She’s still as she waits a beat, just watching me. Whatever she sees in my eyes, or on my face, it’s enough to have her smirking in something akin to triumph, but it’s the lick of fear and curiosity in her beautiful eyes that intoxicates me. Cora doesn’t speak. She snatches her arm back, turns, and starts to walk out.
“Goodbye,” Cora says, not waiting for me to decide.
She walks past Soren and out to where her friend is waiting for her. I watch her until she’s out the door.
“This better be fucking good,” I growl at my friend.
“A member is going rogue. You know what that means,” he tells me.
“Fuck.” I run a hand through my hair.
It means it’s someone’s turn to die.
Gage stands in the field. It’s getting late, and the cold is starting to set in. Headlights illuminate the area for a moment, and Soren and I turn to watch Reon get out of the car. He saunters over, dressed in dark jeans and a leather jacket.
“Who else can we expect?” Gage asks.
Sometimes, and I mean on rare occasions, we have meetings out here. It’s quiet and far away from prying eyes.
“I think this is all of us,” Soren says as he turns to face us. His gaze takes us all in before stopping on Gage.
The only way out of the Forsaken Society is death.
We all know that.
It’s why Reon is still here. Even if he doesn’t want to be. Though he loves the fucked-up parts as much as the rest of us.
“Why are you all—” Gage cuts himself off as he frantically looks at each of us. I watch as panic starts to shoot through him. His gaze bounces back and forth, and his hands clutch together and then release.
He’s nervous.
He should be.
He’s about to die.
“I haven’t done anything wrong. Nothing.” He rubs his eyes as his head shakes back and forth.
Soren showed me the evidence. It’s there, and there’s a lot of it. We all know what he did—he told people about us, about the Forsaken. About Soren.
That was a costly mistake.
You can’t go against the Lord.
“I only told them about your underground fighting,” he blurts, now trying to cover for himself. “That’s not a secret.”
It actually is a secret. No one knows but the people who attend the fights. When Soren explains why he is battered or bruised, he says he boxes. That’s a half-truth, I guess.
“The Forsaken finds out everything,” Reon says.
The rule regarding ending a member’s life states that three other members must agree on the punishment. Hence, there are three of us here.
“I swear.” He holds up his hands. Gage is a banker and a good one at that. He’s helped a lot of us funnel our money into untraceable accounts. But rules are there for a reason, and he broke them. Even though he’s been a member for well over ten years, he is bound by the same rules and consequences as the rest of us.
“Gage.” His head turns my way at the sound of my voice. “You are going to die tonight,” I let him know with a smile.
“Arlo, you know me. You know I would never do that.” His tone is pleading.
“Your body language is saying you’re lying, Gage. The rubbing of your eyes, fidgeting with your hands. It’s all very telling,” I inform him.
