Harley spots me on his chair, and before I can get up, he slings himself down onto the couch so he's closest to me. Avery scoffs and scrubs harder. Blaise does exactly what she said he would and just collapses on the floor with an obscene groan. His shirt rides up, and I look away from his colorfully patterned skin before I get caught looking. I have to remember that I'm surrounded by sharks. I need to keep my head, or I’ll lose it.
Harley watches Avery’s manic scrubbing for a second, then says, “Fuck, Avery’s cleaning. What’s wrong? What’s this about?”
I take a deep breath, and then just blurt out. “I have a connection to an underground criminal organization. The connection is not up for discussion. But he has a package for me. He tells me he's sending one of his hired guns to bring it here. The guy offered because he has a nephew who goes to the school. I was unaware that you're an O’Cronin.”
Harley's face shuts down so fast, I'm surprised he doesn't get whiplash. Avery stops cleaning to cock her hip, and says to me with a glare, “So it's your fault he's coming here, then? You've called him in?”
Fuck. “I didn't call him in. He heard the name Hannaford and decided to come up. I am not at fault here. I could have just let him come and ambush Harley, but I chose not to. Do not make me regret that.”
Harley is a blank slate. I can see the deep programming from a mile away—I mean, I have it too. It lives in your brain, and even when you’ve changed your life and you’re living like a civilian, all it takes is hitting that trip line and the training will fall into place. I take a deep breath and cover his hand with mine. “I will stay with you. It'll put a stop to… whatever it is you think he's going to do to you. My connection means immunity.”
He doesn't react. He doesn't move at all. I have to focus on the base of his throat to see he's still breathing. I don’t tell him that I’ll be risking my own skin to help him. If word about Harley gets back to the Jackal… I don’t think Matteo will like just how breath-taking Harley is.
I meet Ash’s eyes across the room and find he's scowling at me. Their fear sends a shiver down my spine, and I tentatively ask, “What are you afraid he's going to do? I can call ahead and stop it. Believe it or not.”
There’s silence while they all look at one another. No one offers up an explanation.
“Do you fuck gangsters and mobsters, Mounty? Is that why you won't fuck any of the upstanding students here? Does your pussy belong to a monster?” Blaise drawls from the floor. “Do you need the violence to get wet?”
I slowly take my hand off Harley’s and I stand. Blaise always know just what to say to eviscerate me. It’s his super-fucking-power.
I make it to the door when Avery calls out, “You can't leave, we don't have a plan. I need to make a plan.” I turn to ask her what the hell she’s going on about and I find Harley standing behind me. He can be just as silent on his feet as I can. His eyes are blank. I hate that I can’t read them, that there’s none of his usual fire and wit to be found. He’s a shell, the mindless soldier they have trained him to be. I hate it.
His voice is as empty as his eyes. “The plan is to keep you three out of my family’s hands. That's it. I'll call when it's… done.”
* * *
Itake Harley into my room, and I make him face the wall as I dig out the safe hidden under my floorboards and lift the tiny box out. The diamonds all shift around and make that distinctive clinking sound.
Each of the twelve had a color assigned to them. If you were willing to pay another member in a favor, you had to have the cash to buy and hand over a diamond in the color you’re assigned. I have at least three in every color except my own.
I have never given out a favor.
I can’t afford to give out favors.
My color was the deep dark blue, the same color as my eyes, as close to black as blue can get. The Jackal had walked me into a ritzy jewelry store and pointed one out to me that was set in stunning ring, just so I’d know what I needed to get if the time ever came. The last time I priced a single blue diamond out, and fuck was it hard to find, it came in just under the half-million-dollar mark.
I rummage around until I find the three little red diamonds I’ve been given by the Jackal. They are the rarest diamonds, and how he found and purchased three is beyond me. These are the only favors he’s ever given out and I know it’s because in his mind, it’s safe to give them to me. I’ll just give them back to him the moment he orders me to, when he owns me.
I slip the smallest of the three into a velvet bag and then into my bra, where I can feel it against my skin. After I’ve hidden the safe once again, I follow Harley back downstairs and out to the front foyer. He doesn’t ask me what I collected. I don’t know how much time he’s spent around these sorts of people, but it’s enough that he doesn’t ask stupid questions. I hear the roar of a motorbike and I roll my eyes.
Subtle isn’t Dairmuid’s specialty.
His specialty is blood.
Harley notices my exasperation and finally speaks. “You’ve met him before?”
I nod, and then hesitate before asking, “Have you?”
Harley shakes his head, and I frown.
“Why are you so worried then?”
He chews on his bottom lip, the first sign of anxiousness I’ve ever seen in him. “It’s a double-edged sword. He might kill me because he left the family and I’m next in line to take over. A big fuck you to my grandfather if he does that, and if anything I’ve heard about him is true, then I think that’s how this will go. If Diarmuid doesn’t kill me, it could get back to my grandfather that we’re meeting up, and then the family will kill me. Either way, I’m fucked.”
Fuck.
Mobster family politics.
