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Grey visibly relaxed, and I peered into the bottom of the glass. “If this was roofied or some shit, I’ll kill you.”
Rook smirked at that becauseof courseGrey wouldn’t roofie me, but with how bad he wanted me to drink the damn thing, it was a valid comment.
I noticed he hadn’t bothered to clean the blood splatter from his jacket, wearing it as a badge of honor instead. The color suited him.
Corvus and Diesel’s game was over in a matter of minutes, Diesel coming out the victor.
He went to his adopted son and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You’re distracted,” I barely heard him tell Corvus. “Let’s have another round later, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Corvus muttered.
“Good.” He clapped Corv on the back. “Let’s get this over and done with. Grab the girl and meet us in the back room. Her second trial is tonight.”
Corvus stiffened.
Diesel’s eyes cut into me like shards of ice before they flicked away and he turned his attention to Tiny and another man behind him. Together, they vanished into the crowd.
“Any idea what it is?” I asked Corvus when he got close enough that I wouldn’t have to raise my voice.
He shook his head. “A couple of ideas, but no.”
I looked at the others. Rook and Grey sat stone faced and silent in the booth.
Great.
“The trials are always different for each person. There are a few that get repeated, sort of like tradition, but they’re almost never given in the exact same way,” Corvus explained.
He held out his hand for me and I stood up without his help, the little bit of rum I’d just slammed going to my head. I ignored his hand and he dropped it, seemingly unbothered. “If you need a minute,” he offered but I was already shaking my head.
“No. I want to get back. Come on, let’s just go do this.”
Rook and Grey slid from the booth and fell in behind Corvus and me as we wove through the pub, making for a set of double doors around the quieter side of the bar in the back of the building. We stepped through them into a dark antechamber. Ahead were swinging doors with windows in their tops that showed a gleaming kitchen. To the right was a sign for bathrooms and to the left a long hallway that led to a single black painted door with a polished silver handle.
That was where we headed.
I steeled myself, cooing to my darkness as it began to swell, coming to life in my gut.
Corvus held the door open and Grey stepped ahead of me to go in first. Rook followed right behind me. The lighting inside the large room was dim, casting an eerie glow over the space.
To my left, a bank of expensive looking sectional couches held a few Saints, lounging quietly, drinks perched between their fingers. To my right sat a large rectangular table made of what looked like polished black glass at first. But as we neared, I saw it wasn’t glass at all, but some kind of dyed epoxy, a golden fleur-de-lis turned dagger embedded down the middle.
Diesel St. Crow sat at the opposite end closest to the wall, and only one other chair waited at the other end of the table. It wasn’t rocket science to figure out who it was meant for.
Without being told, I stalked past Grey and folded myself into the chair, sitting up straight as I pushed myself into the table ledge. With my lower body concealed, it was easy to stealth a blade from my thigh through the wide tear in the denim. Style and accessibility. These were my favorite jeans.
I laid the blade on my thigh and lifted my hands to the top of the table, feeling more confident knowing it was only inches away if I needed it.
Diesel’s biting gaze watched me carefully, his line of sight flitting low before rising back to my face. Either he knew what I’d just done or he guessed. I didn’t give a fuck either way. He didn’t really expect me to go anywhere unarmed, did he?
I knew he was packing a piece. I’d seen it in the pub. And I also knew all of his sons were packing heat, too. What was a blade compared to guns? In the hands of someone less skilled, nothing. But in my hands…
Maybe one day Diesel would find out.
“Is this a staring contest?” I asked after another minute of terse silence. “Because if it is—”
Just then the door opened again and Tiny stepped through with two silver chalices on a serving tray. He went straight to Diesel and bent, whispering something in his ear before setting the tray down and leaving the room.
Corvus cursed and Rook let out a growl so low I wondered if I imagined it.
