“It did work,” he says, and I’m not sure if he’s delusional or perhaps has some plans that we should be afraid of. “Look how long I fooled you,” he clarifies as he looks up at me, a slow,evil smile spreading across his lips. “I almost got every thing I wanted because you were going to hand it over to me.”
I can’t hold back anymore. I punch his mouth, relishing the pain and the splash of his blood, but after the initial impact, he returns to smiling at me with that half-crazed look.
“I’ll always be the man who almost took you down, and you’ll never trust again.” He might be onto something. I am very unlikely to trust anyone outside of this room again. He’ll be incredibly trustworthy once he’s dead.
“Raping Soren, watching our every move, locking me out of the room…” Sable shakes her head. “Everything you did was for status? To make sure you’d have a place at the most horrid table? You know they are pedos, right? They pinned it on my father just to destroy what he had against them. Why would you want to be part of that club?”
“It’s my birthright!” he roars, fighting against his restraints for the first time since we got here. “I’m the male heir! These assholes you whore yourself to loved the power. They aren’t blameless little boys.”
“No.” She’s serious as she takes him in. “They found out what it means to be from the four families and walked away. You knew everything, and you still wanted in. You’re so pathetic. So fucking sad.”
“Me?” He laughs, and I know right then is the last time he’ll ever laugh. “You’re a whore. You don’t deserve a place as the fifth family.”
Cillian’s eyes are so hateful that I want to intervene. I don’t like that he’s talking to her like that. His voice brings chills down my arms as if he still has something up his sleeve. I move closer to Sable, taking the knife from her hand. He might be her family, but years around him have earned me the right.
“There aren’t five families anymore.” Sable sighs. “There’s only us, our money, and a new order.” She steps away and kisses me tenderly on my jaw. “Kill him.”
Cillian realizes his time to talk is over. He screams her name, trying to get her to come back. God knows the fact she wanted to talk was the only thing keeping him breathing, but time’s up. I slice his throat quickly, quieting his screams permanently.
Who is the fool now?
CHAPTER 78
SABLE
Cleaningthe banquet hall of the dead bodies is not as difficult as I thought it would be. And by “cleaning,” I mean paying enough people for their work and silence. Turns out, nothing is impossible when you have money to spare.
The cause of death becomes a joke between us. We sit every night, giving people theirs, something that will really humiliate them. The public won’t be aware of the death certificates that we are fabricating, but this is an opportunity to be creative, and we’re taking it.
After every death is explained and put to rest, the issue of Bellthorn is addressed. The academy is an independent entity, but it has survived on the money of the five families for far too long. The president is on top of us, sure that something is terribly wrong.
He knows something happened in the banquet hall. Too many people have been coming and going to claim it’s nothing. He’s smart enough not to ask too much, but he must know power has changed hands because he’s all over the boys, asking for a firm position about the school’s donations. He’s not the only one afraid of the future we have planned. Controlling this type of empire takes time and effort.
Parker wants to see it all burn. He wants to stop paying everyone the four families had been paying before, just wash our hands and walk away, but I know this is not the right thing to do. I want to undo a lot of the harm they caused, and to do that, we have to understand every string the four families pull, then come up with a plan for better.
We are at the twins’ apartment, each one of us has a pile of paperwork, physical or online, as we learn about the business. There are bank accounts to take over, people to talk to, and decisions to make.
“I get that we need time to decide what to do with it all,” Orion groans from his spot at the desk, looking over the Rook organization paperwork. “But some things we can get rid of already.”
“I thought you always wanted to be the heir, Brother.” Soren snickers.
“Nah, I changed my mind. The whole thing is stupid.”
“We have to look over every contract,” Lex says with his eyes cast down in concentration. “I want to cut the right ties to starve the system.”
I nod. It might be a lot of work, but the four families are involved in too much shit with more powerful people. It’s a delicate corrupt ecosystem, a surgery, and Lex is ready for the challenge.
“What about Bellthorn?” Hadrian asks. “This castle. What is this for?”
“Pride,” Orion says. “Father always said Bellthorn is the pride of the four families.”
“Look where it got him.” Soren chuckles.
He’s in an excellent mood since we killed all his demons.
“Pride, yes,” Hadrian agrees. “But it’s also controlling the education of the elite. Everyone who has money in this country sends their kid here, and in their formative years, they watch asthe four families live like kings. The Offering, how they push us to behave. It’s a spectacle of control.”
“Are you arguing that Bellthorn should go?” Lex finally looks away from his laptop.
