Page 10 of Heartless Legacy

He stares down at me. “So I need to give you something you’ve never had before.”

I keep my expression blank as he shoves the needle in my arm. “I’m gonna give you hope.”

Chapter 4

Finn

Iwas in total agreement with Holden’s decision to leave the garden party early. Neither of us wanted to watch Eloise and Pax make the rounds on their love fest tour. We’ve had months to acclimate to the change in their status, but that doesn’t mean we’re okay with it.

Am I glad she’s his problem now?Abso-fucking-lutely.But she’s still twisted up in our lives and will be for as long as they’re both still breathing. I guess this is what we call history repeating itself. It’s always a woman that causes the rift between The Trium.

When I was the one chained to the hell beast, I knew to keep her in line. Pax won’t be able to. He was already giving her free rein before they got together. What am I saying? There is nobefore. It’s clear they were already together. Holden and I are just now finding out about it.

I needed to clear my head after the party, so I decided a little game of seek and find was in order. I sought the next person on my suspect list, and I’m trying to find out the truth about the last day my girl was on campus.

I’ve been at it for almost an hour. It’s not enough. Little Petey Morrison’s screams aren’t enough. His blood running down theknife end of my blade isn’t enough, and neither are the bruises my brass knuckles left on his ribs.

Sighing, I step back, leaning against the crate where I have a few more tools laid out. I’m starting to think, no matter how many people I interview, it’ll never be enough. The itchy feeling on my skin won’t subside. The peace and calm this game used to bring eludes me now.

And it’s allhisfault.Pax.He’s the one who should be in the hot seat. It’s his blood that needs to be spilled. His screams that will dull the gaping hole inside my chest. If I can’t have Thea, shouldn’t I at least get revenge on the person who forced her to leave me?

But our stupid Trium bond and league oath won’t let me kill him in cold blood. Not that I haven’t tried since the engagement announcement. Those attempts have been half-hearted. In order to kill him with total immunity, I have to issue a challenge, or find a way to wrestle control and power away from him, just like he did to Holden and me. Nobody’s said anythingyet, but Holden and I both know we lost individual points because of Pax’s actions.

I don’t care about the points, but it’s put Holden in a tough spot. He’s being forced to attend league events with a companion on his arm more often. He’s been switching them out every week, but it looks like his luck has run out and he’s gonna be stuck with this latest girl for a bit.

Things were hard on him before. He hates when people touch him, and the girls he’s getting paired with all think it’s their right to rub their hands on him whenever they want. Some extra forceful hand holding, and harmless bruising would be enough to stop their grabby hands, but he can’t damage his companion without facing consequences. With the first two girls, Thea was here for him to focus on. She also had a way of steppingin to make sure those girls kept their distance and hands to themselves. Her jealousy was so hot.

Now, Holden’s retreated into himself and rarely talks, even to me. He spends all his free time in front of his computers. I haven’t asked what he’s doing, but odds are good that whatever it is, is illegal.

If it helps him cope -or better yet- find our girl, I say hack everything. I’m more than happy to put up my trust fund for bail, and work a bit of mind magic to get him off with a slap on the wrist. A groan pulls me from my impromptu planning session for breaking Holden out of federal custody. I watch Petey startle awake, rolling my eyes at his whimpers. This part is so annoying.

“Man the fuck up, Pete. The hard shit hasn’t even started yet.” He jerks his arms, causing his body to swing. “Now, let’s try this again. You were standing behind Thea before she left campus. What did you see or hear?”

“I wasn’t there.”

How many times is he gonna say that? “I have a photo of you.” I pull it out and shove it under his nose.Again. “See. This is you. Right here.” I stab at the picture of him and his friends.

“Finn, we’re like five hundred feet away from her and I’m not even looking at her.”

He thinks that means he’s innocent? He was breathing her air and was one of the last people around her before she disappeared. We call that a witness. That means he gets questioned just like everyone else.

“That’s a very specific distance, don’t you think? Almost as if you intentionally stopped five hundred feet away. That was the safe zone, huh? Then tell me about the trap you set for her, that you didn’t want to risk getting caught in.”

“I didn’t set a trap. I don’t even know the girl.”

“That’s a lie. Everyone knows Thea. We made sure of that at the beginning of the fall semester.” He earns another cut for lying to me.

“Wait, what I mean is, I never personally interacted with her. Yeah, sure, I knew of her. But I swear, Finn, I wasn’t involved in anything that ever happened to her. Why would I be? I had nothing to gain from it.”

“Why indeed?” I go over what he’s said. I guess he’s right. He wouldn’t have anything to gain from it. He’s just a face on campus from a rival fraternity, and Thea wasn’t pledging anything that would warrant him looking too hard at her.

“Maybe you’ve got a cousin or sister or some chick you’re banging with your average sized dick that had an issue with her. They could have put you up to it.”

“There’s… there’s no one. I swear.”

I almost believed him, but then he had to go and hesitate. “There’s someone, and I’m gonna torture it out of you.”

I pick up my next tool. A tiny scalpel. “Let’s see how many stripes it’ll take to get to the truth.” I smile down at him. “My hands are slippery. I hope I don’t accidentally nick something important.”

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