Page 105 of The Bargain

“Right, well, I appreciate your principles, but⁠—”

“Lennox is one of us,” Dimitri interrupts me bluntly. “A blood brother.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Oh, is that why you threw him into a lake, then?”

Dimitri shrugs. “He passed the test.”

“I’d say,” Blaise adds warmly. “That cut in your hand’s still not fully healed yet.”

Dimitri smirks, waving a bandaged hand in the air.

“Elias cut you?” I ask, eyes wide.

“It was kind of brilliant,” Blaise says enthusiastically.

Benjamin nods appreciatively. “I knew I liked him for a reason.”

Elias told me they threw him in the lake, but he never told me he cut Dimitri. To him, it probably wasn’t even worth mentioning. Elias’s life taking its course: another day, another fight for survival. But a hot rush of something like admiration blazes in my chest—no, not admiration. Pride. It’s followed immediately by such a profound ache of longing I have to catch my breath.

“That kid’s a feral fucking dog,” Dimitri says, and, raising an eyebrow at me, says, “Good on you, Dess. You were always too good for those pathetic weakling poodles.”

“So how are we going to get him out?” Blaise says, looking back to me. He gestures towards the twins. “Those two came to see us last night and told us everything.”

My heart stops. I spin to look at the twins, who shrink back behind the fortress of Dimitri. “You did what?”

Blaise lets out a long-suffering sigh. “The idiots have even been talking about giving themselves up to the police.”

“Do not give yourselves up to the police,” I snap, so sharply the twins both start back.

“We know!” William says, glaring at Blaise, who clearly wasn’t supposed to share so much information with me.

“Dimitri told us he’ll rip our ballsacks out if we even think of talking to the police,” Austen adds with a shudder, glancing up at Dimitri to throw him a disgusted look.

“Might do it anyway,” Dimitri grunts. “Just in case.”

The twins shrink back.

“You two only have one job: stay out of trouble, alright?” I shake my head. “I’ll handle everything else.”

“Not on your own, you won’t,” Yuna pipes up, and I meet her eyes. “We’re here, Dess. You know that, right?”

Why didn’t you come to us sooner? The question hangs, unspoken, in her eyes.

I don’t know what to say; my throat’s tight. With her silver pins and the white streak in her hair and her outrageous make-up, Yuna is like a mix between her mum and Aunt Willow, who’s the scariest person I’ve ever met. Yuna reminds me of them both. She reminds me of home.

“I vote we break him out,” Dimitri declares before I can say anything else. “I’ve already spoken to Uncle Luca. He says he knows people.”

“Uncle Luca is people,” Yuna says.

“So Lennox goes from being wrongfully accused of a crime to being a full-blown fugitive?” Blaise says, rubbing his forehead. “Better leave the strategising to those of us who actually have a brain for it, cuz.” He looks at me and tilts his head. “I think we need to talk to your mother, Dess.”

My mind flashes to Ophelia—the video that started it all.

Ophelia, whose shame was so profound she couldn’t even bring herself to tell me about it.

“Mum can never find out what happened,” I tell Blaise, low and steely. “We can’t tell her.”

Blaise stares at me, clever enough to read all the unspoken things behind my answer.