Page 37 of Beautiful Dark Temptation

I smiled. I felt it too. Deep in my bones.Kieran would kill me. “Well, thank you. I’ll make arrangements tohave certain information sent to Maddox the moment I becomemissing. I’m sure even I can figure out how to do that.”

Someone knocked on the door and I opened it.Fox and Wren stood just outside.

“My hero!” Wren said, pulling me in for ahug. For a moment, I thought he had a knife and was going to stabme with it. I realized, if Kieran was going to make good on histhreat, he could stop me right now. His friends knew about hisdiabetes. But … I turned to him. His face had gone from pasty tored. They probably didn’t know about the gay thing.

Interesting.

“He’s all yours,” I said and exaggerated agesture into Kieran’s room on my way out.

Chapter Seventeen

Kieran

I’d been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes atthirteen while in London with Ahn, one of the only caretakers thatcared about me. She’d rushed me to the emergency center and insteadof calling Cillian, my grandfather, she had called her grandfather.I’d been saved, diagnosed, and Ahn had never mentioned it to anyoneelse. She didn’t say it outright, but I think she knew that I’dbeen given the biggest fuck you from the universe. I had to keep ithidden. If my grandfather found out I was a defect, he’d put abullet in my head. I’d learned how to manage it on my own and whenI returned to the states, I’d worked with some of my contacts toget a fake ID. On paper, Kieran Romano wasn’t a diabetic. KeithSimpson was. I paid for my treatments in cash. No paper trail. Theguys knew but they didn’t know I was gay. No one knew.

Until now.

Tomás knew my secrets because I had let himtouch me. I had let him give me the best orgasm of my life. And Icouldn’t get him out of my head. He was my weakness and the weakdie. The strong survive. That was grandfather’s motto. And until Icould get away from the fucker permanently, I had to play by hisrules.

It'd been a few weeks since Tomás hadthreatened to out me, or I had threatened to kill him, everythingstill fuzzy in my head. Either way, we avoided each other, whichwas for the best.

The Halloween party was tonight and after afew months, The Ark Boys were finally all together. It made me buzzwith excitement. Being together with my brothers made me feelcomplete.

We all settled inside the living room afterwe made sure Tomás was out of the house. Not that it mattered. Wewere all alum, so meeting wasn’t a suspicious thing. Though ifanyone were to overhear our conversation in the ambiance of darklighting and bourbon, they’d think we were planning a mass murder.Not exactly wrong. I’m sure some people would die as a result.There were nine of us involved in the scheme.

Omega Salvatore, took the sigil of Atymnios,rumored to be another one of Zeus’s bastards but never confirmed.Tor, as we came to call him, never wanted to know his patronage andto this day, he doesn’t know his true bloodline. He sat on thecream colored bergère chair. Taller than even Fox, his leather cladlegs were outstretched in front of him. His white button-down courtshirt open to reveal very defined abs. His shaggy brown hair andlight brown eyes gave him a softer look than the violence in hisnature. He had that Dylan O’Brien vibe, only if Dylan O’Brien werea sociopathic killer hellbent on vengeance for his mother’s murder.Fox and I had met Tor during our third year of high school. Tor wasa third year in college at the time. I had already discussed myidea with Fox, and we were scouting out recruits. Tor had stuck outbecause he was mean as fuck. But he was also smart, cunning, andvery focused. One night I’d asked him about the locket he wore.“It’s my mother’s. I wear it to remind myself to kill the fuckerwho killed her.”

And that was it. I knew I wanted Tor in ourcorner. So, I told him my intent. He didn’t laugh. Didn’t turn mein. He listened with that intensity of his, taking everything in,and agreed. Once Fox and I entered Arcadia U, the students startedcalling us The Ark Boys because we all lived in Arcas house. Stupidname, but it would make us less threatening than Tor’s suggestionof calling us the Bastard Assassins. We even inducted the Greekgods into our plan, used them as a theme within our design like asorority and everything branched off as a result.

