Page 20 of Sinister Lies

I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and breathed out hard, my lips pinched with frustration.Ten minutes. All I wanted was ten minutes alone with my thoughts, and I couldn’t even get that.

The smoke cleared, revealing Phantom standing in front of me, his hands in his pockets, his expression tight.

Great. Just what the fuck I needed right now.

“What do you want?”

“To talk,” was his bullshit reply.

“Sorry.” I flicked my wrist at him as a hint for him to fuck off and leave me alone. “I’m fresh out of fucks to give at the moment.”

Phantom rolled his eyes, letting out a furious snort as he came up and plucked the weed from my fingers and brought it to his lips. He inhaled a deep hit, relishing the taste of the earthly bud before he released it into the atmosphere.

“Look, man, I get it. You’re pissed, and you have every right to be. But this is important. I need your help.”

Beingpissedwas a ratherlightway of putting it. Life itself had been a complete fucking nightmare all thanks to Phantom’s inability to suppress his anger. Father was furious with us, and as for our crew, who the fuck knew? Father said he’d manage the turmoil on that end and instructed us to stay put at the academy, to focus solely on the trials and our new youngest recruits. But if I had to take a wild guess, I imagine the rest of our people had to be just as livid as the old man himself.

Fucking Christ, man. What a fucking shit show.

“My answer stands. You’d be better off asking Rhett for help.”

“If I wanted Rhett’s help, don’t you think I would’ve asked him already? Besides, I can’t trust him with this. It has to be you and only you.”

“And you can’t trust Rhett, why?” I wondered, quirking a dark brow at him.

He glared at me, his eyes tightening around the corners. “Because Rhett will go back and tattle to our father. That’s why.”

I studied him for a long moment, my jaw tight. “This is about Samara.”

“And if it is?” he challenged.

“Our orders were clear, Phantom. We can’t hurt her.”

His eyes flashed as he offered me a small, almost humorous looking smirk. “And we won’t… Well, not physically, anyway.”

I eyed the dead joint he was babysitting, then leaned forward to retrieve it, saying nothing as I relit it and pressed my back flush against the bench. I’d ask what he had in mind, but I wasn’t an idiot—I knew my brother. He still wanted to apprehend and interrogate Samara in spite of our directives.

I agreed to the plan, however, doing so meant we’d be defying our father’s wishes. I respected him deeply. He took me in, gave me a home, and tried to help me fight the burden of demons my foster parents had inflicted upon me before CPS had finally swooped in and took me away. I owed Xavier Michaelson everything, even my life.

Betraying him a second time could very well be the end of the Ravagers. I hadn’t a goddamn clue what was going on in the old man’s head, but Father’s insight over this whole Samara thing was disconcertingly unconventional. A security breach this massive wasn’t something we could just simply disregard until further notice. Not in our predicament. Wehadto act. We needed to know exactly what we’re dealing with and handle it fittingly for the sake of our lives, our crew, and the students.

“If this backfires, Father will kill us.”

Phantom’s lips twitched up in a rare, dark smile. “Hence why I came to you instead of Rhett.”

I smirked at him, not bothering to retort because I knew the ornery fucker was right. Between the three of us, Rhett shared a much deeper bond with our father. The man raised Rhett since the age of five, and after Rhett’s mother passed away from cancer, Father adopted Rhett, changed his last name, and rewarded him as this so-called future heir to the Ravager throne. Bottom line, Rhett was loyal to him. Keeping him in the dark was the right call for now.

“I assume you have a plan?”

“My plan is basically your plan,” he replied nonchalantly. “It’s a three-man job, but since Rhett’s out, you and I have a lot of ground to cover. Aside from that, we have that meeting with the new recruits on Friday. I think we should let Rhett handle it.”

I shot him a quizzical look, my brows raised high. “By himself?”

Phantom let out a deep, hard sigh and tiredly shook his head. “I’m not fond of it either, but it’ll keep him distracted so you and I can get shit done. And no, he won’t necessarily be alone. He’ll have extra guards there with him. Either way, we don’t have a lot of time, and this may be our only window of opportunity.”

“I agree,” I said, nodding as I brought the joint back to my mouth, inhaling then blowing out the smoke. “Plus, Rhett being there still gives us eyes on Samara, too.”

“Exactly,” Phantom said with a devious smirk. “So, are we doing this or not?”

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