Page 99 of Kings & Chaos

It wouldn’t have mattered except Connor was one of us. Not part of the Italian family, obviously, but I had no doubt the Irish had the same code.

If Connor was part of what had happened to Emma, he’d been working with Dean Giordana and whoever else was involved. He would feel honor bound to keep that secret, would consider it a test of his ability to keep his mouth shut, which was basically the most important quality any soldier in any family could have.

He wasn’t going to answer because I asked him nicely.

I turned to Neo. “I want to see it.”

“See what?” Neo asked.

“The video of him meeting Zachary Walsh.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. I’d crossed that bridge almost without noticing somewhere between the cabin and the expensive security system they’d installed to keep me safe.

I just needed to see it. To be sure.

Neo slipped the knife into his pocket and pulled out his phone. A minute later he handed it to me and I watched as grainy security footage at Cassie’s played out across the screen.

It was harder to make out Zachary Walsh’s features — I hadn’t known him and didn’t have him in front me to make a comparison — but the guy handing him an envelope was definitely Connor.

I handed Neo his phone and looked down at Connor, anger bubbling up from the center of my body.

“You’re a liar.”

He shook his head. “I’m not! I don’t even know him!”

“He’s lying,” Oscar said. “Obviously.”

“Here.” Neo held out the knife again. “Better yet, use your own.”

I flinched in surprise. I’d thought the switchblade I’d been carrying around was my little secret, but I should have known better.

“You took it so you could use it if the occasion arose, right?” he asked. “Well, no time like the present.”

“You have a chance to find out something about Emma,” Oscar said next to me. “So do it.”

I took the knife out of my pocket and pushed the button to open it, then took a step closer to Connor. “I don’t want to hurt you. This… this isn’t my thing. The game and everything. But my sister…” I had to draw in a breath against the pain that threatened to crush my chest. “She was mysister. I have to know what happened to her. What happened to the other girls. Tell me what you know and I won’t hurt you.”

“I don’t know anything,” he said, looking into my eyes. “I swear.”

He was less scared now. He thought because I was in charge now instead of the Kings, he was safe.

“Youswear?” I touched the knife to the dragon inked on his chest and felt the give of his flesh under the blade. “Youswear?”

“Do it, Jezebel.” Neo’s voice was quiet and calm. A simple suggestion without an ounce of goading behind it.

The knife shook in my hand, the blade scratching the surface of Connor’s skin without actually slicing into it.

Do it. You want to find her, don’t you? So do it.

The voice sang in my head like a siren, and my hand shook more violently.

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and couldn’t. This was a person under my knife. He wasn’t trying to hurt me, wasn’t trying to kill me. If I cut him, it was to get what I wanted.

If I cut him, I was likethem.

Like my dad and all the other people in the family.

Like the Kings.

If I cut him, I was the thing I’d spent my entire life trying not to become.

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