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“I’m sure you have a fair number of questions,” he says reasonably. “The most pressing is probably what you’re doing here. Am I right?”
I manage a painful nod.
“You really haven’t figured it out yet? I wish I could say I was surprised. You’ve been particularly thickheaded lately. To think of all the money I’ve wasted having you educated.”
I just glare at him.
“Your Initiation,” he prompts. “The thing we’ve been anticipating since the day I saved you from that cesspit your mother birthed you in.”
Saved me? The idea of it is more infuriating than the fact that I’ve been drugged and apparently kidnapped. My father has never made any secret of the fact that the poor are lower than dirt in his eyes. Like most rich people, it’s impossible for him to see the difference between what circumstances gifted to him and what he actually earned for himself.
Sure, money will trickle down. Or billionaires will use it to send themselves to space on rockets shaped like dicks and fuck anyone not born with a silver spoon up their ass. It’s pretty much the same thing.
His response to my involuntary growl is a humorless smile. “You should have been falling on your knees in gratitude for the opportunities I’ve provided you. Instead, you’ve put us both in a situation of having to do something we most assuredly do not want to do.”
I turn my head away from him. Tingles of painful sensation have already started up in my extremities. My toes twitch slightly as I test them for movement. My father’s gaze stays on my face. He doesn’t notice when my foot slides off the table and lands softly on the floor.
“I assume you’ve figured out why the Initiation is important. Last year was a debacle, for obvious reasons, but it served its purpose. You boys have to be brought together in a connection that cannot be broken. We must ensure that you’ll keep each other’s secrets. The best way to do that is to give you a secret that you’ll keep together. The more shameful it is, the better.”
“Like raping a drugged girl and filming it.” My tongue still feels swollen to twice its normal size, but I’m able to get the words out without slurring them. “That kind of secret?”
“Precisely so.” His gaze is patient as he surveys me. Lamplight casts half his face in shadow, making him seem almost demonic. Capable of anything. “Usually things go more smoothly than they have recently.”
My tone is mildly taunting. “You didn’t count on Olivia.”
“I told you that girl would ruin everything if you let her. Olivia Pratt.” He practically spits out her name, lips twisting in disgust. “I’ve heard that name more times than my own in the last few months. If I never hear it again, it will be too soon for comfort. She has caused more problems for this organization than any person in our history. It’s a wonder the girl is still breathing.”
My heart knocks against my ribcage with a dull thud. “Where is she?”
“Olivia will be managed, just like you will be.” He holds up a tablet and shows me the screen. “I warned you what you happen if you refused to fall in line.”
It takes a second for me to realize what I’m seeing.
Felicia lies face down on the bed in a darkened room. She isn’t moving. Her shoulders are bare and so is the small of her back. A bedsheet has been tossed over her, covering only her lower half, revealing way too much of her dark skin. I have no reason to believe that she is anymore dressed underneath the sheet. As I stare, her back rises ever so slightly as she huffs out a breath.
“She’s here at Club Havoc, in case that wasn’t obvious.”
“Bastard.”
“Right in the next room, actually.”
Muscles coil painfully under my skin. In my mind, I’ve already launched myself across the room with all the strength of a jaguar as it attacks. But my body isn’t cooperating. All I can do is tear my gaze away from the image on the screen, expression twisted with horrified realization.
“How did you…”
“Simple enough.” My asshole of a sperm donor answers the implied question with a shrug. “A text message from your phone asking her to meet outside the hotel was enough to manage it. The more important question is why.”
He pauses and stares at me expectantly, silence spreading between us.
“Why?” I bite the word out through clenched teeth. “Why are you doing this, you old bastard?”
The insult doesn’t appear to faze him.
“Your Initiation is going to be a little different from the others.” His voice is casual as he sets the tablet aside, almost conversational, as if we’re chatting over drinks about the best investments in a bull market. “I assume your friends won’t mind. Blood is thicker than water, bonds of brotherhood and all that, but it all flows from the same source. Now that they believe you betrayed them for pussy, all bets are off. I’m sure they’ll forgive you when they find out what you’ve had to do to make it up to them.”
A sick sort of feeling coils in the pit of my stomach, equal parts disgust and fear. “Just spit it the fuck out.”
He throws a set of familiar black robes at me. They strike my chest and slither down to pool in my lap. I don’t need to pick them up to know they’re the robes that Havoc Boys wear during any ceremonial-type bullshit.
