Page 101 of Merciless Prince
His lips curved into another half-smile. “I guess that’s a fair point.” He lifted one hand off the steering wheel to scratch his jaw. “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes!” I tapped an impatient foot on the floor. “Honestly, I think I have arightto know after all the shit I’ve been through because of your little club.”
“Okay. Fine.” He went silent for a moment, seemingly contemplating where to begin. “The club was started by a man named Alistair Connerty in 1859. He was a wealthy landowner in a town not far from here. His wife was murdered by another man. A man who was even wealthier than Alistair. That man used his wealth and influence to escape justice. Bribed the judge and everyone else who was involved in the case.”
“Let me guess. Alistair got his revenge by killing him?”
“Yes. He banded together with some of his friends who believed in the same moral code as him. They lured the other man out of his house and took turns stabbing him. Then they made it look like it was a random attack by a highwayman.”
I raised my brows. “So after that they realized how much they liked killing people and decided to keep doing it?”
“Yes and no,” Killian replied. “The murder of Alistair’s wife and subsequent lack of court justice made them all realize how corrupt the system is. Not just here, but everywhere throughout the world. People they considered to be evildoers were able to slip through the cracks of the system, as long as they had the right level of influence. Alistair and his friends considered it their calling to right that wrong. So they pooled their money and resources together and founded the Hellfire Club right here in New York. It spread out from there, and now there are chapters all over the country. Several overseas, too.”
“Why did they choose that name? To scare people?”
“Not exactly. It got its name because Hell is supposed to be a place where evil souls are subjected to punishment. That’s the society’s main mission: to punish those who manage to slip through the cracks of the justice system. Murderers, child molesters, wife-killers, and so on. People who deserve it.”
My nose wrinkled. “So... you’re like Dexter with a fuckload of cash.”
“Yeah, I suppose you could put it like that,” he said, lips twitching with amusement.
“And you’re the leader of the New York chapter now?”
“At the collegiate level, yes. That’s why I’m responsible for you,” he said, briefly turning to eye me.
I fell silent and stared out at the trees on the side of the road, not quite knowing what to say next.
Killian spoke up again a moment later. “You know, I thought you’d have a lot more questions than that,” he said, briefly glancing at me.
I tentatively looked back at him, heart hammering. “Honestly, I don’t know what…” I trailed off and started again. “I guess I’m just surprised. I totally convinced myself that you and your friends were devil-worshipping sex cultists or something. I half expected you to tell me that you sacrifice babies during the full moon and bathe in the blood of virgins every Friday night.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” he said, eyes crinkling at the corners. “We’re just regular old vigilantes.”
My forehead wrinkled, and I tilted my head slightly to one side. “So what exactly did Joe Cafferty do to earn the society’s wrath?”
“Long story. Have you ever heard of the Vandenberg family?” Killian asked, turning his head back to face the road.
I shrugged. “I don’t think so.”
“They’re a crime family.”
“Like the Mafia?”
He nodded. “Similar, yeah. I think they consider themselves to be a classier version of the Mafia,” he said. “They’re also a literal family, unlike all the Mafia families out there. The bosses are all Vandenbergs by name.”
“Right. Was Joe Cafferty a member?”
“No. He was one of their lawyers. Got a lot of them off for a lot of shady shit over the years.” Killian grimaced and rubbed his jaw. “I guess it wasn’t surprising that he was so good at representing criminals like that, because it turned out he was into a lot of fucked up stuff himself.”
My eyes widened. “What did he do?”
“He groomed his neighbor’s daughter into being in a relationship with him. She was eleven when it started. By the time she was twelve, she was pregnant.”
My stomach lurched. “Twelve?”
Killian nodded, lips pressed in a thin line. “When her parents realized what was going on, she admitted who the father was, and it all came out from there. Joe Cafferty was arrested, but then the charges were suddenly dropped a few weeks later. The girl miscarried, all the evidence mysteriously disappeared, and all the corroborating witnesses suddenly changed their minds about wanting to testify against him. Even the girl’s family.”
“The Vandenbergs got to them?”
