Page 19 of Now You're Mine

“Yo!” he calls out. The door is still open, and a figure fills the doorway. It’s Nathan, and he has a fast food bag in his hands. He steps into the room and places it on the desk.

As he’s leaving, he glances at me, but his gaze skates away quickly. He doesn’t even smile. It’s like he’s uncomfortable just being here. I’m sure it’s about all that shit that went down last night. And I remember now, he was close to James, wasn’t he? Ash told me that. Does Nathan know who I am? Does he know I’m the reason James was in jail?

Fuck. Whatever. I can’t worry about who hates me. I’ve dethroned their precious Sacred Sons, so I’m sureeveryonehates me by now. I genuinely don’t care. My bucket of fucks is so empty there’s a hole in the bottom.

“What’s this for?” I ask Christian, flicking my chin at the food.

“Roman wanted to make sure you were eating,” he says with a shrug.

I cross my arms over my chest. “It’s probably poisoned.”

“If there’s anything you need,” he says, ignoring my comment. “I’ve got you. Just reach out.”

He’sgot me?“I’m dismantling the Burning Crown. Why help me? Why do you even care if I’m eating or not, Christian?”

That stops him cold, and I think I actually manage to set him off balance with that question. He turns back to me. “Whether you like it or not, Lux, you were initiated, and you’re family now. We look out for our own.”

I snort at the absurdity of that statement. “Is that what you guys tell yourselves?” I shake my head. “Typical. You fuck me overso hard,and yet you still manage to make yourselves the heroes of the story. Brilliant.”

I did say I wasn’t going to provoke him, but damn. He’s not making it easy for me to bite my tongue. I have so much anger swirling around inside me, and it’s impossible to keep it all contained.

“Lux.” He drops his head and then looks back up at me. “You have to believe me, Roman didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

I just look at him like,are you kidding?“What did he seriously think was going to happen?”

He lifts his hands. “He’d get you to retract your statement, and then you two would go your separate ways. No harm, no foul.”

No harm, no foul?

Holy shit.I can feel myself losing it again. I can’t believe what’s coming out of Christian’s mouth right now. It’s unreal that someone could besodelusional.

“Christian, he manipulated me from thesecondwe met. Before that, even!”

It all makes sense now. Me getting accepted to such a prestigious school. And Bree getting accepted, too. The scholarship I thought was such a God-send. The Preference Ceremony. I was all manufactured to draw me in and make it easier to manipulate me.

Christian shifts on his feet. “Lux, listen. Don’t be pissed at Roman—”

“Don’t be pissed at Roman?” I practically scream.

He holds his hands up. “Okay, yes, be pissed at him. He deserves it. We all do. It was a collective decision. But Roman and his brother are insanely close. He thought he was doing the right thing.”

I’m not even going to get into this with him, because it doesn’t matter what lies they tell themselves. Everyone thinks they’re the hero, right? What matters is the truth.

“And Bree?” I swallow hard. “Did you guys have anything to do with her death?”

I don’t know what I expect him to say. He’d be stupid to admit any involvement in her murder. But maybe I can tell if he’s lying.

He just shakes his head.

I narrow my eyes at him. “So this was all just a coincidence. Is that what I’m supposed to believe? You guys bring us here, involve me in all this shit, and then my friend justrandomlyends up dead?”

My mind is cast back to what Bree wrote in her last note to me.

…I’ve discovered something about the Sacred Sons…

Maybe she’d discovered why they brought me here? It would make sense. Did someone tell her something? Did she overhear something? And knowing that, of course, she’d want to get us both out of here. Someone obviously stopped her before she could tell me, though. Who?

“Okay, granted, all of that looks fishy. But, Lux, listen, we’ll find out who killed Bree. But don’t take this out on the Burning Crown as a whole,” he says. “I’m asking you to put a stop to this bullshit with Ash.”

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