THREE
TALON
By blood, I’m an only child. My parents decided to stop at perfection after they had me, and I am satisfied with that. However, along the way, I somehow gained two brothers—Dredyn and Jasper. We met almost forcefully at first, during an event where they shoved all the kids together in a room like a battle royale. It was Dredyn who got so mad he punched some asshole kid in the face, and Jasper and I had to back him up on the actual brawl that ensued.
The only person to stop us in the room was Evangeline—Jasper’s older sister. A teenager at that point, who was just walking by when she heard the commotion and stormed in and broke all of us up.
My eleven-year-old self thought the obvious when you see a sixteen-year-old girl.
She was hot AF.
And after she left with Jasper and his busted lip, I knew I had to befriend him.
So, I asked my parents about his family and eventually weaseled my way into Jasper’s life.
Not because of him.
But because of his hot sister.
Now, despite my high self-esteem and huge ego, she wanted nothing to do with a child five years younger than her. So I went with the second best.
Jasper Thorn.
Soon after he and I became friends, Dredyn joined us, and that was it. We went to boarding school near Ashen Grove University, where most Omega Chi alumni and legacies go.
Until one night, Evangeline called us and told us she was in trouble. Without a thought, we dropped everything and rushed to her. Her three younger brothers tried to save her.
And failed.
Now that we know for sure that it was him, I’ve spent the past month researching his entire life. Making phone calls, trying to learn everything about him, down to the fucking soap he uses to wash his ass.
Which is why it’s midnight in the war room—also known as the Omega Chi library room. I’m only drawn out of my thoughts by the pile of empty energy drink cans to my right on the table being slowly moved out of the way before Dredyn leans against the table, a small USB drive in his hand.
“You sure it’s clean?” Dredyn asks.
“Checked it twice,” I say, barely giving him a look.
He flips the USB between his thumb and forefinger.
“This was hidden where, again?” Dredyn asks.
“Ledger three,” I say. “Buried under the Syndicate account logs for the Marion estate. Whoever hid it was sloppy—wanted it accessible to a certain eye. Either that, or they wanted dumb luck to do the finding.” My mouth tastes of metal.
Dredyn gives a low, humorless laugh. “Someone wanted it found. Someone wanted us to know.”
“Or they were hiding it and got sloppy,”Jasper signs.“Either way... we have it.”
“And we have to wait for the right buyer for it.”
That’s what we decided to do. We found enough dirt to muddy up Chase—proof that he killed Evangeline and planned to do so. But instead of taking care of it the normal OCK way, we decided that it would be best to take a play out of the Psi Theta Omega handbook.
Ruin his reputation.
That’s how we get Mara back. Or, at least, away from him. We still need to deal with her father, but trying to get rid of the president-elect is a lot harder than it looks.
Dredyn has gone through every brute force scenario in his head.
“I’m still fucking pissed you didn’t tell me until after we got back from election night. I could have just?—”
