Page 10 of Chaos Crown

They were both right. Rain— Ivy’s memories coming back hadn’t changed a thing. We were no closer to stopping this threat since before we wound up on that bridge.Steven Ellis wanted to get his filthy hands on Bedlam.We knew that.Someone made the girl we believed was Rainey their personal vendetta.We knew that too.The Men of Honor were back again.That we did not know.

But did it really matter what they called themselves? We’ve been protecting Bedlam from threats since the Men of Honor were founded. These guys were just another in a long line of pricks who found out too much, and tried exploiting our town from the shadows. They could call themselves whatever they wanted. They’d be put down with the rest.

“Who are they?”

“I don’t know.”

“What the fuck do you know?”

“Everything I just told you,” she replied. “Scott and Zoey weren’t idiots. They spoke about others, but they never mentioned names or introduced me. They didn’t fully trust me, and when I refused to hurt Cairo and went to the police instead...” Ivy trailed off.

“What about the night they came after you and your sister?” Jacques pushed. “Zoey said she didn’t show up alone.”

“They were like demons,” she breathed. “Appearing out of the shadows from everywhere and nowhere. There was nothing to see but black masks, then I saw nothing at all.”

The three of us shared a look. As irritated as I was, even I knew it didn’t make sense for the Men of Honor to reveal themselves to her. Wanting revenge against someone who murdered your family was a step removed from being willing to kill someone you didn’t know.

They couldn’t trust that Ivy would carry out their plans against me, and then when she said fuck you and tried turning them in, they’d be stupid to show their faces the night they killed her sister and left her alive. If Ivy did prove anything, it was that she’d hunt down anyone who hurt her family. No, the Men of Honor had no incentive at any point to tell Ivy anything real.

So why did they go after her in the first place? Did they want from her what they wanted from nearly every landowner in Bedlam?

How would they get that when there wasn’t a will?another voice asked.When someone dies without a will, their things don’t automatically go to the homicidal accountant.

“This is illogical,” Jacques said, echoing my thoughts. “I can think of no valid explanation for how any of us got here. Why kill Rainey de Souza as punishment for not killing Cairo, and then leave him untouched? Why draw Ivy’s attention all this time later with letters and demands of sacrifice? Why Scott Cavendish’s sudden death wish? Why did Zoey Mariner offer her services to get rid of us, and then who got rid of her? Who else knew we’d be dangling on that bridge?”

“All we’ve done is stand around here asking questions.” I snatched up my jacket. “There’s one man who can give us some answers.”

“Your father.” Ivy shed the blankets. “I’m coming with you.”

“You’re not.”

“I am.” She weaved her fingers through mine. I didn’t mistake it for an intimate gesture. “He’ll open up to me.”

“Why the fuck would he do that?”

She gave me a hard look. “What kind of monster wouldn’t... when he finds out what I lost to protect his son?”

I cracked my jaw to argue with her, and found I couldn’t. Find my father in a sloppy enough drunken mood, he’d bend to Ivy’s pain.

But this was between me and Jack.

“You’re not coming.”

“Why—

“Because Rainey I knew!” I burst out, ripping free. “You, I don’t. Everything out of your mouth has been bullshit from day one. If my father’s involved in this, I’m hearing it from him.”

Ivy didn’t so much as blink at my outburst. It set my teeth further on edge. I didn’t know or understand this hard, blank-faced beauty standing in the space of my pet. Ivy changed more than her name when she deluded herself into believing she was Rainey. She changed her personality too.

The only thing I knew about this stranger was that she was willing to go as far as it takes. That should make her a girl after my own heart. But if there was anyone I trusted least on this planet, it was someone like me.

“He is involved,” she said. “It’s time I knew how. I won’t have you two coming up with some story to tell me. If the truth is coming out, I’ll be there to hear it.”

“Neither one of you is going anywhere,” Jacques sliced in. “The sheriff is on shift right now, which means he’s holed up in the station with Davidson. Jeremy Ellis put out a hit on us. Arsenio and Roan are in the hospital, and we just walked away from a dead body on the bridge. We need to stop, think, reason. Then, we act.”

“Someone must’ve called that dead body in by now,” Legend said. “Davidson’s wrapping Chaney Bridge in police tape. The sheriff’s on his own.”

I found myself shaking my head. “Nah. With all the shit that’s been going on, the murder of a pretty little college girl would have everybody out there. Davidson’s there, and the old man’s right next to him.”

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