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Seriously, what the actual fuck?
This is bad. This is really bad.
Noah grips my shoulders. “Claudia, it’s okay. No one knows who I am. I wore a mask every time. No way did I want the guys who hang out there to know they were facing Senator Marlowe’s son in the ring. They already fight dirty as it is. Once, a guy tried to pull it off in the ring and...let’s say I made it clear the mask stays on.”
My heart pounds in my ears. This is too much to process on top of Gabriel’s arrest. I drag Noah into the girl’s locker room. It’s empty. I jam a mop under the door handle to block it, then kick the door in one of the shower blocks open and drag him inside. “Start talking. I need to know everything.”
“I joined a boxing club and some of the guys were talking about it – this rough place in Tartarus Oaks where you could fuck people up with no rules and earn a little cash on the side. I went along one night, just to see what it was like. I’d never done anything like that before, but I couldn’t hurt the people I hated the most, and I thought… maybe breaking some random guy’s nose would help? The first time I stepped into the cage I figured I’d get my ass handed to me and I’d never do something so stupid again, but as soon as I swung the first punch…” He swallows. “It was like something inside me was freed.”
“A monster,” I whisper.
“Right. A monster.” Noah swallows again. “I fought five against one that night, and I left with eight grand in my pocket. One of the guys had to be dragged outside. I don’t know if he’ll walk again.”
I run my hands down his arms, feeling the hard, taut muscle beneath. I remember things Eli and Gabriel said about how much he’s bulked out in the last couple of years. Eli thought he’d been on the paleo diet, but really he’d been pummeling gangsters into a bloody pulp in my cousin’s underground fight club.
This also explained how Noah knew about the Triumvirate back when the guys figured out my secret. You didn’t hang out in a place like that without understanding who was in charge.
“So what does this have to do with making Antony help with Gabriel?”
“Your cousin isn’t telling you the whole truth. Or maybe he is and you don’t care. I don’t know. I…” Noah’s fingers dig into my shoulders. “Antony isn’t just a club owner. He rules that place. You should see the way he struts around, handing down proclamations like a king. He controls the betting; the only skin allowed inside are girls who work for him. If you want to know who’s going to fill in the power struggle once you get rid of Brutus, it’s him. It was always going to be him.”
I bristle. This isn’t right. None of this is right. Noah’s got it all wrong. Antony and I have a plan – we wait five years, sell the house, then escape with the proceeds to a new life. Antony knows that plan becomes impossible if he’s deep in the family business. He knows he has to stay out of the chain of command or they’ll never let him leave. He wouldn’t—
I think about Antony’s expensive suit, the gun he wears strapped across his chest, the way he was able to mobilize men so quickly when I needed him – loyal men who he trusted with at least part of our secret.
I lean against the cubicle wall. My head spins. None of this made sense. Antony wants out of the family business as much as I do. He wants to go back to law school and have a normal life. That was why we’re doing all this – because the alternative is revealing my identity and locking ourselves into an all-out gang war, us against Brutus for control of the August empire. And I couldn’t count on support – Brutus cleaned house of all Julian’s loyal soldiers as soon as he took control of the family. He had to if he wanted to hold onto power, especially while he still bears my father’s mark.
Except… Antony is still alive. He always made it clear he’d do what he needed to do to remain in Brutus’ good graces. That’s why Brutus gave him the club if he dropped out of law school – Brutus needed someone he could trust, and Antony had to prove he could be trusted. If what Noah says is true, maybe Antony is in deeper with Brutus than he ever let on to me.
“Why are you telling me this?” I rub my temples.
“The last time I was there, I saw Antony punish a guy who had crossed your family. He crucified him on a giant cross above the cage. Antony drove the nails in himself. One of the fighters told me dirty cops were there that night, being wined and dined by your cousin in the VIP suite. Antony has influence with the police, with city hall. Maybe it’s time he used it.”
A shiver runs through my body as Noah brings up the crucifixion. That was my father’s favorite punishment. Maybe I hadn’t been the only one learning from him.
“I need to talk to Antony.” I push off from the wall.
“I’ll go with you.”
“No. I need to do this on my own.”
“Claws—” Noah calls after me, but I’m already stalking down the hall.
I know Antony doesn’t have a class right now, but when I check his closet office, it’s empty. I hear something in the gym – voices talking, the squeak of shoes against the wooden floor. I shove open the roller door.
At first, I can’t see anyone. “Ant—er, Mr. Jones?” I call out.
He appears at the edge of the bleachers, shirtless, with a towel slung over his shoulders. “I was doing some weights,” he huffs.
“You talk to yourself while you work out? I heard voices.”
“I was playing music. That okay with you?” The sword-and-olive branch tattoo on his wrist flashes as he grabs the rings and starts doing pull-ups. My throat closes as I rub the skin on my own wrist. I would have got that same tattoo for my sixteenth birthday if Daddy had lived that long. Instead, I spent my sixteenth birthday watching horror films alone with my cat, while Antony worked at the club.
I’m a queen on the run, and the only family I have left is keeping secrets from me.
“I’m not here to bust your ass. Or maybe I am.” I debate how to approach this. I want to ask him about everything Noah told me, but I can’t find the words. For so long, it’s been me and Antony against the world. He’s everything to me, and I can’t destroy that bond we have.
I also don’t want to rat Noah out to him. I know my cousin well enough to know he won’t hesitate to kill first and ask questions never.
