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“It also puts an even larger target on Ariah’s back,” I begrudgingly state.
They each focus their attention on me. “Explain,” Wes demands.
I massage my temples in an attempt to stave off the growing headache pulsating through my skull before I answer. “Even if we are forced to marry Samantha,” I pause, waiting for their outbursts to die down. “Even if, and that’s a gigantic if with a negative zero probability of occurring. Any kids,” I hold up my hand, signaling for them to spare me the dramatics so I can get this out. “Any kids Samantha had wouldn’t be Heirs.”
I watch in real-time as my words sink in. Sebastian is the first to say something. “Samantha would need to get rid of the twins for any children she had to be legitimate Heirs.”
“Samantha’s fucked either way,” Owen exclaims. “If she hurts a hair on Ariah’s or the twins’ heads, she’ll lose hers, and none of us would touch her with a borrowed dick, so we’d never consummate the fraudulent arrangement.”
“Still, we need to bump up security around her. As annoying as they are, her guards protect her at all costs,” Wes grumbles.
Turning, I shoot Thomas a text. He might be Samantha’s “official” guard, but he’s been running Ariah’s security team from here. He immediately replies, informing me that he’ll take point on Ariah’s detail beginning next week. “Fuck yeah,” I cheer. “Thomas is back on Ariah’s team.”
Wyatt snorts, “I can’t wait to see the meltdown Samantha has when she hears this.”
“What else happened tonight?” Sebastian inquires, facing Owen.
Owen’s lip curls into a devious, self-satisfying smirk. “I may or may not have left her with a superficial scratch on her face. I’m quite surprised she didn’t deflate when Mary poked her.”
The room fills with raucous laughter. “You didn’t?” I blurt between trying to catch my breath.
“Damn, I wish I was there to see that. I always miss the good shit,” Wyatt harrumphs.
Suddenly, all remnants of Owen’s jovial demeanor vanish. “That would’ve been the highlight of my night if it weren’t for Samantha getting off on it and Ariah witnessing her do it.”
“Shit,” Wes barks. “That’s not good.”
Grimacing, Owen mumbles, “Not even remotely. The look on her face when she saw my knife—it broke a piece of me.”
It’s breaking pieces of all of us—especially Wes.
I look over to Wes, watching as he stares off into space. This has been hard on all of us in different ways. But I can’t imagine what it’s like having to go back to pretending you hate the girl you love after you fought so hard to gain her trust.
“She’ll understand. We’ll have a lot to make up for, but it won’t be the incidents she sees that have us groveling. It will be all the secrets we’ve had to withhold,” Wyatt declares. I gaze in their direction to see him squeezing Owen’s shoulder. “That and, um, our spying,” he grins.
The crazy fuck has been waiting on this showdown. I don’t have it in my heart to burst his bubble that Ariah will kick all of our asses once she finds out about all of the ways we’ve been keeping tabs on her.
Owen composes himself and then continues. “There’s the fact that I overheard Samantha confessing to killing her friends to get into the Selection.”
I spring from my seat. “What?”
“You should’ve led with this,” Sebastian shouts, and I’m inclined to agree.
We’ve been looking for who was responsible for the deaths of former selected girls for months. After both Vivian and Madeline were killed, we assumed the murders were the work of Elise. However, after Owen was taken, we took a closer look and discovered it was none of them.
“Do you really think Samantha would do this?” Wes questions. “I wouldn’t put past her to manipulate one of her lackeys to kill for her, but Samantha doing it herself?”
Sighing, I open my laptop and pull up my files on all the murders, including the body parts sent to Ariah. Based on what we have on file. It’s not a stretch to think Samantha hired someone. She was around when some packages were delivered, but I put nothing past her—her evil knows no bounds.
“You also wouldn’t suspect she’d fuck her own brother,” Owen begins. “Scratch that. Yes, you would.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Sebastian snaps. “Is there anything the conniving skank won’t do?”
“No,” we all bellow in unison.
I bring up the last known murder, Meagan. She was Sam’s most trusted ass-licker. “Why would she kill Meagan?”
“Wasn’t her last date with you, Lev?” Wyatt asks, and I confirm with a quick nod. “What happened on that date?”
