Page 31 of Darkness

The little bitch winks at me. She’s clever.

There’s more to the Chamber than a brick cell and a vast wall. Bricks don’t usually moan for no good reason. Ivy must be clued in on the unfortunate souls in the walls surrounding her.

“I wanted to talk to you about Eva.”

She sits taller, focusing on me completely. “How is she? Is she okay?”

I rub the tension in the back of my neck. “She’s frustrated.”

“She wants to leave?” Ivy tilts her head.

“Partly. She also wants me to find you—”

“She still doesn’t know I’m here?”

I shake my head.

“She’s going to slice off your cojones,” she mutters.

Tensing my thighs, I inhale sharply. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. She’s angry at me. She shared your story about your parents, then I shut down when she asked me to open up to her.”

Ivy’s brow furrows. “You like her? You like Eva? More than you want to…”

I slump back into my seat with a groan. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”

“You’re like me,” she says. “We hide our emotions from everyone so we don’t have to admit who we truly are. We hide the monster. Me, I know who I am. I hide it out of fear of rejection from my sister. But you… why do you hide?”

“Fucked if I know. Want to hazard a guess?”

“I think… being club president means a lot rides on your shoulders. Your family… no, the club is your family. You hide who you really are so your brothers won’t know the parts of you that could fail them. That could fail the brotherhood…” She smiles. “The only people who truly accept you. Then again, have they really accepted you if they haven’t seen your worst?”

“You see all that from meeting me a couple of times?”

“I’m pretty fucking smart. I can read people. Getting wasted the night we got taken was the first night I let my defenses down. I never do that. Not ever. And look where it got us. In some clubhouse in America, separated from each other, and poor Eva is having games played with her emotions. So yeah. I can read you, Nycto, like an open fucking book. This game you’re playing with Eva isn’t going to work or end well. And if you fuck with her, I’ll fuck with you.”

“I’m not playing a game. I’m trying to do this the best way I know how—”

“By lying to her? By keeping us apart?”

I stand, the chair legs scraping along the concrete floor. “If the two of you get back together, you will hatch a plan to escape or con someone into using their phone. I can’t risk it. I can’t risk the buyers knowing you’re both here.”

“Then let us go. We’ll go into hiding. If we’re together, we can figure out our own shit.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ivy. They would have been tracing your movements for months before they took you, waiting for the opportunity to strike. The minute there’s even a hint you’re alive, they will have their men after you faster than you can wipe your own ass.”

“Ew… crudo.”

“The fact that was the only thing that stood out in that sentence proves my point. You can’t handle it out there, Ivy. They will find you. They will capture you, and they will sell you off. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to search to rescue you both if I were even still around after they found out I lied about your deaths because, don’t forget, I’m covering for you. You leaving at any point puts not only my ass on the chopping block but also my VP’s, the ass you couldn’t take your eyes off.”

Her eyes snap open wide, and she gasps. “What? No, I wasn’t—”

“Void is complicated at the best of times. If you like him, even as a friend, then you need to remember he’s my VP. His head is on the line as much as mine is.”

She gulps and slumps into her seat. “You’ve put your club and its members all in danger for Eva and me?”

I throw my hands in the air. “Finally, one of you gets it.”

“Why?”

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