“Answer your goddamn phone, T.” I forced the words through clenched teeth and paced the floor. “Just answer the fucking phone.” For all I knew, the little punk could be stabbed or bleeding somewhere in a goddamn gutter. “Fuck, this is such a goddamn mess.”
I lifted my phone, trying one last goddamn time.
“Why the fuck are you calling me?” Tobias snarled in his voice message.
I hung up, tossed the cell to the bed. It wasn’t just Tobias that had me riled. It was this whole thing. I massaged the throbbing knot on the back of my neck and tried to figure out what the fuck had happened.
As always, my mind skimmed past mom’s passing. I didn’t want to think about that, not yet. But fuck, it had left a goddamn hole in all our lives. Dad went off the rails. We’d thought it was grief…but now.
Now, I was starting to know better.
Elle Castlemaine. It had to be. She was bad fucking news…really bad.
Ryth said the FBI had arrested her dad. But I knew they didn’t just act like that out of nowhere. No, something like that took planning. And that meant time. A pang tore across my chest when I thought of Ryth, now in that goddamn place all alone.
She was nothing like her mom. Nothing fucking like it…
Get her back. Nick’s husky words surfaced. Get her back.
No matter what it took, right?
Only, my brother had no idea the kind of danger our little stepsister was in now, from the kind of men that revelled in the darkness. My pulse thundered as I glanced at the darkening sky once more. Christ, I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to go back to that part of my fucking life. And it wasn’t because I was scared of them…
It was because I was scared of myself.
I shifted my focus to the bottom of my bed. Good girl. My own words rang in my head, muffled by Ryth’s tortured moans of release. I’d escaped the clutches of depravity once, but I didn’t come away unscathed. The kinds of things I’d witnessed had left a goddamn mark. One I hadn’t been able to scrub away.
I liked what they did at those clubs, liked the rush owning someone like that gave me. I liked using them in the moment…but I didn’t like the wave of sickness it left behind.
What I longed for was both.
Someone to love…someone to be cared for…someone I could use to temper that debased need inside me. I hated how my body hummed, knowing I was about to dive headlong back into that darkness once more. Only this time it was for a reason…her.
I left my room and made my way to the bathroom. The house sounded empty without them. Still, I forced myself to undress and shower. I took my time scrubbing and washing as that hunger slowly burned. I killed the water and stepped out, toweled my body dry, and strode naked along the landing to my bedroom.
Black. That’s what I dressed myself in.
Black as the sins I was about to commit…for her.
I sprayed myself with scent, adjusted my belt, and slipped my shoes on, taking a glance at myself in the full-length oval mirror at the end of my room. They wanted cold…detached. The spark dulled in my eyes as I sank down into that emptiness. Then detached is what they’d get.
Only I clung to one tiny glimmer…
Her.
Ryth.
“I’m coming, princess,” I murmured. “Hold the fuck on.”
I left my room and went downstairs, then out the front door. My headlights carved through the night as I backed around and shot forward. But I didn’t head straight for the elite members-only club, not yet…I had to confess first.
I made my way to the city, to a small bar notoriously known for the city lawyers who patronized it. A band of brothers I was once part of…and somehow that strange yearning rose inside me. It’d been months since I’d stepped foot inside my office, months since I’d thought about reviving my failing study of the Law.
But now it had been shoved into my face whether or not I liked it. I only hoped the loyalties were still there. I carved through the busy downtown streets, pulling the Lamborghini into a parking space near Fourth and First before I killed the engine and climbed out.
Sideway glances came from a group of women as they strode past. I adjusted my jacket and hit the button on the remote, ignoring the smiles and stares. They could look all they wanted. They weren’t my type in the least.
But they were headed my way, following me into The Associate. That’s where I left them, headed to the back of the bar where the men leered, drank and talked about pussy like they had game. They didn’t. Still, they thought it made for pleasant conversation. It was exactly the kind of thing that had turned me off coming back.
I nodded at Havers as he lifted his gaze to me. His brows rose. “Banks?”
“Hey,” I answered, scanning familiar faces and stopped at Michael Evans, defense lawyer at Copeland Law, one of the oldest and most prestigious firms in the city. Getting a position with them depended on two things: clout and money, and Evans had both.
“C.” Michael nodded my way.
I glanced toward the private booths at the back of the bar. “Want to grab a drink in private?”
“Sure,” he muttered and slid from his stool, nodding at the other guys around us.
They all stared, mostly at me. Luckily, I was used to it. I moved to the back of the bar, sliding along the seat of a booth way in the back, and waved the waitress over. Evans ordered rum and coke. I motioned for two and waited for him to take a seat, acutely aware that every second Ryth was in that place, was a second too fucking long.
He took a seat, glancing over his shoulder at the others as they still looked our way. “Told them you were thinking about coming back,” he muttered, then turned toward me. “But that’s not why you’re here, is it? Want to tell me what the fuck is going on, C?”
A shiver coursed through me. I’d known Evans since our first goddamn day at Harvard. Both of us straight-laced and full of dreams. A little pathetic, looking back on it now. Only he’d kept that idealism, letting it drive him, whereas I’d sunk slowly into that hunger.
The need for revenge and the tainted. Christ, I was like an addiction just waiting to happen.
“So, I heard your father got remarried,” Evans started.
I winced and nodded, waiting as the waitress neared carrying our drinks. She smiled, glancing at Evans before turning to me, and stilled. “Anything else I can get for you?” She slid napkins on the table, one in particular pushed my way.
“Thank you, but no,” I answered.
There was a flicker of annoyance before she turned and walked away. Evans reached over, grabbed the napkin, and turned it over to reveal her phone number.
