AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I look down at my hands sitting on my lap and twiddle my thumbs. I can't bring myself to look at her, so I keep looking down at my hands as I tell her my darkest secret.
"The person I’ve been on the run from for the past six years is my father. He murdered my boyfriend and mother right in front of me the night I tried to escape the secret society that he is the leader of. Oh, and I’m the next in line to take over when he dies."
"Well, fuck," she says with a sigh.
I look up at her, and her gaze is nothing but comfort and support. Not a single part of her expression appears judgmental at all. She reaches her hand across the table and holds it out, waiting for me to place mine in hers, so I do, and she smiles and says, "Did you think a murdery father and secret society was going to freak me out? I do have questions, though."
Relief rushes through me, and I flag over the server to make sure she orders us another round of mimosas before deep diving into the inner workings of the society and the night Maxton and I tried to get away.
"Avery, I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone what we talk about today. It's against society's code of ethics to expose it to non-members. If they ever find out you know about them, they will kill you." She gives me a slight nod.
She and I spend the next hour continuing to drown ourselves in mimosas as I give her a full crash course on Rogue for dummies. I explained the council to her and what my role would be if I ever went back. I tell her about how I've managed to stay hidden from them for so long and how my father wanted me to marry Damien. It feels like a huge burden lifted off my chest to finally be able to talk to someone about all this. The entire time, she listened, encouraging me to tell her more.
"Now, do you understand why I’m so leery about telling Julian? He’s such a nice guy. How can I willingly bring him into my fucked up world?"
She eyes me for a moment. "I stick by what I said earlier. If he really loves you, then he won't care. It might take him some time to adjust to the whole secret society bit, but if you plan on marrying him, you have to tell him first. I love you, but you can't commit to forever with someone who doesn't know about such a huge part of your life. Have you even told him about Maxton and yourmom?"
"No, he knows that something bad happened, but that's the extent of it. I never went into detail, and he never pushed me to. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm some orphan nomad angel who he just happened to stumble upon."
I look up at her to see her laughing.
"You are anything but an angel. If he thinks that he truly is delusional."
"Hey, shut it." I giggle and down the rest of my third or fourth mimosa. I've lost count at this point, but I am feeling a bit tipsy, so I should probably cut myself off. I convince myself one more won't hurt.
"One more drink, and then we have to get out of here."
"Fine, now that we have gone over your dark and sinister past, tell me more about this engagement. I need all the details because I know that must have been an eventful day." She winks at me, and I roll my eyes. "I mean it, Cals! I want every single detail."
I go on to tell her about dinner, the waterfall, and sexy time. I don't tell her that it ended with me finishing myself off. That feels a little personal, but she seems satisfied with what I tell her. The server came back one last time for us to pay our bill before leaving. I have to get home to my man. He hasn't texted me back since I sent him that picture earlier, and I'm dying to know what he thought.
Walking out of Maria's, I head over to my car so I can lock it up before hopping into the Uber that should be here in three minutes. I am way too tipsy to drive home today. I should haveprepared for this by giving Julian a heads up so he could Uber here and drive my car back, but it'll just have to sit here until later when we can come back to grab it. As I make my way to my car, I notice a piece of paper that someone slid under one of my wiper blades.
I stop dead in my tracks and look around the parking lot for anything that may seem out of place. Nothing stands out, so I grab the paper, and as I read it, I feel the color drain from my face, my body instantly becoming rigid.
"We are watching."
Three simple words, we are watching, are enough for me to want to throw up everything I just ingested. I turn away from my car and dry heave a few times before I manage to regain my composure. Snapping my body back up, I frantically searched the parking lot for any clues as to who may have put this here. There are only a few cars sitting around, and they are all vacant.
Across the street, I catch a glimpse of a black sedan with dark-tinted windows driving away. Is that who put this here? I honestly have no clue, and I feel the panic beginning to set in. My heart is racing. They fucking found me. I need to get out of here. They have been watching me. It has to be a sick ploy from my father to let me know that he knows where I am. I am right on the edge of completely spiraling out when the Honda Accord I have been waiting on pulls up.
The driver rolls down the window, "Callie?" he says. "Umm, yes," I reply, slipping into the backseat, trying to keep myself calm with some small talk on the way home but silently panicking.
Chapter 5
Barrett
Iwatch as she gets out of her car and walks over to the little blonde girl with the septum piercing. Outside of the boyfriend, she spends the majority of her time with this girl. She seems to be the only other fixture in her life. They link arms and walk into Maria's.
They come here quite frequently. This is one of her few regular spots outside of home and the sporadic shifts at the bar where she works. The visits here at Maria’s are not always on the same day, but Saturdays or Sundays seem to be the preferred days for the two of them. I'm guessing it is so they can take advantage of the bottomless mimosas. Sometimes, they have to call a ride home when they leave here. The blonde usually drinks more than the one we’re watching, though.
Originally, I thought this would be the best spot to carry out our plan. We could pretend to be the ride coming to pick her up. It would be easy. She would walk right up to the car and climb in willingly without any struggle or fight. The only issue with taking her here is that we never know when she plans to drink enough to need a ride home. Most of the time, she’s responsible about it and drives herself back. That friend of hers, though, isdefinitely more reckless. We wouldn't have a problem picking her up as a fake driver if we needed to as a last resort.
We have been watching Callie for a few weeks now. Ever since that son of a bitch Gabriel went back on his word and now refuses to give me and my brothers what we’re owed. He hired us for a job and asked us to take out someone who was no longer of use to him. Apparently, he was on some timeline and needed the job completed as quickly as possible. He had some kind of position he wanted to fill that had yet to be vacated. We were to take out some sorry soul named Barry Michaels.
I didn't ask too many questions. It's not my job to ask, and if I'm honest, the less we have to know, the better. He gave us a name and a basic outline of his schedule. The man was such a creature of habit it was almost too easy. Most people always have the same sort of daily patterns they stick to. Seb had him pegged from the alleyway after one of his late-night meetings with his lady friend. We checked her background to make sure she wasn't anyone important that might ask questions if he stopped coming around, but she was just another run-of-the-mill whore who he was paying to fuck. If he stopped coming around, she would just assume he’d had his fill and went back home to his boring life.
One quick shot between the eyes was all it took, and he dropped like a fly. The police are calling it a botched burglary, and they have no leads on who their suspect may be. They won't have any, either. I’m too good for them to have any kind of leads. I made sure all the cameras within a 20-mile radius were wiped.What a strange coincidence that there was a freak electrical surge that took out all video feeds in the town for 28 seconds during the time of the murder. Most people wouldn't think to wipe cameras from surrounding areas. They always go for the quick, obvious feeds, but I am thorough and don't like to leave anything up to chance.
