Page 46 of Don't Look Away

“Oh, my God, did you see his face?” Christian is holding his stomach, beside himself.

Jackson mimics Lucas with a dorky voice. “Uh, uh. What the fuck?”

I lean against the doorway. “You guys are so fucking bizarre,” I say, shaking my head. “Listen, guys, I need to talk to the three of you.” Everyone looks in my direction, now seeing me for the first time since I entered the room. “Privately,” I add for clarification.

All three guys look at each other, clearly confused by my out-of-the-blue request.

“Uh, where’s Roman?” Lucas asks, still looking tired and confused.

“This isn’t about Roman,” I say firmly. If I’m going to convince them to help me, then I need to exude confidence. I need to be certain. “I have something to discuss with the three of you.”

They all glance at each other, as though looking to each other for permission.

“Fine, fuck it,” Lucas says, getting up from the couch. “We might as well hear her out. Let’s take this in the study.”

Pushing out a shallow breath, I follow them down the hall to the study. Everyone in the living room–and there were probably about ten people—heard what I said about this not involving Roman, and I’m 100% sure that’s going to get back to him somehow. But if I manage to pull this off, then hopefully the decision is made before Roman can burst in and put a stop to things.

I’m risking Roman’s wrath, though. He’s going to be livid when he finds out I’ve gone over his head. But that’s a risk I’m going to have to take. Nothing is more important than getting justice for Bree. Nothing. I should have been there when she needed me on that beach, and I wasn’t. But I can be here for her now.It’s all I can give her.

There are a few people hanging out in the study, and Lucas addresses them as we walk in. “We need the room,” he says with a sweeping motion, indicating the door.

There’s a guy with two girls on his lap, and another couple making out on the leather sofa. They pop up immediately, and scatter, leaving the room.

Jackson closes the door, and locks it, then crosses his arms over his broad chest. He’s the largest of all four guys, muscular, and more handsome than he has any right to be. But his expression is always fixed in a frown, and if I’m being honest, I’m more than a little intimidated by him.

“What’s this about?” Christian asks, sitting on the arm of the sofa.

I just stand in the middle of the huge room awkwardly. I should probably sit down while I lay out my plan, but I’m feeling nervous, so it’s better if I stand. “I want to go through the initiation ritual,” I say in a rush, just getting straight to the point.

Again, all three guys look confused by my sudden declaration.

“Uh, yeah, I don’t think Roman’s going to go for that,” Lucas says, grabbing a marble sphere off the mantel, and tossing it in the air, then catching it again, over and over.

“Yeah, if you somehow managed to get nominated, we’d need his vote,” Christian says. “And I can tell you, there’s no way he’d agree.”

I swallow and shift from one foot to the other. “I know. That’s why I’m asking you to recuse him on the basis of unfair bias.”

There’s a long stretch of silence before Jackson speaks. “We can’t do that. The rules are clear. We need all four votes to proceed with an initiation.”

I take my phone out of my back pocket, unlock it, and pull up the photo I took earlier. I show my screen to Christian, who is closest to me. “According to this, if I can prove unfair bias, then I can request Roman be recused from voting. And I am.”

Pinching his brows together, Christian’s eyes quickly scan the image. “Fucking-A. Where’d you get this?”

Jackson and Lucas walk over, and glance at the image as well, both pulling back, shocked. I’ve managed to surprise them, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Jackson grabs the phone from my hand to look at the image more closely. “This is from the bylaws.” He looks at me with alarm. “Where’d you get this?”

I snatch my phone back. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Where’d you get that, Lux?” Christian asks, taking a step toward me. His usual smile has melted into a scowl. “This is serious. That book is for member's eyes only. If there’s a security breach, then we need to know about it.”

I can tell they’re not going to let this go until I tell them. “There’s a hidden compartment in Roman’s bookcase. I wasn’t snooping,” I hasten to add. “The panel wasn’t secured properly….” I shrug. “And I found the book.”

By sheer luck. Almost like the universewantedme to find it, or if I believed in heaven, maybe it was Bree showing it to me.

Christian releases a breath, and starts pacing. Jackson groans, and Lucas looks slightly panicked. I didn’t really see much of the bylaws, to be honest. I was mainly focused on finding anything related to initiation, and once I found that I put the book back. But they don’t need to know that, right?

Lucas blows out a breath and addresses Jackson and Christian. “We can’t initiate her without Roman’s vote. He’d have our heads.”

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