“Am I supposed to be jealous, Just? You’re just a side bitch, after all. He only fucked you because Jordan let him. Don’t forget that.” Heaving out the words with malice wasn’t my intention, but fuck him for being a tool.
We were friends once.
All of us.
It all changed and yet somehow we keep being pushed together like some magnetic force of fucked up.
“Do you not see how fucking counterproductive this is?” Pru steps in, moving Just out of my view. He crouches low, his eyes that odd shade of brown that’s more red than not, imploring. He wants me to give in, be nice, make this less miserable.
They kidnapped me.
They jabbed at me.
They did this to me.
The fact that they don’t see that and somehow want me to fix whatever fucked up turmoil they are in is comical.
“You say it’s counterproductive, yet you hit me over the fucking head after we were already working toward the same goal of erasing footage that’d make us look bad.”
Just scoffs, rounding Pru. “We did that because we broke in, deleted all the videos that’ll hurt us, and destroyed evidence of any conversations that would show you were all involved with trying to bring down the Vestige. If we didn’t knock you out and make it look like you were hurt or kidnapped, you’d appear guilty.”
As if it hits me, realization dawns. “You wanted to have something to hide behind?”
“Obviously, you idiot. If we went in there, assisting your erasure, we’d be killed. At this point, it just looks like you were kidnapped.”
“Makes sense, but what doesn’t is the fact that you still have me fucking tied.”
He lets out a little huff. “How else were we to get you here? We were searching for what happened with Rimbaur when we heard Midas talking to you about the League. We knew you’d go looking for answers and we needed a clean break.”
“For what exactly?” I eye him and Pru. Just comes to me, bringing a knife to the duct tape around my legs. After he slices through, he goes for my hands, nicking me in the process. “Okay, Edward Fucking Scissorhands. No wonder Lux only does blood-play with Colt, you’d meat cleaver the fuck out of him.”
“Fuck off before I make do with the rest of you,” he warns, forcing me to remove the rest of the tape.
“We needed a clean break because shit’s going down. After the last-minute wedding, we’d heard through the grapevine that someone intended to kill Colt.”
Did he really say what I think he just said? Standing up, my legs feel heavier than normal, more than likely caused by the awkward position.
“Who’s called for it?”
The twins look at each other, silently communicating something before they’re facing me once more. “Everyone.”
“Everyone?” I question the validity. It’s not like all the families care. Hell, mine, Ten’s, Bridger’s, and several others know that whether we wanted to rise or not, we’re too far down the rabbit hole. “There’s no way—” I begin to argue.
“Think, McAlister. Tell me you don’t see the bigger picture.”
My mind travels to the political side of the spectrum. Midas is a politician while Elijah is big business. You have Roderick who is literally part of the mafia, Tasha who’s involved with the illegal diamond trade, and Edward—Ten’s father—he’s involved with the drug empire, smuggling shit through his privatized airline.
The thing they all have in common is wanting Colt gone. Which means they know something I don’t. Why could they possibly want her gone more than before, especially her mom… Tasha has always been a terrible mother, but hurting her daughter after already solidifying her future, that’s suspect as fuck.
“What am I missing?”
“The most important part,” Pru hisses.
“Well, fucking tell me then,” I bark, feeling my face flame.
“She’s a Grim, dude. She’s the fucking heir.”
I close my eyes tightly, only opening them to stare blindly. How the fuck did we miss this? Things start compiling in my head.
Colt is a Grim.
Grim, as in, the oldest founding family aside from the Marchetti family.
“This is why Cassidy was targeted,” I surmise aloud, not knowing how we missed something this monumental.
“When Colt came out of nowhere, did you not think to wonder why?” Justice asks, his face impassive, not giving anything away. Our gazes connect while I try swallowing the new information.
“Of course, I questioned it,” I rasp, feeling my skin heat. There’s something about knowledge, a power that drags you beneath the surface, making sure your demons know how to swim while you’re forcibly drowning until you give up. “It was weird meeting her years after knowing Cass, and the way she disappeared every summer…”
Pru nods once, his lips flattening. “They were not only stealing her memories of happiness. The plan at play was to make her detachable, robotic, someone who could make hard choices but be controlled by their own narrative.”
“You do get we’re teenagers, right?”
They both scoff at me. It’s not news that they are the oldest still alive, but they treat the rest of us as if we’re merely children, desperate for a bottle feeding.
“We may be teenagers now, but the plan was always for the future. Cassidy was always going to be a problem.”
“Just because he’s gay—”
Justice slaps the doorframe, making me wince. “It’s not his sexuality and if all you fucks would focus on the bigger picture, you could be allies and not problems.”
“Then fucking explain it and stop talking in circles,” I bite out. “You can’t expect me to learn and adapt when I’m given half-assed guessing games.”
“Colt is a Grim,” he starts again, and I nod before saying something stupid like yes, motherfucker, we’ve gone over this. “She’s also a DeLeon now.”
I think of Midas, the power he holds, his penchant for Elijah. “He won,” I finally say. Thinking of the fact that the only thing he needed for Lux to get the keys to the proverbial kingdom was a wife.
A wife before Jordan.
Publicly, Elijah announced Jordan and Mel’s engagement, their marriage set for Valentine’s. That not only gives the perfect amount of time for Elijah to plan the takeover, but it’d also give Jordan time to man up.
“Seems like you’re working it out in your head,” Pru points out. I can’t help but roll my eyes. Do they think my silence is stupidity? I may get high and drunk far more than a normal teenager my age, but my intelligence has never lacked.