Page 160 of Unspoken Lies
“Do you want to know why Jared went to Portland?” Elijah asks, getting my attention immediately. At my nod, he sighs. “Your name irritates Jared. Wait, your fake name.”
I think he explained more because I made an upset noise.
“He doesn’t want you to hide anymore, baby,” Elijah continues. “Your online school can’t handle how smart you are. You’re fucking brilliant. You’ve been doing everything possible to lie low, because you’re not supposed to be alive.”
“But you are,” Theo says, his gaze intense as he watches me. “Fuck, I think you may have been a cat in another life. Or maybe a damn phoenix, because you seem to rise from the dead. This half life while hiding is bullshit. Jared went to get the bet lifted so you can take your name back.”
“But how?” I rasp.
“Men are very chatty when they’re getting flogged by a dominant female or when they’re being punished in some way by them,” Elijah says. “I see it all the time since I’m in the dungeon making sure everything is working as it should. If someone is spilling too many secrets, I’ll relocate them to a private room. Sometimes, I’ll stay if I recognize the person, other times I’ll leave and the dominant will come tell me what she learned.”
“In this way, we’ve been able to get portfolios of information to use against the council. He’s with Mr. Reyes, Kitten. He’s safe,” Theo says. “All the information in there will be released immediately by me if something happens to him. There’s also a fail safe that’ll release it if I don’t log in every twenty-four hours to tell the Cloud source that I’m alive.”
“But how will you know if he’s okay or not?” I ask, my voice rising with anxiety. Fisting my hands on the blanket stretched over me, I imagine all of the shit that could go wrong.
My breaths are coming faster, and Theo squeezes my hand.
“He has an ear com in that is impossible to see,” he says. “The meeting starts in half an hour. That’s enough time to get something to eat and come back here. I’ll have everything set up so you can listen. No secrets, okay? We didn’t tell you before because we just finished getting the last portfolio together on a senior Council. Now, we just have to see how they react.”
“They could say no,” I say, eyes wide.
“They’d be fools if they did,” Theo says with a vicious smile. This is the calculated man who sees every step before anyone else does. His glasses are perfectly perched on his nose, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
This is going to work.
“Come on, Rachelle,” Nacio says, pushing aside anyone that is in his way to pick me up off the couch. “Don’t tell me that you can walk. Your leg is bruised. Be my good girl and enjoy the ride.”
“That sounded dirty,” I say, smirking as I lay my head on his shoulder.
“Good,” he says, brushing his lips against my temple. “Jared has been working on this for months,querida.I don’t know how he’s managed to do it all but he has. Let’s get you ready to see what the Kings Society is like.”
My fear spikes at the words, but I know this has to be done. Skulking through the shadows isn’t working anymore. I miss my mom. She deserves to know that I’m alive.
And I deserve to live.
EMIL
My eyes shrewdly take in the table of men who raise and tumble empires through the complicated landscape of the Kings Society. It’s said that they know everything, but we’re about to prove that they don’t.
If they did, Jared and I wouldn’t be about to rock the Council’s foundation with what we’re about to present to them. He has a satchel of portfolios, having decided that his presentation would be more impactful with physical evidence. I have to give it to Jared, he’s a force to be reckoned with. The four of them are, and I’m including my son in this.
I have no doubt they’ll be back to being united again after this. Rachelle is what split them up, and will bring them back together. I’m proud of my son for having been the one to refuse to stand down in the face of the Society to save Rachelle, no matter what it cost him.
“Gentlemen, we will open our meeting now. Everything will be recorded and put into our transcripts, unless what you’ve brought to us is deemed too sensitive to record,” Lucius St. James says.
It takes everything within me not to smirk or even have my lips twitch in amusement. I refuse to be the weak link here.
“Understood, sir,” Jared says, inclining his head.
“Why are you here today?” Lucius asks. “Emil said that it was serious.”
“It is,” Jared says with a nod. “You see, you put myself and the previous group of Carlysle Kings in a very difficult situation. Ignacio decided that Rachelle, his step-sister, would be our bet and our vessel to complete the task you put to all Kings.”
“Yes, and you completed your task beautifully, outside of Ignacio’s break from protocol,” Lucius says.
The hard gazes of the other men of the Council are meant to remind me of the dishonor cast by my son, but I have no such sentiment. I’m fucking proud of him. Therefore I sit straight and tall, and look back at thependejoswho still insist on such an antiquated tradition.
“You see, we didn’t though,” Jared says. “Rachelle lives, and you are going to nullify both our bet as well as our entrance into the Kings Society. We want no part of it.”
