“The Society has always believed they’re the ones in control, but the truth is so far from that. They don’t know anything. Play that, or I leak everything I’ve got on the internet and kill my wife.”
The threat was there and very real.
“How do I know you haven’t killed Joan yet?” I asked. It seemed wrong to refer to Joan as his wife.
“I’m not stupid. Your dads should have told you that. They didn’t know what was going to happen. What I’m capable of. Play the tape or the next body to be in a burning building will be Sian’s.”
He got to his feet, and there was no way for me to stop him as Sian came to the table, sitting down.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I stared at the USB key. “Your father was just here,” I said.
“What?”
She got to her feet, but I captured her hand, stopping her from following him. Alexander was escalating. It would only be a matter of time before he killed his daughter. Staring at the key in my hand, I had to figure out a way to protect her from him. To stop all of this, but I didn’t know how.
The Society hadn’t found him. No one had.
He was the one who’d come out into the open willingly. What was on the USB key? What did he want us to show?
“We need to get out of here,” Sian said.
The day I intended to spend with Sian had been ruined by her fucking father. One day soon, I intended to make him pay for everything he’d done.
****
Dante
“You cannot play this,” Harrison said.
I stared at Sian. She looked a little pale. Her hair was nice, pretty. I wished I’d been the one to take her but I had stuff to do that didn’t involve haircuts. Knowing her father had followed them told us two things. He was getting desperate and he was close. Why hadn’t The Society dealt with him? Why were they holding themselves back?
“What else can we do?” Justin asked. “He wants this on tomorrow night at ten! We don’t have much choice. We have no idea where he is. We know he’ll kill her. He never fucked loved her.”
“This is playing right into his hands,” Lucas said. “If we play this, it’s our companies. Our lives. Our reputation. There is only so much that can be done to recover from it.” Lucas grabbed a vase and threw it across the room.
Sian flinched, but her arms remained folded across her body as if warding off all pain. I hated seeing her like this, and it made me sick to my stomach to think of her hurting at all. Her father had a lot to answer to.
The video he wanted us to show was our initiation. Not our dads, ours. It was there in full technicolor, sound, and perfect pristine picture. It looked like something out of a gothic movie. Sian the virginal sacrifice to four hungry guys.
As beautiful as the moment had been, seeing it like this, knowing the world could see this, I didn’t like it. I knew we were filmed during the initiation. My father had warned me. I was always told that no one would see this.
No one.
Come tomorrow, the entire world could see this.
“What other idea do you have?” George asked. “He doesn’t bluff. We’ve seen what he’s capable of.”
“This is … no, we promised our boys this wouldn’t happen to them!” Lucas slammed his fist down on the table. “Joan is the only leverage he’s got and he knows it. There is no way he’d kill her.”
“Do you want to bet her life on it?” Harrison asked. “Do you want to be the one to say fuck it, let’s call his bluff and see if he kills her?”
For the last half an hour, it had been like this.
“We can’t show this,” Lucas said. “This is not just our boys and Joan’s girl. It’s our companies. Our reputation. He’s making sure we fail. Alexander is smart. He’s not stupid. There is an ulterior motive here. We just … we’ve got to figure it out.”
I had no idea what Alexander wanted other than our total destruction.
“Do you think this has to do with you guys more than The Society?” I asked. I tried not to speak up while our dads were arguing. In the past, it had never done me any good but seeing as my ass would be on film for the world to see, I figured it gave me a voice.
My dad, Harrison, faced me. “Stay out of this, Dante.”
He turned back toward the others and I snapped. “I will not stay fucking out of it. I will not sit back while you and your fucking friends make the decision for us. For the past few months, we have done nothing but do as we’re told. Followed the orders you have given to us. Look where that has gotten us.”
I pointed at the video. It had been paused, but it was still loud and clear. “This isn’t your ass on screen. This isn’t your girl for others to see. You promised. You and The Society, but I don’t see any of you upholding your end of the bargain. In fact, I see you all failing.” I rarely lashed out. To be honest, I wasn’t one who liked to shout or argue. It gave me a headache. All I wanted to do was destroy the evidence. To smash the key that held the truth of what we’d done, but I couldn’t do that either.
Our options were tied.
“This isn’t your decision to make,” Gideon said, coming to stand beside me. “Dante’s right. You’re not the ones who will be open and exposed.”
“This is what he wants,” Lucas said. “To divide us. We can’t let him win.”
Sian stepped forward. “Show the tape.”
I was shocked as I looked at her. “Sian?”
She held her hand up. “I’m not going to let him argue. Your dads are right, we don’t know what he’s truly capable of. Not really. Think of everything he has already done. I can’t let him kill my mother or put whatever he wants to on the internet. That is wrong. He’s taken too many people.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “Let him have his victory for … an hour, two at the most, then run the tape of him beating the crap out of Heather.”
Now this did surprise me.
“Sian, we can’t do that,” Lucas said.
“I don’t care what you can or can’t do. He’s going to put our lives on the line, I say it’s only fair we play him at his own game. We can assume he doesn’t know what we do about his involvement. Or he does know but doesn’t think we’re going to use it.” She shrugged. “I’m tired of him always seeming one step ahead of the game. The Society has that footage, tell them to leak it. They owe me.”
Silence rang out, and I looked at my dad to see what he thought.
“Sian, they’re giving you the option to walk free, to be without any repercussions. To not look back. It is what your mother wanted,” Lucas said.
“And I want him to pay.” Her gaze went to the television on the wall and I saw the sadness within her gaze. “He has taken so much from me, from all of us. I don’t want him to go unpunished. I want him to know what it’s like to be trapped with no way out. Once that video gets out, he won’t be able to go anywhere without being seen.” She looked at Lucas. “Tell The Society to leak the footage, and I will forfeit my right to leave. I will be just as initiated as they are. I will do my part.”
I looked toward the guys and knew they were as shocked as me. William looked the happiest. She was giving up the life she wanted for us.