I thump the ground and she flinches, causing me to say carefully, “I’m not angry with you. If I had one wish, it’s that of raising the dead so I could fucking kill her over and over again.”
“I appreciate that.”
She smiles, a sweet reaction to my temper that I’m unused to and it melts my heart.
“Anyway, it isn’t Angela or her proclivities that I want to tell you about.”
A hard edge creeps into her expression. “She was working for someone. A man. He didn’t live at Rockwell; he called though. Every morning at seven am without fail. It was as if she had to report in to him.”
“Do you have a name?”
She shakes her head. “She called him master.”
“What did they talk about?”
“She reported on what she had on the staff or students. One of her teachers, Jenna Sloane, was particularly corrupt and featured a lot in their conversations.”
The name is familiar to me. She evaded the bullet at the academy and hasn’t been seen since. Ryder is all out looking for her, so any information Delilah has is better than none.
“She relayed any information she had learned about the staff, the students and received instructions from him. They operatedunder the name The Serpent Society and this man, whoever he is, is the one controlling it.”
She bites that god-damned lip again and fixes me with a bright gaze. “I overheard Angela talking to Jenna one day. They didn’t realize I was there. I returned from the laundry and heard their voices. Jenna was angry and yelling at Angela. She didn’t have the same fear of her that the others did, and if anything, I believe Angela was scared ofher.”
She shakes her head and whispers softly, “She told Angela that her days were numbered. That Gideon was done with her and wanted Jenna to take her place. She had failed to deliver and only had one more chance to prove herself. She told Angela that the prom was her final reckoning and if she didn’t sacrifice two students to the cause, it would be her body on the altar and Jenna would cut her heart out with pleasure.”
“Fuck me, darlin’. And you stayed? Why didn’t you run like hell and call the cops?”
Her eyes flash. “Because I was terrified, Blade. I didn’t know who I was, where I came from, and well–”
She shifts uncomfortably and says so quietly I almost can’t hear her. “They would discover that I had killed a man.”
CHAPTER 7
DELILAH
He’s angry. The atmosphere shifts, and I sense his fury. He fixes me with a dark glare and hisses, “You killed a man.”
I nod miserably. “I figured that if Jenna disposed of Angela, nobody would ever find out. I would be free, and I couldn’t take the chance that Angela would tell my secret, and I would be given the death penalty.”
He shakes his head in confusion.
“Death penalty. Why would you think that?”
“She told me I would face the electric chair because he was a powerful man. I would be paraded in front of the press, humiliated and ridiculed. I would be the most hated woman who ever lived, and everyone would pay to see my execution. I believed her.”
“Fuck, darlin’.”
He hurls his huge body out of the stream and grips my shoulders hard, forcing me to stare into his stormy eyes and hisses, “There will be no death penalty, no arrest, and no court case, got it?”
I say nothing, and his voice is rough as he hisses, “Do you understand?”
I nod, too ashamed to speak, and he fixes me with a hard glare. “What man?”
I lower my eyes and whisper, “She often entertained visitors, and on that night, she told me a very important man would be dining with her, and I must serve them dinner and wait for instructions. I hated him on sight.”
I shiver, remembering how his gaze pierced through me, as if he stripped away every layer I possessed, his intentions clear.
“They spoke about academy business. He was rich, I gathered that and wanted to donate a large sum of money to build a new wing. There was something off about the way Angela interacted with him. She failed to disguise her hatred. I saw it in her expression when he wasn’t looking. He unnerved her, and that surprised me. Anyway, when they finished eating and their business concluded, he directed his attention to me. He remarked that as he was paying out so much money, he wanted a sweetener. His meaning was clear, and Angela snapped at me to entertain him in the guest room. It wasn’t unusual and well?—”
