His head snaps up after he pops a few in his mouth. “We’re a fucking team, Ty. I’m taking Celeste. She’s great with the girls who come to us.”
He brushes the sugar crystals from his hands and texts something on his phone without waiting for my response.
“Retrieval is more complex than when they see the safety of the shelter,” I argue. “I trust Celeste, but …”This feels like failing.
“And she’s ready. I’m confident.” His insistence is interrupted by Ivy peeking her head into the office.
“What’s going on?”
“We have to pick up a girl,” Wells informs her. “Can you pack up Felicity and tell Celeste to get ready? I texted Liam too.”
“Wait,” I grit out, panic creeping into my veins because so much is still unsettled. “We haven’t talked about the loyalty test. What they decided. Did you—”
Before I can finish, the entire damn family waltzes into the office. One after another.
“You’re taking my girl, Chief?” Liam says, but he’s got a smirk on his face. That’s fucking odd too. He’s planning to let Celeste go without him?
“Yes,” Wells states firmly, abandoning his candy. “I need her help with a retrieval. I’ll have Rex and the security team meet us.”
“Can we all just slow the hell down for one goddamn minute?” I snipe. “If you’re all leaving, I need to fucking know what I’m dealing with.”
Ivy blows out a breath and bites her lip, instantly filling me with dread.
“Liam and Gage will stay behind to assist,” Wells offers, which makes no fucking sense.
Assist?
Rena’s eyes narrow at me, but it’s because she sees my anxiety.Not because she has any comprehension of what this means. I sure as fuck don’t. But I sense it. The bomb seconds away from detonating.
“Assist with what?” I growl the words in a rumble that billows from the depths of my lungs. “What the fuck am I missing?”
Ivy’s ocean-blues brim with regret, her chin quivering.“We did what we could, and some of what you requested will be granted, but—”
“You’re rambling, Freckles.” My voice isn’t even recognizable because all I feel is trapped, caged, sucked into a reality again and again that I can’t escape.
“You’ll get to be with or near her, but …” Ivy trails off, and I know this is killing her too. None of us have control over fucking anything. But she and Wells had the best shot at shaping Rena’s test.
“Just say it,” I demand.
She nods while Rena scurries to my side, tucking herself under my arm as Ivy’s words penetrate the explosive tension. “They’re treating it more like a trial.”
“Fuck that shit,” I bark, flinging my hand into the air. “She doesn’t even want to work with us. It’s never enough with them. We sent that recording. Why the fuck …”
Loyalty tests are perilous, but they’re designed for a spouse—a measure to be certain that the outsider being brought in is fully devoted to the marriage and will abide by spousal privilege should anything nefarious come into question.
Trials are for those who will be privy to the inner workings of KORT. The stakes are far higher because those who attend The Table—the meetings with the chairs, also known as knights—have the ability to sink the organization.
“It doesn’t matter.” Ivy shakes her head, guilt coasting across her face, which guts me. “It’s not about her choosing to stay with us. There’s more to it. The black book and … her connections are just …”
“The book?” Celeste gasps. “That’s the same page … I thought that was destroyed, that you were just telling Axel what you found. How could that have any relevance here?”
“Never claimed it was destroyed,” Liam corrects her. “Ripped out, Ace.”
Celeste plants a hand on her hip, rearing for a fight. “So, the shit about my father … who the hell knows about that?”
I stayed the fuck out of all that drama, but on the same page that held the dirt about the Noires was the information that Celeste’s father, Frank, had buried Ivy’s birth mom, Eleanor Healy, who had gone missing from the O’Reilly family. There were discussions on how to handle that during Celeste’s loyalty test. It was Ivy’s call. She heads the O’Reilly Mafia, but understands Frank was simply doing his job—a cruel reality that we all face since no one in this life is sinless—so the information was negligible. We still did what we needed to do to protect Celeste and her father, just in case. But none of that is relevant now.
“It’s been addressed with KORT. Over and done with. No one fucking cares,” Liam assures her.
