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Isaac shifted away from the door then and approached me. I didn’t so much as move an inch, knowing it would likely provoke him and do more harm than good.
He sat down next to me, his presence making goosebumps spread across my flesh. I ignored it and him.
That was until Isaac reached down to grab ahold of my right leg.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
I tried to jerk it away from him but it was too late. His hand had already fastened itself securely around my ankle.
“Chill, Samurai, I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Against my protest, he lifted my leg and draped it across his lap. I uncomfortably watched as his eyes slid down my skin and halted at my scar.
He didn’t ask for permission. He just reached out and began tracing along the ugly, rigid pattern with his fingertips.
“You have every right to be angry,” he muttered, the sensation of his fingers grazing my skin evoking a strange shiver down my spine. “But recruiting you was necessary.”
“What?”
“I don’t know you that well, Samurai, but what I do know is that we share a common enemy. Damien Reyez. Problem is, it’s not just Damien we’re facing now. It’s Vladimir Crane, Jerimiah Sinclair, and Jared Alesi too.”
He didn’t look at me, opting to keep his head down while he continued to rub along my scarred flesh.
I started to open my mouth but no words came.
What was he doing? Why was he…
“Crane, Alesi, and Sinclair were in partnership with our father,” he continued, interrupting my train of thought. “Father isn’t like the others. Never has been for as long as I’ve known the guy. Where the others choose drugs as their preferred poison, Father chose weapons. He’s the best weapons lord in the Valley.”
“Isaac, why are you—”
“Let me finish talking and then you can speak.”
I studied him a long moment then leaned back against a cushion; my lips pressed to a tight, thin line.
He had no idea how horrible of a mistake he was making right now.
“Father built this academy as a safe haven for us kids who were born in the life and for those desperate to escape it. In order to keep the academy running, Father had to branch outside of his comfort zone and expand the family business by partnering with Crane, Alesi, and Sinclair. That’s why we throw those parties at the clearing every week. It's so we can sell the drugs they entrusted us to move. The students here, their parents are our sponsors. It’s their money, plus what we bring in from the drugs and weapon shipments that help keep the academy running.”
My breath hitched at his words. All of it. The drugs I knew about already. I’d learned about that from Sky when I was secretly siphoning info out of her. And I already knew about this former partnership Xavier Michaelson had with the other lords thanks to Ginger and Jace.
But the rest of it…about Xavier and this wonderful place he envisioned to create for these kids…
I hadn’t a clue about any of it. Everything I thought I knew about Xavier and the Ravagers had been one huge fucking lie.
But what about my father? Was that all a lie too? Did Damien falsely accuse them just so I’d agree to slaughter them?
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you’re strong, probably the strongest woman out of all of those useless bitches we were forced to recruit who can actually handle the truth. Now that Damien has taken all of our partners, we’ve taken a huge hit financially. Aside from that, Damien wants our territory. He wants full control over the Valley and that includes the academy too. This is ourhome, Samara. Everyone here, even you, are in terrible danger of being either killed or sold as a sex slave.
“I wasn’t there that night at the clearing, but Rhett was. He said you were a warrior. He saw something in you that Phantom and I will never understand because we weren’t there. And this scar on your leg,” he said, brushing his fingertips over it again, “means you’re a survivor. The man who shot you and killed your mother worked for the same exact man who is trying to tear down everything my father has worked so hard to build.”
He removed his hand from my leg then leaned forward to cup my cheek. My lips parted at how fast my skin lit on fire.
“It’s not just your life on the line here, Samara. It’s hundreds. It’ll be thousands if we don’t find some way to stop Damien. Weneedyou, Samara…”
He froze again, swallowing hard.