“Good to see nothing changes with you.” He smirked and shook his head, pushed back in his seat, and let the smile fade. “Now, you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Nick’s in the hospital,” I started.
He froze, his brows rising. “Oh shit. He okay?”
I gave a slow nod and played with my drink. “He will be, but he almost fucking died today…and that’s not all.”
“I’m listening,” he urged.
“I don’t have all the facts yet. But she double-crossed her own husband, set him up with the FBI and put him in prison. Now he’s missing…and she just conveniently disposed of her daughter.” My voice went low. “In a place called the Order.”
His breath caught…and there was a flicker of fear. “You know what they do in that place?”
I swallowed hard. “I have a feeling I’m about to find out.”
He leaned forward. “She really worth this? You know what they’ll do to you.”
“Worth it?” I repeated. “Yeah, she’s worth it.”
He went silent, staring at me, and I hated his fucking attention. “Jesus Christ, you like this girl?”
Ryth filled my mind, sending my pulse soaring. “She’s not a girl…she’s my goddamn stepsister.”
“You fucking fell for her, didn’t you?”
I didn’t have to answer. It was written all over my face.
“Jesus,” Evans muttered. “How the mighty have fallen. You fell for your kid sister.”
“Stepsister,” I snarled. “And she’s not a kid.”
He took a sip of his drink. “So you’re really going to go through with his?”
“Know of another way inside?”
“Not if you want to stay alive. I heard the compound is guarded with ex-mercenaries.”
All I thought about was that gun being leveled at Nick’s head after he crashed into the gate. There was only one way in without getting ourselves killed…only it was going to be just as fucking brutal.
“So you’re really prepared to do this?” Evans probed again.
“I don’t have a choice.” I met his gaze. “My heart won’t let me. Besides, it’s just an introduction, then I’m leaving you. An introduction is all my damn conscience will allow.”
I knew what even that small thing was costing him, and it had nothing to do with money.
Evans stared at me for another moment, then he grabbed his drink and downed the rest of the contents. “Then I guess we’re about to walk into the lion’s den.”
I flinched and shook my head as he slid out of the booth. “You don’t have to—”
“You saved my ass back in college more times than I’ll ever admit. You think I’m about to bail on you now?” He shook his head as I drained my own drink and rose from the seat. “Besides, I’m gonna like having one up on you, Banks.” He threw an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t think I’ve given up on us starting our own firm together. My money, your looks. We’d fucking kill it.”
I cut him a glare. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Buddy.” He tightened his hold around me. “With the shit I’m about to do for you, getting ahead of myself is the only thing that’s going to get me through.”
I let him make his jokes as I placed my empty glass down on the napkin with the waitress’ number. He was on the phone as we walked out, calling in favors…a whole lot of them. When we stepped out of the bar, he lifted his hand, motioning for his driver.
Evans came from old money. The kind that was taken for granted, and it showed. The Mercedes pulled up, double-parking long enough for him to climb in the backseat, leaving the door open behind him for me to follow.
“Ninth street, Neil,” Evans instructed. “Near the Waterhouse brewery.”
Neil looked over his shoulder before slowly giving a nod. I caught a glance my way in the rear-view mirror, but he said nothing, just put the car into gear and pulled out.
Evans stared out the window in silence. It was a heavy silence. I knew what I was asking, which is why I’d never expected him to come. An introduction. A request. Hell, call in a favor or two. That’s all I’d wanted.
Not this.
We drove until the bars and the nightclubs disappeared and the streets turned dark and quiet. Ninth street. Ninth street, that was owned by rich old men who paid a hefty price to keep the law away.
The driver pulled up outside a building and parked. None of us moved. The sound of the engine filled the silence until with a slow, hard exhale, Evans muttered. “Well, it’s time to sell our souls.”
Then he yanked the door handle and climbed out.
I followed, closing the door behind me as the car took off once more. With every step, that emptiness bloomed up from deep inside me. I drew on everything I had. Every ounce of pain and rage, fixing on the betrayal of my father, as I headed to the security manned front door with Evans.
We were stopped, IDs checked, and patted down before the heavy black door was unlocked and we were allowed entrance. Once inside, we handed over our phones and keys to a waitress waiting meekly at the door. We placed our things on the silver tray before the waitress left, taking them toward the back room.
They’d be locked away, leaving our minds to capture every perverted act that happened in this place. Deep, throbbing music filtered in through the back room, the sound drawing my gaze until Evans gave me a nudge in the side.
Seated on one of the plush leather sofas were three men. Men who watched us with careful eyes until one motioned us over with a wave to the seats opposite. I swallowed hard. My damn heart thundered as Evans took a step forward and I forced myself to follow.
Darkness and sin smothered this place. The waitress neared with the same damn tray, only on it this time were two tumblers of top-shelf Scotch. I knew by experience, only the best for the Hale Club. I took the drink, praying they didn’t notice the shake of my hand when I drank.
“Evans.” Killion Dare nodded, motioning to the seat opposite before he turned that piercing stare my way. “Banks. Long time no see.” His voice softened. “We were all very sorry to hear about the passing.”
I ground my teeth as a flinch came in the corner of my eye, hating that my mom had ever had a place in his sick goddamn mind. Still, I gave a nod and forced myself to answer. “Thank you.”
“Please.” Dare motioned to the seat opposite. “Sit, let’s open up some dialogue. Evans tells me you wish to come back…our only question is, why?”
He crossed his legs, but I knew it was all an act. Just like everything was in this place. A cry tore free from the back area of the club. Short, painful, followed by a slap. This place…this fucking place.
