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“I just bought your freedom until our graduation. I’m out the second the diploma touches my hand, so you need to get a plan in place for then. I can help, but I’m letting you know this favor has an expiry date. Until then, you’re… mine.”
“This is seriously fucking insane, Lips. You’ve got to give me something. Where did you get the diamond, and how many more do you have? Why are they favors? Why is your protection greater than the O’Cronin family business? Fuck, give me anything, Lips!”
“I got that diamond by taking a bullet for the man whose favor it represented. I saved his life, and I also won him the trust of his favorite gun for hire.”
“Diarmuid did this?”
“I think… I think I have Diarmuid’s trust over… the other person. I just can’t afford his fees,”
“I won’t tell the others. I don’t know how the fuck I’d explain it, anyway.”
was wrong. Joseph Campbell Fedor Beaumont, or Joey, isn’t a killer in the making. He’s already got three deaths under his belt.
There are pages and pages of evidence that any prosecutor worth their wage would be able to convict Joey with, but it’s all been swept under the rug. The autopsies are unpleasant, to say the least. The things he’s done, especially to the maid, are truly horrifying. Biting, burning, stabbing. Evidence of sexual assault. He was eleven.
One trip to the emergency department for Avery. Last year she was DOA and resuscitated. Clear signs of strangulation, another call to child protection services, but again no follow-up. That explains the escort she gets from the guys everywhere she goes. It also explains why they’re so protective. She wasn’t just attacked; she was killed.
Do not let Joseph Beaumont Sr know you’re looking into his son. His hands are bloodier than mine.
“He told me you belong to him. He told me if even a single Hannaford boy touches your pussy, he’s going to come here and deal with it personally.”
“So you’re going to leave me alone, then?”
But there is something I’m missing about the Beaumonts, a piece to this puzzle that I haven’t quite placed yet—but I can feel the answer dancing just out of my grasp. Why do the twins protect him?
“So your brother finally leaves me alone, and you’re just going to take his place? Is there a standard number of fucked-up Beaumonts that must bully me at any one time?”
“Joey didn’t just warn them off for his own enjoyment. He told them you were permanently off limits.”
“Harley told me you were dangerous, but I didn’t believe him until now. You’re out of this school by Friday.”
“If you’ve chosen to take Joey’s side, then I’m getting you out. I can’t have you sleeping across the hall from Avery.”
“I would never take Joey’s side. The guy is a serial killer in the making.”
“I wonder what it was you offered him, what someone like you could offer him, to get his protection. I know exactly what the other girls here do. I guess it was only a matter of time before you gave it up to him, too.”
Blaise shoots a lopsided grin at me and says, nonchalantly, “Leave, Mounty. You don’t belong at this school or around people like us. You’re a groupie, you fuck gangsters and serial killers, and you’re playing in a world you don’t belong in. No one wants you here.”
“If you're willing to do that for your enemy, then what you do for your friends must be really special.”
“I wouldn't know, I've never really had any.”
When I open the door the next morning, there is a brand-new uniform hanging from my door handle, stockings and all. It fits me perfectly.
“It does fucking matter. I’ve made it clear no one’s allowed to touch you, and I’m yours now, aren’t I?”
“That just means no one outside these walls can touch you. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Thank god, because I sure as hell can’t afford the diamonds your favors cost.”
I try not to flinch, because I know if I push her away now, it will only make things worse for me. She doesn't get the chance to destroy him, though, as the far door leading into the courtyard opens and Rory walks out.
Harley calls out to Rory, and when he turns fearful eyes on them, he signs his own death warrant. The guilt is written on every fiber of his being.
“Where did you get those from, dickhead?” Harley says, gesturing at the scratches.
“We had a misunderstanding. It's not a big deal.”
“I hope your broken ribs puncture your lungs and you drown in your own blood,”
“I told you, I don't want your protection,”
“This isn’t payment, it’s a white flag. And an olive branch. I want to be your friend.”
“What?”
“I don't have friends either. I want one, and I want one as fierce as you.”
“You can't just—Blaise is yo...
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“No, he’s Ash’s friend, and he both loves and respects me well enough, but he will always defer back to him. I want a real friend that's mine.”
“You can't just claim me. I'm not property,”
“I know you don't trust me, and I deserve that. I'm going to give you something as insurance, so we know we’re both in this for the right reasons. That is, if you want a friend?”
I do. Desperately really, but how can I trust this girl that looks like an angel but is really a crossroads demon, bargaining and making deals with mere mortals for their souls? She can be just as twisted as Joey; they are siblings, after all. I know in my heart she isn’t a sociopath like him, but she could be just as ruthless. She could survive the Wolf, my mind whispers unbidden. She’s probably the only girl I’d ever met who could.
She hands me an envelope. I open it and, after leafing through the papers for a second, I scrunch it up hurriedly. I’m holding the missing piece of the puzzle. I’m holding the records of the Beaumonts’ mother’s death. Alice Beaumont, nee Arbour, was murdered.
“Why the hell—”
“That's your insurance. It would destroy both me and my brother if that got out. I've spent years keeping that out of people’s hands. Everything I do is to keep Ash and the boys sa...
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“I want a friend I can trust to have my back completely, and no girl has ever looked at me as anything other than competition or a way to get in with my brothers. You took everything I threw at you, and you're still here. Unbroken. Are you in, or not?”
“I don't want you to speak to them for me. The boys.”
“Well, I don't want to speak to them at all, so you're safe there. I promise I won't tell them to be nice, but if we're friends, then I'm on your side from here out.”
“Friends it is, then.”
“Best friends. Now, how do you feel about helping me destroy Rory’s entire existence for what he did to me? I'd love your input.”
“I have a few ideas, actually.”
“I don’t expect you to tell me all of your secrets tonight. I was thinking while we’re on break, we can text each other one secret a day. When school starts again in the fall, we can do the same each morning. It’ll be a fun little bonding experience.”
