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I thought of how Remington had called in help to deal with his father and felt a sudden surge of bile in the back of my throat.
The big dark blonde man was Cain's father. The head of the mob.
“Why did you insist on coming here then?” Remington’s father asked impatiently. “There are so many other places we could have gone.”
“Yes, but we've got people increasingly loyal to Cain and his boys. We have to be careful about where we do certain things. Any place else would be obviously tied to us. But seeing her blood splattered here, they’ll think it could have been anyone who was angry about the hostile takeover.”
The man looked self-satisfied. “And it should blind them with rage.”
“I'm not losing my chance to torture her like she tortured me,” Remington's father ground out.
“You'll do what I tell you,” Cain’s father answered. He looked me over, then seemed to relent. “Fine. It’ll be easier not to doctor the autopsy. And we have some time. My guy said the boys won't be expecting her back from her initiation until it's close to sunrise.”
Of course he would have a mole in the Sphinx.
I thought about how long the drive had taken me to the site, and how long it must have taken to drive back here, and I wondered how much torture I’d have to endure before the boys missed me. There was no reason they should even think of coming here, anyway.
Confirming my fears, the third man said, “All the security cameras are off. Looped, I should say, because anything else would certainly raise alarm bells. We just have to make sure you get out of here before they realize their security systems have been fucked with.”
“I’m on it,” Remington’s father promised impatiently.
Cain's father scoffed. “Your obsession with this girl is fucking your judgment, but fine. Cleveland, you stay here and make sure he gets out of here in time. But if Cain comes, make sure you kill the girl and get out of here without him seeing you. He’ll tie you back to me.”
Remington’s father was staring at him, obviously still stuck on sentence one. “You should talk. Your son is obsessed with her.”
“He'll get over her once she's been removed from the equation.” The mob boss looked at me curiously. “I wonder what made you Cain's one weakness. I'd love to know and be able to take advantage of that. But alas, you'll be dead soon.” He shrugged. “Some things must remain a mystery.”
Cain’s father walked away toward his car, also parked in the garage.
Remington’s father turned to face me with manic glee written across his face.
Chapter26
Remington
Not long before sunrise, the Acolytes began to gather again. Pax, Cain, Stellan, and I sat like kings abiding over the temple at the Sphinx. They came in from the cold rain outside, drenched and carrying their tithes. It was the first time any of them had been allowed in this room, which was normally kept locked. The other full members of the Sphinx ringed the room, dressed in black.
Acolytes lay down their treasures at the altar to the Sphinx. It was a stone slab set between two enormous recreations of the monster. There were stories about people being sacrificed on that altar as sacrifices to the Sphinx, when members had greatly wronged the community. I wasn't sure if any of them were true. I was happy to spin stories and hype things up when it suited me, but I was very reluctant to believe anyone else's bullshit.
Including the bullshit that women weren’t capable of doing the Sphinx’s business. I knew a girl with bloody hands, a dirty mouth, and a bright heart. My gaze scanned the crowd of acolytes in dark robes and gold masks, but I didn't see one particular slight figure.
My heart seized in my chest. Aurora wasn't here. Where could she be? I thought back to how I had injected that tracker under her skin, covering the violation with my bite. I’d been so proud of myself for thinking to bury my secret beneath her skin, as we stalked her in the dark.
I’d tasted her salty blood in my mouth. Cain had been gleeful, or as close to any excited emotion as Cain ever came; he marked her back and she didn't even know that he'd won. The thought filled me with satisfaction, just because it meant that now I had a way to find out where my girl had gone. My first impulse was that she'd run from us.
I didn't know how I felt about Aurora running.
It was probably wise of her. But I couldn't stand the idea of never seeing her again.
She woke dark, complicated emotions in me that I couldn't make sense of. And there were the lighter, brighter emotions–the thrill of excitement I felt when she walked into a room, the way her beauty lit something in my chest–that were scarier than the darkness. She shouldn't love any of us.
If there was any goodness left in me, maybe I should help her get away from us all.
Maybe she had used the quiet of the night to escape the four of us, and if so, maybe I should delete our ways of tracking her so that the little electronic chip pinging under her skin wouldn't mean anything. First, I just had to know because part of me hoped Aurora would still come struggling through the doors of the Sphinx, carrying that box.
I could just imagine her kneeling at my feet….and then rising, taking off her mask, a full member of the Sphinx.
But most of all, it wouldn’t just be a sign that she belonged to the Sphinx. It'd be a sign that she belonged with us. We had changed the rules, rewritten them to include her.
