“Her? Are you sure it was a woman?” Harold is such a misogynist I can’t really believe he would willingly have a female partner for his plans.
“He said she had an accent. Australian. A bit like yours, actually.”
My disbelief grows as I’m overwhelmed by questions: What the actual fuck was Harold up to? Who was he working with? Where the fuck is he? Worst of all, what is he planning next?
“Thank you for the intel,” I say stiffly, getting to my feet. “Please don’t feel obliged to stay for the event. Go home to your girl, you’re excused.”
I exit the room and Slate immediately jumps on me.
“Amelie! What’s wrong? You’re white as a sheet!”
“What the hell happened in there?” Onyx storms down the corridor with a face like thunder. “Who do I have to kill?”
“No one,” I reply, taking a shaky breath. “But I have to ask you something, all of you, and I need total honesty. Can you round up Sawyer, Kalen, your dad…oh and Baxter, Frost and Jasper too.”
“The waiters are wanting to bring the starters out, can it wait?” Onyx asks gently, but I still snap at him.
“Does it seem like it can wait?”
“Alright, consider it done. But let’s move somewhere else to talk,” he replies, nodding at the door I’ve just come from to remind me that people could be listening in.
I allow Slate to guide me to a different room that looks identical to the one I was just in, and he helps me into my seat. I drum my fingers impatiently on the table, but I don’t have to wait long. Onyx returns with everyone, Baxter lazily bringing up the rear looking put out at being summoned.
“Amelie, what’s wrong?” Monty asks.
“I have to ask you all something, and I need a hundred percent honesty from you all, no matter what. Youcan’tlie to me about this.” My boyfriends all exchange nervous glances and suddenly Baxter looks less annoyed at being dragged in here, and more intrigued. “Did you know that The Order deals in skin?”
That falls upon the room like a bomb. There’s a second of calm as my question settles and registers – too much calm – and then all hell explodes.
“What?”
“No way!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Not a fucking chance.”
“No, boss.”
“Negative, ma’am.”
I believe them. Their shock is too horrified to be anything but genuine.
The only ones who don’t speak are Baxter and Monty. I turn to Monty first.
“Well?”
“I did not know that, Amelie, no…” he hesitates.
“But you suspected.”
“My father—” I cut him off.
“Is dead. You think we were throwing our resources into the search to find him before now? I want everyone on this at first light.”
“I’ll do it,” Baxter offers in the lowest, most dangerous tone I’ve ever heard from him. He’s shaking – actually shaking – with barely contained rage.
“Baxter?”