Tor’s first recruit was Graham Telles. Inthe same year as Tor, Graham had claimed the sigil of Hercules. Theguy looked like Hercules. At least the cartoon version. Blond hair,blue eyes, with model good looks, though he wasn’t that muscular.Graham wore knee high boots, stockings, a petticoat and aridiculously large hat. I didn’t know much about Graham. After theyhad graduated from Arcadia U, they became ghosts, but Tor bled forhim and so I would too.

John Phillip had been Tor’s third recruit.Or actually fifth. The other two before John met accidental deathsduring their summer vacations. I didn’t ask. John had chosen thesigil of the all-seeing Argus. The choice suited him considering heknew shit no one in their right mind should know. He excelled inmeasuring an opponent, could predict their moves edging onpre-cognition. John never attended Arcadia. He didn’t hold a familyname, the reason we used him as our front man. John looked like abanker. Steel-blue eyes, blond hair, slightly crooked nose. And heeven sounded snooty, though the guy was the most down to earthindividual I’d ever met. Like the rest of us, he had a dark pastwith the cartels he’d like to see buried, burned, or hacked up intolittle pieces. His words, not mine.

Then there was Rumor Kerry. He chose tocarry Tityos, another of Zeus’s bastards. Except Tityos was a giantwho was tortured for bad shit. I met Rumor my first year at ArcadiaUniversity. We were in the same year. After he met Tor, Rumordropped out and became Tor’s wingman. The scar on his face had beenhis most prominent feature. The thick, raised tissue started at hisleft temple, circled his left eye, ran down his cheek and dippedunder his jaw. He never talked about what happened to his face.Once you got past the scar, Rumor was beautifully elegant. He hadblack straight hair down to his waist, smooth olive skin tone, anddeep-set hauntingly beautiful brown eyes. He took the matchingcream-colored club chair for some indiscernible reason, his ass onthe edge of the cushion, while his long legs extended in front ofhim. Unlike the others, Rumor didn’t bother with a Halloweencostume. He didn’t need it. I’m sure the ladies would even beintrigued by his scar tonight.

“So,” Tor said once the drinks were servedand the rest of my guys—Henry, Wren, River, Fox, and I had foundavailable seats. “Where’s this pain in the ass I’ve heard so muchabout?”

I hated that the start of this conversationalready had me on edge. “He’s been busy. Not a problem. We have himhandled.”

Tor’s dark eyes measured me as if he werelooking beyond flesh and muscle to what made me tick inside. He hadthat intensity about him. As our liaison in the darker parts of theunderworld, Tor simply blended in with all that darkness.

“We wanted to discuss our next steps,” Isaid, diverting the conversation away from Tomás.

“The takeover is going as planned. Cillianis an idiot. Not much more to say. Just waiting on the go ahead tocollect.”

“My birthday,” I said. “I’ve been summonedby dear ole grandpa to report in and I want to see his face when herealizes he’s lost it all.”

I shifted, a smile stretching muscles Ihadn’t used in so long. My body vibrated with excitement. This washappening, really happening. In less than four weeks, I’d be incontrol of Brennan Holdings and the family would lose enoughbillions to send them back to the underground to start all overagain. They were lucky I was leaving them some assets and theirillegal business. No one can call me greedy. I got antsy justthinking about it.

I loved human greed. There was nothing youcouldn’t pay for so long as you had money and information. Beingthe family bastards, we had accumulated both and used both to sinkthe family ship.

Tor got to his feet and stretched. Damn, theguy was a vision. And yet, Tomás. I couldn’t get Tomás out of mydamn head.

“We don’t want Brennan Holdings.”

I knew what Tor wanted. RestitutionSecurities, a subsidiary of Brennan Holdings. Using the sourcescoming out of Restitution, he’d start an all-out war with thefamilies responsible for murdering his mother. We all had vengeanceplans. “We,” I looked at all my brothers, “are all in withattaining every single one of our goals. That was the vow we madealmost three years ago. That vow remains true today. Taking overBrennan Holdings is just the beginning.”

“Just the beginning,” they all said one byone.

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