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Opening my phone, I snap a couple of photos without her knowing. “These will look cute on the Mayhem page. Might bring in a new audience.”
“Ha. Ha.” Her cheeks are blushed red, her shoulders tight. I know she’s frustrated, and it’s right where I want her.
“Oh fuck!” Ky snaps from the kitchen and I hear Lilith laugh around him. “Nuh uh! No way are we doing this.”
I close the door behind me and dump Cartier’s shit onto the closest sofa. “Don’t look at me. Wasn’t my idea.”
“Awww…” Lilith grins, a glass of wine hanging from her fingers. “This is cute.”
Cartier slides up onto the kitchen counter. “I need tonight over with. I have a feeling—” I brush her upper thigh with my broken knuckles when I reach for the bottle of whiskey on the counter.
She hisses, her eyes closing and jaw tensing. I smirk, winking at her as I flick off the lid. It hits her on the tit. She pauses again before continuing. “I think The Fathers are wanting to change the way we recruit.”
“As in…” Kyrin asks, seemingly ignoring the fact that his baby sister is half naked on our counter and I am the reason she is that way. Progress.
“As in, I think they’re wanting to snatch people off the street if needed.”
“We don’t need, though…” Kyrin adds, just as Killian and Sass enter. Killian flashes me a knowing grin, coming into the kitchen and taking the bottle off me. At this point, I don’t really care what she and Kyrin are talking about.
“You know, you’re both fucking crazy. Never thought that would be you two. You both seemed too… uptight.”
“Fuck you. I’m not uptight, I’m selective. And Cartier?” I smirk around the rim of the bottle. “No, yeah, she is uptight. Lucky for me, I know how to undo her.”
Sass unzips the dress for Cartier and places it on her lap when she sees Kyrin shuffling uncomfortably again.
Cartier stands and steps into the gown, pulling it over her body. Jesus fucking Christ that body. “There’s something I haven’t told you.”
“You think?” Kill eggs her on from behind, shuffling a deck of cards. “Think that’s obvious.”
“I’m not talking about the whole CEO, trained in all sorts of weird shit for three years thing. I’m talking about something else that I probably should have told you first, but I needed to wait until you knew about me.”
I push off the counter and hold my breath before she says her next words. The door opens again and King and Perse walk through. “Family meeting without us?”
“No.” Cartier turns her back to Sass so she can zip her up. The dress is tight where it needs to be tight before falling around her feet in a puddle. It’s beige with diamonds all over her bodice, giving the illusion that she’s naked.
This fucking girl is going to kill me.
“I was waiting for you both.” She offers a gentle smile before stepping around me with that same bratty look on her face, and reaching for the bottle of champagne on the bar trolley. “Before I go further, you all have to agree to a blood oath with me.”
Pause.
“In Kiznitch.” Her eyes fly around the room.
Silence.
“Tomorrow. In the tombs, like our ancestors did. If I do this, and I bring you all in the way I’m about to, I have to know that I can more than trust you. I have to know that you’re not going to hold secrets from me too. Going forward.” She pauses to fill her flute with bubbles. “I want us to work together. Not like Delila did. Everything was so disconnected and a power trip. I don’t want to come in here and make you all feel like I’m like her. I want us all to run Midnight Mayhem in a sense that we’re all equal.”
“And you want to do a blood oath for that? Our word isn’t enough?” King asks the question we all were about to.
“First of all…” She closes the distance around us, gesturing to the expanded circle with her glass. “All of your word doesn’t mean shit to me. I’m not stupid. I am not full-blooded Kiznitch—these girls here right now are not Kiznitch. You all don’t owe us any loyalty—not even your own woman. This blood oath not only protects you and me, but them too because as much as you’ve all tried to hide things from them, they’re all strong enough to take it.” She swallows a loud gulp. “I mean, shit, they handle you all perfectly.”
“She has a point.” Kyrin runs his hands through his hair. “I hate when she has a point.”
I glare at her as I slowly lower myself onto the chair opposite. The bus very rarely feels as small as it does now with everyone in it—except Luna who is no doubt with the makeup artist slash babysitter.
Cartier shakes her head, and I reach out to her fingers, pulling her onto my lap. She falls down with grace, despite the fact that she’s anything but. “You guys. I’m not that same girl I was, and I haven’t been for so long. I held on to appearances because it’s what I knew you wanted to see when you looked at me, but the truth is, the shit I’ve gone through to get primed to how I am today was exactly as bad as you think it was. But I always promised myself that once you all knew, this was what I wanted to do and how I wanted to run things.” I spread my hand over her belly, watching Kyrin as his eyes lower to where my hand is and then to my face.
I blow him a kiss.
