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Jerimiah kept his expression calm albeit it did nothing to hide the tension brewing deep beneath his dark eyes. “What do you want to know, Samara?”
“Why did you join forces with Damien? I know everything that went down at the last Harvest, and so my question for you is, WHY?”
Kinsley shifted uncomfortably beside me. When I turned to look at her, her back was facing me, and she was curled into the closest couch cushion. Her sniffles eventually turned into soft, broken sobs.
“The only reason Crane, Alesi, and I turned against him is because Damien didn’t give us a choice. Damien threatened to have his men kidnap and sell Kinsley if I didn’t agree to embezzle into his sex trafficking ring. It was the same for Crane and Alesi too. Crane’s daughter is sixteen and Alesi; his daughter is only ten years old.”
My chest heaved as I struggled to process his words.
“That’s not the worst part,” Kinsley murmured.
“It’s not,” Jerimiah agreed. “Damien already has Crane and Alesi’s daughters and has been holding them hostage for almost a year. That’s when Damien and his whole power trip truly began. I don’t know where he’s storing them, but what I do know is that in the beginning, Crane and Alesi told Damien to eat shit and die. The next thing we knew, their kids were gone, and we’d each come to learn awfully fast that Damien wasn’t fucking around. I was due to give him my answer, and so, infear of Kinsley’s safety, I told Damien I’d send her undercover to spy on the Ravagers in exchange for saving her from being sold. Damien agreed. Again, this was last year, when Kinsley started her first year as a Junior at the academy. She’d been homeschooled beforehand. Her senior year is her second official year there at Storm Ridge Academy.
“That’s why we need your help, Samara. Kinsley wasneversupposed to be recruited. Niccolò knows Kinsley is my daughter and I fear my betrayal will result in him killing her if she fails. If that happens, Damien will kill me and will be one step closer to claiming the Valley for himself. We can’t let that happen, Samara. I can’t lose my daughter. We can’t let Damien win.”
“Have you bothered to tell Xavier—I mean Niccolò, about this?”
Jerimiah sadly nodded. My brows lifted in frank surprise as tears began dotting over his eyes. “Niccolò refuses to return my calls. I’ve been trying to inform him that he isn’t alone in this war and that I have an underground crew who are just as desperate as I am to stop Damien’s madness, but it’s no use. I’ve triedeverything, Samara, and nothing is working.Youare our only hope of getting Niccolò to reconsider. Please, will you help us?”
He stared at me with tears streaming down his cheeks.
I looked at Kinsley, who was facing me now with her own droplets skating down her cheeks, her hands shaking as they reached over to grasp mine.
Isaac
10
Iglared down at my phone to check the time as I remained on Samara’s couch, still pissed that she’d up and left without saying anything. I’d first shown up hours ago, having decided after the long talk I had with Rhett and Phantom, that it was time to stop avoiding her and finally grow the balls to explain myself, but Samara wasn’t here. She wasn’tanywhereon this campus. I know because my brothers and I had stormed every single inch of the grounds searching for her and to make matters worse, she’d made the unwise idea to shut her phone off so Phantom couldn’t track it. Then of fucking course, Sharkey called demanding we head down to the warehouse and check out the setup for the next trial. Phantom and Rhett left to handle that while I stayed behind and waited for Samara to come back.
Where the fuck did she go?
Just as I was about to sayfuck this shitand trek down to the parking lot so I could go hunt her ass down myself, my phone started ringing.
“Yeah?” I grunted when I answered.
“Is she back yet?” came Phantom’s deep voice.
I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me do it, my jaw set. “No, she’s not.”
“Rhett and I just finished up with Sharkey and are leaving the warehouse now. We'll look around for her.”
“How does everything look?”
“Fucking amazing, man. Sharkey and Prim really outdid themselves this time.”
I nodded, snapping my attention back to the door as I heard footsteps approaching.
“Don’t worry about looking for her,” I sternly whispered through clenched teeth as the doorknob began to rattle. “She’s here.”
Phantom whooshed out a relieved breath, making static crackle through the speaker. “Good. We’ll be there shortly.”
I hung up the phone and rose to my feet, my chest heaving as I heard the familiar sound of a key sliding into the lock. The knob turned, revealing Samara walking in with a shopping and restaurant bag full of TOGO food in one hand. She closed the door behind her and then froze as she spun around, looking exactly like a deer blinded by headlights when she spotted me.
“Wherethe fuckhave you been?”
I stormed toward her before she could get a word out and wrapped my hand around her arm, angrily tugging her toward the couch, slinging her there. She crashed against the cushions and glared up at me like she was ready to throw hands, maybe even a few blades, when her food spilled out the bag and scattered all over the living room floor.
“What the fuck are you doing—”
