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I caught a glimpse of Parker's smirk at my words. He didn't buy them any more than I did, but only Zachary had to.
"They should both step aside before they break a nail," Parker said. "It's bad enough when that happens."
"What are you saying?" Zachary asked. "I was under the impression you supported Lila."
I gestured vaguely. "Like I said, we're fucking her. For a while we thought maybe she'd be the one to back. Over Chloe anyway. That was before there was a viable alternative." I clapped him on the back again.
"What's in it for you?" He narrowed his eyes at me.
"Power," Parker said.
I nodded my agreement. "The possibility of joining the Bell and Brantley families together. Reuben will never agree to work with a woman. But someone like you— You could change all of that. Imagine how powerful the three of us could be."
"Do you mean how powerful Reuben and I would be?" Zachary asked. "He is the head of your family."
"That's what we want him to think," Parker said. "But Hunt and I have been building contacts over the years. At some point we may move to take Reuben down and replace him. For now, he's useful to us."
If Reuben heard any of that, he'd have someone slice the skin of our bodies as slowly as possible. He was already suspicious that we might not toe the line forever. Anything that sounded like an active plan to overthrow him would get us dead quickly.
The truth was, we had no such plan. Parker and I took every day as it came. Besides, we had several other brothers we’d have to step over first and taking all of them on would take time and resources.
Resources we'd have when Lila was head of her family.
"You'd support me against Chloe and Lila?" Zachary asked carefully.
"Absolutely we would," I agreed. "In fact, I'd like to nominate you to join the Brotherhood."
"The Brotherhood?" Zachary echoed.
"It's a very exclusive club of the most powerful men in the world," I said. "There's a chapter here at Brutham. Most of us join here, but only when invited and nominated by a current member. Once you join, you're in for life. The Brotherhood of Kings has connections you could only dream of."
"I've never heard of it." Zachary shook his head.
Parker laughed. "It wouldn't be a very good secret organisation if you had. Trust me, you know the names of a lot of the members. They're basically the who's who of the most rich and powerful, and the up-and-comers in the world. But don't ask us to tell you who, because you don't get to know unless you join."
"Both of you are members?" He still looked doubtful.
"We are," I said. "We were nominated by our brother Joshua. Most of our brothers are members." The only one who wasn't was Zeke. He had no interest in any of that. Sometimes I wondered if he was adopted. He was certainly not as much fun as the rest of us.
"What do I have to do to join?" Zachary asked.
"There's a meeting two nights from now," I said. "If you want to go, the committee will interview you and if you pass that, you'll go through initiation. Don't worry, it's nothing you can't handle."
Zachary nodded. "I'm there."
Of course he was. No one could resist the lure of a secret, powerful organisation. I certainly couldn't. Like him, I'd had no idea it existed before I started at Brutham. If every member was in the same place and we were attacked and killed, the world would fall into chaos. We were exactly that influential. Nothing happened in the world that didn't involve one of us in some way.
"Excellent." I grinned. "I don't know about you two, but I'm thirsty. Let's go to the bar and celebrate our new arrangement." I could use a beer or three to wash the taste of bullshit out of my mouth.
I climbed to my feet. Before I could take more than a step or two, Zachary put a hand on my bicep.
"There are no women in this… Brotherhood are there?"
I laughed. "Of course not. Unless you count the Fillies. Women who connect themselves to members of the Brotherhood. Some work at the Brotherhood's clubs in the hope of catching the eye of one. We usually pass them around until either someone marries them or we get tired of them."
They were usually gorgeous and ambitious. If the Brotherhood allowed women, they'd be the first to join. Instead, they stayed on the fringes, pouring drinks and spreading their legs. Most of them benefited by receiving gifts, or marrying a rich husband.
Lila would throw herself off the roof of the Academy before she became a Filly. If they ever changed their policy, I'd nominate her in a heartbeat, but the Brotherhood had operated the same way for at least two hundred years. It wasn't going to change now. Not unless Parker and I could work our way into the ruling committee. Then we may have a chance. That would take decades. No one was going to listen to a pair of twenty-year old university students.
