“It matters.”
“For a cut in the trafficking! Monty has been on calls for weeks now about it, but Harold will always be one step ahead. You even fucked that up! All you had to do was come here, fall for Kalen and have him knock you up, and I was going to get what I was owed. For someone your age, you were actually worth a lot. Apparently trauma victims fetch a pretty price. As would that pretty fake boyfriend of yours you brought home.”
“You were going to sell me? And Baxter? What the fuck is wrong with you?!” I scream. “I was just an innocent kid, I never did anything to you.”
“You were born. You were dumped on me. You stole the love and attention of my husband and even my own son. I should have killed you when I had the chance...”
I zone out as all the vile things she said and did keep flashing in my mind: all the abuse, all the times I blamed myself for not being enough. Like watching from above in a cold detachment, I feel myself raise the gun. I hear muffled yells, a bang, feel muted hands against my skin. Then everything goes dark.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Onyx
Baxter was right. He received some images of a woman meeting with Harold, and it’s one hundred percent Laura. In the photo they are both here in the UK, so that means Harold isn’t far away, going by the recent time and date stamp.
We’ve been working on a location for a few weeks, but didn’t tell Amelie because she had enough on her plate. Besides, we needed more details before we wanted to bother her.
Baxter came through with more information though, and said he had a plan but that we wouldn’t like it.
To say I didn’t like it was an understatement. I tried to kill him. But all he did was smirk and promise me that one day we would fight, but not like this. He can bring it on, I will kick his skinny ass.
We needed to weed Harold out, and he has a flair for dramatics. He had us feed Monty information, knowing that Laura would have the place bugged, or his phone at least, so we planted the seed that since Amelie's family would be in town he should change the rules and hold graduation early. It wouldusually be held in November but he pulled strings and had graduation moved up.
Knowing Harold will have been watching Amelie closely for months, we made sure her inner circle were prepared and present today. But only the ones that Harold would recognise. Everyone else from the academy has been kept away. Today, the rest of the crowd are hired security, posing as students. When everyone has gowns on, they all look the same anyway.
In hindsight, we probably should have told Amelie, but we were hoping to track Harold down before he could execute his plan, knowing he would want to be close enough to see whatever he has planned go down.
We know there is something happening today, but he isn’t stupid enough to tell Laura or send it in a text. But from the code we could decipher, we do know it’s happening today. Harold loves an audience, so of course it would be.
Everything is in place. The plan is perfect. All bases are covered. Everyone capable of protecting Amelie is in on it. Baxter even made sure Amelie’s grandmother and Debbie had weapons today. We don’t trust them like she does, but right now every set of hands helps. Especially when they are both out for his blood.
Nothing can go wrong today – we wouldn’t risk Amelie’s safety by pushing ahead with the graduation unless we could one hundred percent protect her.
“Have you seen Amelie?” I ask Slate as I walk past him.
“Kalen was distracting her. The idiot put itching powder in his own boxers and last I heard, he was going to see the school nurse, so she probably went with him just to stop him scratching his dick raw. I’ll find Frost and ask him to get his guys to locate her. Everything has to go to plan because if anything happens this time…”
“Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay. We’re ready this time.”
“She isn’t. She could hate us after this,” he mutters darkly.
“Maybe, but if she knew, she would have wanted a bigger role than bait, and we couldn’t risk that. We have over fifty people here today watching out for her, so stop worrying.”
He scoffs. “Stop worrying? Nothing has happened yet and you can’t find her, that isn’t very comforting.”
“I’ll go and find her now. Make sure your earpiece is in because I’ll let you know when she’s found.”
He nods and walks off in the opposite direction to me. I’m stalking towards her brother, when I notice that Camilla and Debbie are not in their seats.
“Has anyone seen Amelie?” I ask her family members.
“Yes, she went to talk with her grandmother, they’ll be back in a minute,” Chelsea answers, unconcerned. Of course she has no idea what’s going on, nor does that ex asshole boyfriend of hers, because they’re not Order. They’re dead weight; people we have to waste time and resources on protecting. Amelie would kill us if anything happened to them, but we couldn’t keep them away today because it would be too suspicious. Both to Amelie, and to Harold if he’s watching. We couldn’t risk him getting wind of today’s setup andnotmaking his move.
“Slate?” I say into the earpiece. “I’ve found her. She’s with her grandmother.”
“You have eyes on her?”
“No. But…” I pause. “Frost? Are you on the line?”
