The door is open a couple of inches.
If I knock, they’ll tell me to go away. So, I don’t knock. I push the door open and step inside. They’re too busy laughing with each other to notice me straightaway.
Callum spots me first, his face freezing and laughter dying.
Archer’s expression turns blank.
Torin’s smile morphs into a sneer, and I look away, remembering how perfect our first meeting was, and how he twisted it into something that makes me feel so ashamed.
“You left without me,” I say when they do nothing but look at me, as if waiting for me to leave.
Callum turns back to the pool table. “You know the way back.”
They focus on the pool table, pretending I don’t exist.
I shift from foot to foot, uncomfortable. Unwelcome. And not just in this game's room. “I want to leave.” My voice isn’t loud, but it fills the room and freezes the men standing around the pool table.
Callum’s eyes flick to me, and he lines up his next shot and takes it. “So, leave.”
He can’t mean that, can he?
My gaze slides to Archer.
He’s leaning one hip on one corner of the table, sipping from a glass of whiskey, his eyes on a corner pocket where a striped red ball just disappeared into.
I turn around to walk away.
“He’ll destroy you; you know that, right?” Torin calls out lazily, a dark edge creeping into his voice.
I turn around, confused. “I don’t understand.”
Torin is looking at me as if I’m lacking. Ashamed and disgusted with myself and him, I look away, concentrating on his chin instead. Meeting his eyes hurts too much.
“You’re his until he’s exacted his pound of flesh.”
It isn’t Torin who tells me this. It’s Archer.
His words make me feel uneasy. The look in his eyes makes me cold. Afraid.
“Walk away,” he tells me with quiet intensity. “But don’t expect us to save you if you don’t like what he demands in return. And you won’t. Take it from someone who knows.”
It’s not the coldness of his voice that scares me the most. It’s the ring of truth. Something terriblewillhappen to me if I leave. He isn’t threatening me with it. He’spromisingthat I won’t be safe.
Before they turned against me, Archer said there weren’t many people in their world that they could trust. So who is waiting in the shadows to hurt me?
I open my mouth to ask, but just like that, I’m back to being forgotten. A side table or an ugly vase inherited from a distant relative. There, but easy to ignore.
I walk out of the games room, leaving the door open. Halfway up the staircase, I pause when I hear someone close the door.
Once again, shutting me out.
Chapter 10
June
“Where would you like to eat breakfast this morning?” Veronica asks me when I make my way down the stairs.
I stop at the bottom of the staircase to consider my options.
