Page 20 of The Pretty Psycho

But the Academy looked like a ghost town, devoid of life, and the slithering panic I was trying to ignore during our drive here had started awakening, pushing through my walls.

There were people here who were more loyal to us, to The Brotherhood, than they would ever be to their own families, but that didn't mean I didn't worry. If Andries had left, that meant my father was making his move, and he wasn't a man I would ever want to send the men and women who placed their trust in my hands after, believing in the cause and following my every lead.

Most of them were still too young, too fucking bright for this fucked-up world we were living in, but just like me, they had no other choice other than to follow what their mothers and fatherswanted them to do. What they wanted them to be, regardless of their own wishes and needs.

My father once told me that dreams meant nothing for people like us, people like me and my brother, because they were just fragments of weak minds that weren't able to cope with reality. He failed to mention that we would actually follow the dreams of another, but they'd be called nightmares, created by the man that sired us.

"It looks like a ghost town," Dante murmured from the back seat, his eyes probably taking in the surrounding area. It didn't help that the eerie feeling followed us all the way from the hospital to here. It also didn't help that I’d left my heart in that room with Vega, splitting myself in half, because I knew I would never be able to live with myself if I hid now when things got tough. "Where is everyone?"

"I have no fucking idea," I gritted out, more pissed than ever that something like this could've happened with us practically next door. Three days ago everything seemed fine. I'd made it my job to follow every single move Andries made.

I'd made it my mission to keep an eye out on him because I knew that he was the mole reporting everything to my father. He was the reason I stayed away from Vega, among other things, because I was sure my father would've used her against me, and the last thing I wanted was to bring Gerard Zylla's attention to her. She already had enough shit to deal with and my father wasn't a burden she needed to carry.

But somehow I'd missed this.

I got distracted, too wrapped up in my own shit to notice anything weird the last time I spoke with Andries. I couldn't even remember that conversation right now because I was too worried about Vega and her whereabouts to think rationally. Andries didn't want to go after her, to look for her, and I detestedthe little smirk he wore when I went into his office, demanding for the search party to continue.

She's just another girl, he said, grinning from ear to ear because he knew he got it. He got my weakness.

What he failed to realize was that this girl, this woman, was the one I'd burn the world down for. She was the one I would kill for, maim and destroy for. She was the one I would love for the rest of my life, no matter how long or short it turned out to be, and I would do it out in the open, because I was too tired of loving her in the shadows.

I was too tired of hiding people I cared about, always having to think about my father and his next steps.

His little empire would crumble and I would take it all. Everything he had would become mine, that I was sure of.

Jax stopped the car, turning off the ignition, and without a second to spare, I jumped out, pulling out my gun from the holster I had strapped on before we left the hospital, and started walking toward the door of the admin building.

Wind started picking up, wrapping me in its cold embrace, before I reached the entrance, slowly pushing the door open. Darkness greeted me and just as Jax and Dante moved closer to me, I pushed inside, expecting to see something—someone—anything, really.

Jax said that one of our people sent an SOS message through the group we had created for them on the web, explaining that people were leaving, that Andries was gone, and she could hear shots being fired in the main building.

I just hoped it was all a misunderstanding. I didn't give a fuck about Andries or the fact that he probably ran to my father, tattling on us and sharing everything we did after Vega's disappearance. What I worried about were the innocent men and women who didn't deserve to get hurt just because they happened to be on my side.

"It's so fucking quiet," Jax hissed from behind me, on my right, taking in the empty hallways and empty offices. "I don't like this, Adrian."

"I don't like it either," I said, "but we have to check it out. Where did everyone go? How was it possible that in, what, two hours every single person has disappeared?"

All three of us were quiet the second those questions rolled over my tongue, but neither one of us had answers. We couldn't get in touch with a single person from the Academy, and Jax saw that message too late to do anything at the time. Now… Now it was maybe too late to save anyone.

"Do you think he knew?" Jax asked, and I stopped to turn around and look at him. His eyes were haunted, filled with remorse, because just like me, he knew what it meant for these people to become a part of The Brotherhood. While I ran around, chasing Vega and trying to nurse her back to health after the attack in the woods, Jax was pushing out invitations and holding meetings because we didn't want to wait.

They gathered in The Pit every single night, hashing over the actions that would need to be taken and the next steps on this journey we were on.

We were going to take down our fathers, because we were too tired of waiting for them to hand over the empires they were holding on to with iron fists. We were too tired of doing the things they wanted us to do, while they sat in their ivory towers, taking more than they could chew, using us for every single dirty thing, all the while destroying what little of our souls we had left.

"Do you think Andries somehow found out that we were sending out invitations? I mean," he laughed darkly, "we created that whole story of a secret society and whatnot, but…" He scratched his temple with the barrel of his gun. "But this was real. The people we chose were the people we really wanted in The Brotherhood. I trusted them to keep their damn mouthsshut!" he thundered, that last sentence taking everything out of him, judging by the harsh breathing and the wild look on his face.

"Hey." My hand landed on his shoulder. "This isn't on you. This is on me."

"And me," Dante added. "I was there with you. It's not like you told Andries anything about The Brotherhood." Jax looked at Dante, his eyes flashing with something I couldn't quite recognize, before a look of pure fury took hold of his features, transforming him in front of my very eyes. "Jax?" Dante murmured.

"I'm okay," he bit out, but there was something he wasn't telling us. "I'm fucking perfect." He pushed past me, heading toward Andries's office. "Come on," he called out, not so quiet anymore, leaving Dante and me behind, more confused than ever.

Dante's eyebrow lifted, asking me with not so many words,What in the actual fuck just happened?

We had no time to psychoanalyze Jax's behavior, and instead of standing around and looking at each other, we followed after him, all the way to the dean’s office. The first thing I saw was Jax's back turned to us, his entire body straining, his arms down, shaking as he stared at something inside.

"Jax?" I called out, quickening my pace to reach him, to…

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