Page 161 of Always Us

“I um—” I’m so hot under these lights I feel dizzy. Or maybe it’s just because I’m nervous. “I love him.” I take a breath. “I love Garret and I forgave him for what he did. He’s young, and people tend to do stupid things when they’re young. He needed to do all that stuff and get it out of his system.”

“And is it out of his system? Is he no longer doing those things?”

I hesitate. If they think Garret’s a new man who doesn’t do anything bad, they might try to get him back.

“Garret isn’t perfect,” I say. “He still has some issues to work through.”

“What kind of issues?”

“You’ve asked her enough,” Pearce says. “She doesn’t have to answer your questions. Garret is no longer a member. His issues are no longer your concern.”

“That may be true,” the man says. “But you’re still a member, Pearce. And what your son does could affect us. We don’t want more images of him on the news, crashing cars and destroying hotel rooms.”

“He’s not doing that,” Pearce says. “And if he does, I will stop it before the media gets word of it.”

“Jade.” The man pauses. “I trust that Garret and Pearce have informed you that any and all information you know about this group must be kept confidential, and that if you ever share this information with others, your protection under the newly instituted rule will no longer be valid, putting you at risk.”

“Yes. I understand.”

The man nods at someone on the side of the room. “Jade and Garret may leave now.”

I look to my right and see a robed man walking toward me, holding a blindfold.

“Oh, and Jade.” The man with the gavel is speaking again.

“Yes?”

Beneath the hood, on his dark shadowy face, I see his mouth curve up just slightly. “Welcome to the family.”

An icy chill runs down my spine as the blindfold is wrapped around my eyes. Why did he say that? What does that mean? Is it good or bad? I need to get out of here. I know they said I’m safe, but I don’t feel safe and I want out of here as fast as possible.

I feel Garret’s hand around mine. He leads me out of the room into the cold, damp hallway and back outside. Garret helps me into the car and I feel it drive away. After we’ve been driving a while, Garret takes the blindfold off me.

We still can’t talk because of the microphones in the car. So I just lay against him and close my eyes and try to calm down. That whole experience totally freaked me out. The only good thing that came out of it was that Victoria got punished. Making her poor doesn’t seem like that big of a punishment, but I guess to her it is. And now Sadie won’t be first lady.

I smile at that. I used to want to try to be friends with my half sisters but not anymore. I’m done trying. Like Garret told me before, you don’t have to be friends with your family. And after today’s events, I know for sure that Sadie and I will never be friends.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

36

GARRET

I hated being back there. Back in that underground dungeon where they have their meetings. It’s not really a dungeon. It’s just a room with tiered seating. But when they dim the lights and do that spotlight thing, it looks like a damn dungeon. Then they add the black robes with the hoods and you feel like you’re in a medieval torture chamber, preparing to be beheaded.

Their usual meetings aren’t like that, but this was a sentencing, so they have to make it dark and ominous. Jade was shaking the whole time. I knew she’d be scared, standing there all by herself. And I wouldn’t have left her side, but then I found out I’d be sitting right behind her so I went along with it. My dad was seated next to me. Across from us, in front of Jade, was the ruling council. They give out the punishments. I don’t know who’s on the council. I couldn’t see their faces.

I never wanted Jade to be anywhere near those people. Not just the ruling council, but any of the members. But she insisted we do this, thinking they’d leave us alone if we did. And although I think it was good the members saw her in person and were told that she can never be harmed, I still didn’t like having her so close to them.

When we’re back at the house, we go up to my room and Jade collapses on the bed.

“Jade, get up.”

“I just need to rest a minute after all that stress.”

“Take your clothes off.”

She sits up. “What? Garret, I don’t want to have sex right now.”

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