Page 4 of The Shadow Sanctum

“I’m so fuckin’ glad you’re okay.”

“What?” I blink, giving my head a small shake. The danger of this situation rushes back to me all at once.

He shouldn’t be here.

He runs a thumb along the bony jut of my chin, his face pained as he takes me in. Finally, I realize what he’s talking about.

The ceremony. He was afraid I’d lose.

My eyelids flutter closed as he brushes his lips over my swollen eye—just a quick sweep, soft as a butterfly’s wings. Gentle and delicate, as if I’m worthy of such care. Wasted concern. I know too well how to take a punch.

But for whatever reason, I don’t correct him or set the record straight. With any other man, I’d be repelled by the insult.

“You can’t be here.” My voice is so firm, so certain. You wouldn’t know how difficult it was to say. “As soon as Father learns⁠—”

“I have a plan for that.” Sawyer kisses my forehead as he strokes the hair at my temple. My hands press to his chest as I wait for him to go on.

“I’m gonna reinitiate.”

I stiffen. When I shove his chest, he stumbles back a step. “That’s your plan? That isn’t the way it⁠—”

“I know.” He nods. “But your father will go for it… I couldn’t give you what you wanted, but I can give him what he wants. I have a few million in an offshore account, but more than that, I’ve spent the last year robbing spoiled rich kids.” Sawyer takes a bold step forward and circles my waist with his big, scarred hands. “You give me a computer, and I can make you millions.”

“You mean you can steal millions.”

He shrugs. “What’s the difference?”

The difference…

I glare down at his hands on my hips until he feels the heat of my gaze. Letting go, he gives me the barest of space. “I needed your expertise because it was absolutely necessary for the well-being of my people… We have no use for a thief.”

“Your father⁠—”

“My father isn’t the sole decider of things. I’m in charge of the initiates; I decide who can bring value to the Shadow Sanctum.”

My thoughts drift to the millionaire in the other room, probably still waiting for me to deliver a whore. Cancerous, devastating to the purity of my home. For all my hope that he’d belong, four hundred million dollars is still not enough to welcome that parasite. Even while I bind myself to a thief inarguably less honorable.

Hypocrite.

“What I’m trying to say,” I take Sawyer’s hand, “is that you have far more to offer than thievery… You’re right. My father will be pleased about the few million you already have. It’ll make him listen.”

Maybe. Compared to the new initiate, it seems rather insignificant.

Mr. Sanchez’s death will help.

“It won’t make him respect you,” I say, though I’m not sure it matters to Sawyer. “But I have a way you can earn it. And earn the respect of all of my people.”

And earn the respect of me.

A future forms in my mind that’s too dangerous to take seriously. But I let it come anyway.

Then Thorne’s image makes it shatter.

Sawyer squints as he waits for me to go on.

I don’t. Initiates aren’t told their tests in advance. And if Sawyer knew that the test I’m going to give him, the one I know he can pass even when every other person has failed… he might get upset.

It may be traumatic for him, given his past.