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“Insurance?” I lifted a brow.

“Something that would ensure that even if a new member wanted to leave at any point due to a disagreement with us and our lifestyle, he wouldn’t feel the need to talk about it to anyone.”

Comprehension dawned on me as I read between the lines. Of course. They wanted something to blackmail me with if I ever decided to try and screw them.

“A secret for a secret,” I said. “Is that what you’re asking from me?”

“You’re a smart man, Mason,” Jacob said with a broad grin.

I leaned back in my chair, my pulse racing. Shit. I hadn’t been expecting this.

Really, I should’ve realized they’d ask me for something along these lines. After all, they needed to make absolutely damn sure new members couldn’t rat on them to the authorities if they were doing any illegal shit (which I was sure they were).

“So what do you have for us?” Elder Thibodeaux asked, narrowing his eyes.

My mind whirled. Fuck. As much of a dipshit screw-up as I’d been in my younger years, I’d never done anything that would render me capable of being blackmailed. Sure, I’d done a few lines of coke in a club here and there, and other similarly illegal shit… but that was all stuff that most young, wealthy city guys experimented with at some point or another. Nothing that these Path of the Covenant guys would realistically be able to use against me if they felt the need to keep my trap shut.

No, they wanted something serious. Something dark.

I didn’t have anything to give them, so that meant I had to make something up. Something they could ‘verify’ in some way so they’d know I wasn’t lying, even though I was. Bonus points if it was something they liked hearing about.

“There is one thing,” I said slowly as the first inklings of an idea seeped into my head. “But I’ve never told anyone about this. I’m not sure I can tell you, either. It’s pretty bad.”

Jacob leaned forward. “As Elder Fontenot said earlier, anything you say during this interview will remain in this room. We’re hardly going to call the police on you and attract attention to our little commune, are we? That’s the last thing we want, given how much we value our privacy.”

“I guess not.”

“This is purely for our own insurance purposes, as I said before. We will not judge you. If and when you enter our commune as a new member, you will be reborn as a new man. Anything you did in your previous life won’t matter anymore.”

I rubbed my jaw. “Okay,” I finally said, raising my eyes to the Elders again. “This is a long story. You might recall me saying a few hours ago that I went through a rough stage as a teenager?”

The Elders nodded.

“When I was seventeen, I got kicked out of my prep school in Manhattan. My parents weren’t happy, obviously, but instead of punishing me properly, they shipped me off to a private boarding school right here in Louisiana. St. Charles Parish. I was there for six months. I suppose they thought that was punishment enough, having to leave my friends behind.”

That was actually true. I knew the Elders would look into my story, and they would be able to verify what I’d said by looking at old school records.

“Anyway, the school was right near a massive wetlands area. I used to go for walks there after classes were done for the day. It was just something to pass the time, because I was so fucking bored being stuck out there.”

I paused for a breath, and the Elders nodded again to show they were following me.

“One day I was walking along and I heard a weird sound. I was near a heavily-wooded area, right next to one of the rivers. I followed the sound, and I came across a classmate of mine with a girl.” I paused, my lips tightening. “His name was Nathan Greer. He was attacking the girl. Raping her.”

“What did you do?” Elder Fontenot leaned forward, his eyes flickering with curiosity.

“I dragged him off her and started beating him up. The girl ran away before I could talk to her or help her in any other way. But the friend of mine from school… he was smaller than me. Weaker. He couldn’t get away from me. So I kept punching him. I just couldn’t stand the thought of what he’d done to this girl. She looked young. Definitely a virgin until Nathan attacked her. But after what he did, she was spoiled. Ruined. I believe a woman’s body is there for us to use in many ways, but not like that. Her virginity is for her husband only. Even though I was going through my wild stage and I’d mostly turned my back on my faith, I still believed that.”

“I see. Go on,” Jacob said, eyes lit with interest. I knew he’d love that line about the girl being ‘ruined’, as much as it fucking disgusted me to say.

“I killed Nathan with my bare hands,” I said. “He destroyed this girl for her future husband, and I was just so angry. I kept hitting him and hitting him and….”

I trailed off as I thought about how to continue the fictional story.

“When I saw what I’d done, I panicked. I thought I’d have to turn myself in. But then I started to think I’d done the right thing. Given him what he deserved. So I dragged his body to the river and threw him in. That particular area has a lot of alligators. I knew he’d never be found, and he never was.”

“You’re telling us you murdered a man.”

I nodded. Nathan Greer really did exist, and if the Elders looked him up, they’d have to believe my story. I didn’t actually witness him raping a girl, and I didn’t kill him, but I knew he was a real piece of shit. He’d been charged with sexual assault multiple times, but he got off scot-free because of his rich father. He was also mixed up with all sorts of shady drug-related shit. He went missing one day around the river I mentioned in my story, and he was never found. Most likely something to do with the aforementioned drug stuff.

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