Junko looks like she’s about to cry, but Markus’s hand remains on her shoulder as Devall rises from his seat.
“You two will go with her.”He motions to me and Willa.“No one else.The fewer people who travel, the less we’ll draw attention to the fact that she’s being moved.You leave within the hour.Get my daughter ready.”
“There might be a problem with that, sir,” Willa pipes up.Devall glares at her, and I’m sure we can all feel the sharpness of his stare.She quickly explains, “When the code red came through, Hayami was reluctant to leave the club.We had to sedate her to bring her back here.”
Devall considers this before saying, “All the better to move within the hour, before she has time to come round.”
Willa stares blankly at him.It comes as no surprise to him that we’ve had to sedate his daughter.After all, he was the one who suggested that we resort to sedation when we reported to Markus that she was becoming volatile and difficult to handle.
“Do you understand what I’ve just said?”the gang lord barks.
“Yes, sir,” Willa replies quickly.
“Good.”
The room feels uneasy, as if the walls are waiting to pounce.
“Then what the fuck are you waiting for?”He whips his head around to me.“You have fifty-eight minutes before you need to be on a fucking plane, so get a fucking move on.”
“Yes, sir,” we chorus.
Willa is the first to move.I follow as she marches down the hallway.Jogging to keep up, I grab her by the arm.She turns, eyes wet, face ashen.
“Are you okay?”
“No.God, this is the worst.”She sniffs.“Marta is eight months pregnant.I can’t be flying to some godforsaken shit-hole because the family has had some shitty death threat.What if Marta needs me?What if she goes into labour?”
“It’ll be okay,” I tell her, even though I know it isn’t.
“And of all the fucking places, we’re being sent to Belial House.”
Willa swipes at her face with the back of her sleeve.I’ve never seen her like this.She’s always the pillar of calm and control.She must register the confusion on my face.“Has no one ever told you about Belial House?”
I shake my head.“No.”
“It’s a monstrous house stuck in the mountains, where all it does is rain and snow.It used to be where the family would go to get away from everything—to take a break, be cut off from the world and everyone in it.That was until….”Her lips quiver.
“Until what?”
She hesitates.“Forget it.I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I’m about to push her on this, but then I remember the ticking clock.
“And where exactly is Belial House?”I ask.
Willa stares at me, her usual warm smile nowhere to be seen.
“Hellion Ridge, above the town of Hellion Vale.”She laughs—but it’s not a funny laugh, more hysteria than humour.“No surprise that the names start with ‘hell,’ because that’s where we might as well be going.”
EIGHT
HAYAMI
THREE MONTHS AGO
Selecting a book from the shelf,I feel the Beast hovering behind me, probably scoping the bookshop for nonexistent stalkers, red dots on my forehead, or booby-traps planted amongst the thriller section.
“Do you read?”I ask him, placing the book carefully back on the shelf.
