Orion keeps accusing me with his eyes, and I don’t want to bring up the amount of hate he has thrown my way since Sable left. He was hardly the person I could confess anything to. He was certainly one of the reasons I thought it was a good idea to jump. It was his damn life I wanted to make easier.
“I needed something to keep myself sane,” I try to explain to all of them at once. “You were all… It was the worst… I’m done with that. Sable asked me to stop, and I did.”
The reminders of what happened are still loud inside me. I’m hanging by a thread, but I’m staying away from the pills like Sable asked. No one knows how much it hurts to face this conversation sober.
“This is fucking insanity,” Parker complains from the other side of the room.
I’m not sure what part he’s referring to, but everyone seems to agree. I stand apart from all of them, hoping this is the end of this conversation and that we’ll never have to speak about it again.
“Now everyone understands why I’d happily kill Arabella,” Sable says. “And why I’m not mad at Soren and want you all to accept my choice of having my five dearly beloved boyfriends.”
“Sable is right.” Orion nods. “There’s no other way. The bitch dies tonight.” He rubs his hands together like he’s actively plotting, but there isn’t any chance I’m letting that happen. We have enough issues as it is, and we don’t even know who has her.
I laugh a humorless laugh. “Please, we can’t dispose of a rich girl in the middle of Bellthorn, especially one who’s missing.”
“Yes, we can,” Orion argues. “We are Rooks. I’m sure our forefathers have done it.”
“Someone is watching,” Parker reminds us. “Whoever has her is watching.”
“Everyone needs to calm down.” Sable takes my hand in hers and tugs me until I’m sitting, and she stretches across my lap. She’s clever. The moment she’s on top of me, my nose buries in her neck. The scent alone is all I need to calm down. I forget everything and breathe her in. Fuck, nothing matters as long as she’s here.
“What we need to do is cover our backs,” she says. “We need to protect ourselves.”
CHAPTER 59
SABLE
“We cannot allowanything like this to ever happen again,” Lex agrees, his calm, emotionless affect soothing the tension running throughout the room.
“And how the fuck do we prevent it?” Soren asks. This has been an incredibly heavy day for him. Everything has been lately, especially this. I know he wasn’t ready, but I can’t help feeling this is the key to putting everything back together.
“We take a stand and prove a point to these motherfuckers,” Parker says, his broad chest swelling with his convictions and his willingness to fight for us.
“What point would that be?” I ask. I love the idea of no one bothering us ever again, but experience at Bellthorn has taught me that no amount of power equals safety.
“That all five of us are with Sable. This is a relationship,” Hadrian says.
“I really don’t want people to think I’m fucking you guys,” Orion complains. All of the guys nod solemnly, but I burst out laughing harder than I have in weeks. They all stare at me, waiting for an explanation.
“I’m sorry, but you’re not serious, right?”
“Why wouldn’t we be serious?” Lex asks.
“You guys fuck the same girl together every year. The whole school already thinks you’re fucking.” I look between them, entirely mystified. I assumed they didn’t care what people thought, not that they never considered it.
“That’s ridiculous,” Orion blusters. “There’s always an Offering!” He’s obviously getting very upset because he’s the one who bought into this whole business the most. “It’s a tradition that’s been ongoing for?—”
“People have asked me if we fuck before, Orion,” Soren interrupts him.
Orion turns on him, rage and disgust lighting his face. “You’re my twin brother!” he says like it’s the most perverted thing he’s ever heard. “Why the hell would they think that?”
“The lines you choose to draw are actually astonishing,” I say to Orion in wide-eyed amusement. “Has no one ever brought this up to the rest of you?” I ask.
They all look uncomfortable before they all admit that it has in fact come up, apparently with everyone but Orion.
“Not very often, though,” Parker says.
“So,” Orion says, amending his original plan. “We go down there and apparently give these rumors a whole lot more validity and tell them that this is a real relationship.”
