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“Over five months last year, twenty girls went missing. Five of those were found raped and murdered,” he announces.
“The other fifteen?” Haidyn asks, scanning the picture.
“Still missing,” the man answers.
Adam slams his folder down. “What does this have to do with us?”
“Did they attend Barrington?” Kashton questions before he can answer Adam.
“No.” He looks at Kash. “All were still in high school—seniors—but none of the five were connected to one another. As far as we can tell, they didn’t know the Lords existed.”
“The ones who are still missing?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Not that we have found.”
“I’m with Adam,” Lincoln adds, scanning the folder Adam put on the table. “What does this have to do with them?” He means the Spade brothers.
They have to think a Lord is involved and want us to step in and take care of it. The question is, why? What the fuck can we do?
The man opens up a briefcase and pulls out a single picture. His eyes meet mine before he drops it in front of me. I keep mine on his when he speaks. “The girl in the first picture was my sister.” Deafening silence falls over the room. “The woman in this photo”—he taps the one that still lies in front of me—“was the last person seen with her.”
Swallowing, I drop my eyes to the picture, and my heart races at what I see. “You said…” I clear my throat. “That none of them were connected to the Lords.” My eyes raise to his once more.
“None were. Until now…”
ASHTYN
“Ashtyn?”
I ignore the woman’s voice behind my back. It reminds me of nails in a blender. Makes your skin crawl and is annoying as fuck. And she repeats herself over and over. If she asks me how I feel one more time, I’m going to scream.
Maybe throw something. It’ll give them a reason to think I’m crazy. I’m pretty sure my mother wants to send me away. Not sure why, though. It's not like she’s actually raised my brother and me. In our world, the Lady—a Lord’s wife—sits in the corner looking pretty while the nannies are the true parents. It’s because of them that I’ve actually survived this long.
“Ashtyn!” my mother barks my name this time.
I turn around to face the two women. Leaning back against the floor-to-ceiling window, I cross my arms over my chest. She’s been making me come here for years with her. You can say I’m in denial all you want, but she’s the one who needs professional help. Not me.
“See what I mean?” my mother whispers through clenched teeth as if I can’t hear her.
The woman gives me a big fake smile, pretending she didn’t hear her. “How was your weekend?” she asks me.
I go to answer, “Fine,” and my mother huffs.
“I caught her watching porn. Again.” She reaches into her Louis Vuitton and pulls out a piece of paper. I’m not surprised she took a picture and then printed it off. Evidence, she calls it. At least that’s what my father said he needed when she told him I was a sex addict.
You have to actually get fucked in order to be one. But whatever. My father understood that I’m not a sex addict. Do I think I could become one? There’s always hope. I’m also twenty-one years old. How many women my age haven’t watched porn?
Her therapist looks at the paper and frowns. “I thought we talked about this?” Her eyes meet mine.
I give them my back once again and look out the floor-to-ceiling windows. As a child to a Lord and Lady, they’ve been throwing sex in our faces since we were kids. Yet when we want it, they reprimand us for it.
Make it make sense.
I mean, I know the logic behind it. It’s a test. They’re always testing us. The Lords are made to remain celibate for their first three years at Barrington University while going through their initiations. Their senior year they get a chosen—a girl to fuck.
I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds amazing. Fucking use my body. Show me what it’s made for. Instead, I’ve had to get myself off.
My father is a Spade brother. All Lords have to offer their children to the Lords. That’s why they reproduce in the first place. Their sons go through initiations, and their daughters must serve the men who make it.
