“Follow me. We end this tonight and make sure she taps the fuck out.” The three of them exchange a look. I grind my teeth when Adonis begins to shake his head and Ares nods, they do this all the time like they can read each other’s minds.
“How long are we leaving her?” Apollo asks.
“As long as it takes for her to break. We have three days before school starts back and I want her gone before then so you four can focus on the trials,” I answer as I turn my back and climb inside my car. Cronos jumps in beside me. I turn and quirk a brow at him. “Since when do you ride with me?” Cronos always makes it a point to drive by himself so he isn’t trapped inside a car with one of us in case we question him.
“Just drive, I don’t have time for your shit,” he growls, facing forward, focusing his gaze out the windshield. The triplets tail me out of the school. I plan to head toward Mount Matterhorn, it borders on the Italian border but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Even if she does manage to cross the border, it’s not like her father or grandfather have any pull in Italy. They may be the mafia but they are the American mafia, they seem to think they have a say over the Colombians and the Russians but it’s a loose hold. Andreas runs the Bratva and even he has pulled away from the rule of the Murdochs. The Colombians aren’t happy with the change of power to Erika Murdoch even though her husband claims to run it, they won’t keep their hold on her home country for long. Technically, it's London’s home country as well but the girl was raised as an American and it shows in the way her mouth constantly runs and how she dresses. “You can’t kill her,” Cronos bites out, keeping his gaze focused out his window.
“She is a means to an end. I won’t run the risk of her surviving the trials?—”
“She’s already beating the triplets as it is.” My grip on the steering wheel tightens at the reminder.
“She doesn’t know that!” I grit out through clenched teeth.
“Once her father meets with Costa, she will know. This may be a test of your own but if she does manage to survive this, she would have completed a third trial.” I snap my gaze to his and frown.
“What the fuck are you saying?” I'm fed up with his cryptic bullshit.
“Escape the unknown unscathed. That’s a trial, Artemis, we are taking her to the fucking unknown. If she passes your little test, then you just gave her another advantage over the triplets.”
“And what about you? You plan on finishing the trials this time around, brother?” The moment the words spew from my mouth, regret churns inside me when he clamps his mouth closed and shuts down. “Nos, I didn’t–”
“Yeah, you did,” he bites back. “My life was over years ago, he made sure of that and so did you.” I jerk back like he hit me. I knew I fucked up during our trials but I didn’t mean for it to happen and it will forever haunt me. My weakness cost my brother his soul. I did this to my twin. I forced him to become the shell of the person he is now. We spend the rest of the drive in silence, lost in our own thoughts. For three years Cronos has barely been able to stand the sight of me. I know he had all the mirrors in his cabin at the back of the school grounds removed. He hates the sight of himself and that’s because of me, he was forced to work at the school as punishment by Costa. The thing is, I think he actually likes working at the school and club.
I’m pulled from my thoughts when my phone rings. I check the caller ID on the dash and growl before hitting answer. Our father’s voice filters through the sound system of the car.
“What the fuck have you done?” Costa shouts so fucking loud I have to turn the volume down.
“You said to do what we needed to make sure the bitch doesn’t compete. I’m doing that!” I snarl.
“Watch that fucking tone, boy, you don’t want your precious brothers paying the price for your insolence, do you?” I grind my teeth so fucking hard my jaw begins to ache. “I thought so. Now, where the fuck is the girl? Her father called and had a lot to say about the trials beginning early.”
“In the back seat, passed out,” I grit out.
“You either turn the fuck around and put the whore back or you make sure she never returns. There is no third fucking option. Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” I snap before ending the call. I can’t wait for the day that Costa is no longer Godfather. We may refer to the other founders of Godfathers too, but the reality is that there can only be one and Costa is fucking it. Since the day we came of age, we have been forced to do whatever the sick bastard ordered so he could remain in power, but this year, that ends. We don’t have a choice. If we fail the five of us die, this is our only hope. London Murdoch must perish in order for us to live.
“I won’t kill her,” Cronos says in a tone devoid of all emotion.
“Then you may as well pull that piece from your side and kill our brothers and us. Either she stops breathing or we all do. Is that what you want?”
We arrive just under an hour later and get to work quickly. I instruct the triplets to scope out the area and make sure there is no one around as I drag her limp body from the back seat and sling her over my shoulder. Cronos leads the way along the trail with the duffle bag in his hand. Ten minutes later my shoulder begins to ache and I have no choice but to change her position and carry her bridal style. The little shit is stronger than I thought she’d be, Cronos had to inject her again when she began to stir twenty minutes ago. Her intoxicating scent assaults me, she smells like rain and…sex. What the fuck? How the hell can someone reek of sex unless… was she fucking someone earlier? No, she just got out of the shower when I used the master key to enter her room, perks of being the headmaster.
“How deep are we going?” Adonis asks as he and the other two catch up to us.
“I want her away from the trails and deep in the brush,” I say.
“Dude, the trail stopped like a couple miles back. No one uses this entry because of how dense the woods are and the mountain is too hard to climb up on this side,” Apollo voices. I roll my eyes.
“No shit, why the fuck do you think I picked this side?” I clip out, ignoring their muttered insults. I quicken my pace and stay close to my twin's back, as he pushes branches out of the way, careful not to break any or disturb much in the hopes she won’t be able to track her way out of here. I’m not stupid enough to think that she isn’t trained for situations like this but I can bet she has never been trained to escape something like this whilst freezing and naked.
We continue to trek through the wilderness like we are pros when in truth, none of us have ever been camping or spent a night in the wild. Cronos pushes through a thick patch of shrubs and comes to a stop in the middle of a small clearing, dropping the duffle bag before turning back to me, pinning me with a cold stare.
“Don’t fucking start. This is the humane way to do it since you won’t let us strangle the bitch,” I sneer. The triplets laugh as they fan out around the small space. Unlike Cronos, those three enjoy the goriness this life we lead affords them.
“Who gets to strip her?” Adonis asks gleefully.
“I volunteer as tribute!” Ares shouts with a wide grin on his face.