“We have a housekeeper.” I frowned. “It’s one cup.”
“Once a week, Red, and I’ve seen fifty more just like it.”
“Keeping count? Really?”
“Fifty-one, to be precise.”
I sighed. “Jude.”
He walked off. “I don’t know how to say this nicely, but you’re going to be blindsided again, and I probably will be, too.” He dumped the offending mug into the kitchen sink and filled it with water before coming back. “I’ve only been initiated for a year. I can tell you what I know, but it’s not everything. Things are only revealed via gossip, which isn’t always accurate, and by experiencing them ourselves.”
In answer, I dropped to the couch, waiting.
He remained standing but folded his hands over the back of the recliner across from me and rolled his neck. “Chess Club. Nightingale. The society. Peridot’s elite and almighty. We now belong to a division that stretches across seas, borders, and is harder to tap into than any other in the world. For not anyone can request entry and initiate. You are born in, or you marry in.”
“Chess Club,” I repeated, remembering some of the guys at school say it now and then. I’d thought they were covering up something stupid, but nothing like this.
Jude continued. “The initiation is brutal, and you only know the half of it. They take what you love most, and they make you destroy it.” He huffed, hands scrunching into the leather as he stared out the window to the night sky. “Why? Because you’re not a connection that members can trust if you aren’t willing to sacrifice all you hold dear.”
What did you do, Jude? I didn’t ask.
He stared at me then, green eyes bright in the firstborn hours of a new day. “It’s ancient and outdated, sometimes sexist and cult-like, but it’s a world most people only hear rumors about, dream about, create stories about—never able to hear enough about. If you’re in, you’re protected for life.” He tipped a shoulder. “Any crime you commit, within reason, can be wiped. Any financial difficulties you may face can be fixed. Any education, job, or even funds to start a business is yours. Any political ties or favors you need can be arranged, and the list goes on.”
And his father and my mother were two of the current ringleaders.
He stalked out of the living room, and I sat with the dark, with the knowledge I might have entered into something that could make or break me.
Returning with a pen and paper, Jude knelt before the coffee table and drew a diamond. A star at each point. “There are factions in four places of the world. Europe, Asia, Australia, and right here on the very edge of the US of A.”
He then went on to write the names of each faction’s alphas.
London’s alpha, of whom I’d briefly met, was Benjamin Gabe.
Australia’s was a woman—Amanda Bright.
Japan had a young man by the name of Leon Arakan.
“His father recently died of a stroke, leaving Leon the youngest alpha in Nightingale history.”
“How old is he?” I whispered, unsure why.
Jude, noticing, smirked. “You would’ve found this out on your own, and you’re in, so I’m allowed to tell you. Chill.”
“You like that annoying word.”
His eyes dipped to my mouth. “I like a lot of other annoying things, too.” They then returned to the paper, and with my heart twisting, I watched him scrawl twenty-two beside Leon’s name.
“Whoa.”
“Yep,” Jude said. “His father was a decent guy, but man, was he tough on him. If there’s anyone equipped to deal, it’s Leon.”
“He wasn’t there tonight,” I said, unless I’d missed him.
“He’s exempt while grieving.” He wrote down dates, one three months from now. “There’s an annual hunt for those who wish or need to find themselves a bride and want to choose from the offspring of members.”
“No,” I said, knowing it was pointless to doubt what he was saying.
“Yes, this year’s ended rather swiftly. The three males knew what they wanted and didn’t fuck around.” While I grappled with that, Jude went on. “If someone betrays us, then they’re tortured before the entire enclave in that country.”
My mind began to spin. I was thinking maybe I was still a little too drunk.
“… out of all the factions, ours has the reputation as the most ruthless.”
I listened, I watched, and I couldn’t help but ask, “Did you want to join?”
Jude stood, taking the paper with him to the kitchen. “I did, yeah.”
I followed, getting a glass of water while he scavenged for something in the third drawer. “So you knew it was messed up, and you still wanted in?”
Lighter in hand, he lit a corner of the paper aflame and dropped it into the sink.
We both watched it burn.
“Red, no one knows just how messed up something is until they experience it for themselves.” Jude stared at the vanishing paper, then turned on the tap. “I’d wanted it more than anything in the world.”
He went upstairs before I could needle him further, but I stayed until the scent of smoke cleared from the kitchen, more questions arising than what were answered.
The bell over the door tinkled, and I marched straight for the counter, smiling at Veronica, who was working the old coffee machine. “She in?”
Veronica rolled her eyes. “Please, she lives here.”
I laughed, but it died quickly when my aunt appeared, her hair pulled back in a loose braid with a mermaid clip and flour dusting her denim apron. “Twice in one week,” she said with forced surprise. “Am I lucky, or what?”
“Extremely,” I said, grinning.
She leaned over the chocolate powder-coated counter, studying me. “That husband of yours must be a real fraud, after all.”
“The worst kind,” I said, but I was still grinning, unable to quit thinking about the previous night. That could be because I was still feeling a little worse for wear after all that champagne, or because I was struggling to make sense of Jude’s actions.
Protector or extreme tormentor? Both, possibly.
I’m the only one allowed to taste your tears.
“Out with it,” she said. “You’ve got that look.”
I feigned offense. “I came for the coffee.”
“And to ask me something. You know the saying about eyes being the windows into people’s souls?” I nodded, and she stabbed a finger at me. “Never believed it until I held you in my arms. They give you away every time.”
I’d need to work on that. Pity Jude didn’t destroy my soul instead of my heart. Maybe that would have hurt less. I was determined to make sure he didn’t decimate both.
I chewed my lip, taking a quick look around the almost empty coffee shop. “My dad.”
Ray instantly stiffened. “You haven’t asked about him in years.”
“He’s your brother,” I said unnecessarily. “I need to know one thing and one thing only, and I know you can help me.”
After seeing the type of people Nightingale kept on the payroll and knowing the lifestyle my mother liked to live, I couldn’t help but wonder if I needed to ask more questions.