she had rolling down her cheeks. “I never killed a guy before.”
I shook my head. “That’s your second lie. I know all about your uncle Albert.” The folder in my desk didn’t come out and say that she’d killed him, but she was seven, and she’d been covered in spatter and gunshot residue when the cops had pulled her out of the car. Also, the old guy had been a lefty, but the bullet had gone through his right temple while he was driving on an interstate.
“Fucking pardon me, Roman.” She cast her eyes at the ceiling for a beat. “I didn’t tell her a fucking thing, but I wasn’t sure of the etiquette when a cop asks about secret societies and dead bodies.”
Her sass didn’t surprise me. She was legitimately scared, but also wasting my time by lying. Although I believed she hadn’t told Hall anything. I’d called the sheriff and checked. If Hall had anything, I would have been sitting in jail.
“Etiquette is the only thing keeping you out of jail right now. Etiquette and the fact you give good head.” It was hurtful and her head snapped back like I’d slapped her. “Lars was a piece of shit, and no one is going to miss him.”
She glared hard. “That’s over now.”
“If you say so.” I shook my head and shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Listen, Riley, this isn’t about us, you and me. This is about the Scorpio Society. This is about the rules you have to follow to stay alive, to have the most important people in this country on your side.”
She sighed, remained silent, but didn’t speak. It was progress.
“No matter what, you say nothing, react to nothing.” I couldn’t prove she’d done otherwise, and I preferred to believe her. The alternative was killing her. I didn’t want to—didn’t even know if I could—do that. “You have to learn how to remain blank. And never talk.” I’d thought letting Riley kill would do the trick, but Hall was persuasive enough to talk my idiot brother into bed. “Can I trust you, Riley? Can the Scorpio Society trust you?”
Again, she stared me down and remained silent while I stared back until she looked away. “Yes.”
“The people selected by the Society to die have been chosen for very specific reasons.”
“We’re vigilantes. We kill at the whim of your Society according to some supposedly moral code they’ve determined to help them sleep at night.” Her breath stuttered out.
“It isn’t an exact science, but no one who is innocent has ever died.” I didn’t know if that would help her decide not to talk to the cops if she was thinking about it. I would’ve asked if that was her intention, but I didn’t trust her to tell the truth. She was a mystery and an enigma, and when I said I could tell if she was lying, I suspected I could tell because she didn’t care enough to try to hide it. Or she wanted me to know.
“If your conscience is bothering you…” I didn’t even know how to finish it. The last person in the Society who had a crisis of conscience was dead now. My mother had ordered the kill. Just the same as she would order Riley’s death if necessary.
“My conscience is fucking fine.” She heaved out a breath. “I wanted to kill Lars. I would kill him again.” There was a glimmer in her eyes that took my breath away. “I don’t care about the Society’s philosophy or the detective’s curiosity.”
“You’re free to go whenever you want.”
“Free to go?” This time, her eyes watered. “I don’t want to go. I’m in too deep already.” Her voice was softer, and I believed her. She didn’t want to leave the Society.
“What about me? Do you want to leave me?” I sounded like some desperate teenager, like I was about to beg my little girlfriend not to break up with me.
She stared for a full ten seconds. “No. I want to be with you.”
At least I could relax about that. I had enough on my plate. The new fighter who had Pop’s tail wagging. TheColumboof detectives poking around in the Scorpio Society and my fucking life... I had a plan for that. Well, one was taking shape, anyway. And now Riley Keller. But maybe I could kill two birds with one stone. Figuratively, of course.
Riley
It had been a long time before all this since I was happy. Truly happy, anyway. But killing Lars was an orgasm in a bullet. I sure as hell had no idea that it would be so fucking hot.
I’d failed with the professor, though. But the powers in charge must’ve decided to give me another shot, because when I came from class, another dress—this one Gucci—and a Glock were sitting on the bed. Ten minutes later, I was wearing the dress, and the gun was strapped to my thigh. All I needed now was the little envelope embossed with the gold scorpion on the seal.
Because Roman was home already, and his tuxedo bag that hung in the closet in our room was open, I finished getting ready with a spritz of perfume and swipe of mascara on each of my lashes, and lipstick, then walked downstairs. Depending on what we were doing first, it never hurt to look like I deserved a guy who had the swagger of a Hawthorne.
He was standing in the study, his back to the door, one arm leaned against the mantle as a blue flame flickered behind the grate from the gas nozzles. He turned, and a slow, rakish smile spread across his face. He had a thousand smiles, and I loved every single one, but this one was a favorite. It meant I pleased him, and that made me hotter and wetter than any other man had ever made me, using every weapon in his repertoire.
“You’re exquisite.” He walked toward me, and there was something seductive in his gaze, in the once-over that burned my skin from earlobe to toenail, in the decadence of his touch when he took my hand and brought it to his lips.
