Fuck. He had me again trapped between a rock and a hard place.
“Now if you wouldn’t mind leaving us, we do have business to conduct.”
The old man looked down at the paper in front of him, a simple gesture, but the complete change of energy in the room told us everything we needed to know. We were cut out then, he was finished with us, and if we didn’t leave then we would be made to leave.
It was astonishing that somebody as seemingly inconsequential as him, as physically insignificant, could impart so much power with a simple gesture.
But I knew better than to argue with him from that point. The Kings knew better, too, especially Archer and Valen. I wasn’t angry that they’d stayed mostly silent this whole time, this was their world after all. They and their families had the most to lose if they spoke out about it. Besides, we needed them to remain in the background so we could use their insight for our advantage.
Because I wasn’t finished with the old man.
I wasn’t finished with any of them. I was still filled to the brim with righteous fire and wanted to take them all down so hard that I could almost taste it. Like the tang of blood mixed with the acrid scent of gun smoke swirling around my tongue and taking root in my heart.
It was growing there, now, in the darkness of my insides. In the darkness I’d carried with me for so long. Soon, when it was time, I would allow it to blossom. I would throw my head back, open my mouth, and let it all explode from me, from my heart and soul. The dark roses filled with rage, prickled with fire, and pushing forth on stems of vengeance.
And then, only then, I would see them all burn.
But until that moment, I would smile at them, play my part, and bide my time.
We all would.
So we didn’t speak again, we got up from our chairs and followed the woman who had brought us in. As we passed Sherriff Notley, he ogled me again and let his gaze rake up and down my body with a look of lust. I wondered if he’d ever watched Reg and Rick do their horrible things to me, and when his tongue darted out and dragged across his lower lip, I knew he had.
He would have to be punished along with the rest of them.. He would burn for it.
The door to the conference room closed behind us and the woman handed me a large manila envelope on the way out.
“These are your instructions,” she said. “You should have been given a set when you were first chosen, but somebody overlooked that part of it. Now you will know what is expected of you and how you are to behave. Now have a nice day.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I said with a pleasant smile, but she didn’t react. She watched us reach the elevator, get inside and kept watching until the doors slid shut.
As we went down, I fought the urge to tear open the envelope and read everything inside. I held it all together and kept it together until we got in the car.
Once there, I let myself let it all out and I fell into the arms of my Kings.
I found comfort there, but no solutions.
I would take whatever I could get.
* * *
“I need to talk to Penny,”I said once we were back at Archer’s place. “I feel sick after everything that happened to her, and my part in it.”
“You didn’t play a part,” Kingston said, touching my shoulder. “You didn’t get those boys to behave like animals with her.”
“Did you guys know what was going to happen?” I asked, turning around to face them all. We were at Archer’s place and my clothes were packed and ready for me to return home. It had been bugging me since that night at the party, how convenient it had been that they’d shown up. I never believed that they’d set it up, especially now that I knew them, but sometimes I wondered. I was so paranoid and guarded around men now.
“No,” Kingston said. “We weren’t even going to that party, we didn’t even know those guys.”
“We heard you were there,” Archer said.
“That’s the only reason we went,” Valen told me.
I believed them. They weren’t lying, I could tell when they were lying. Each one of them had their tell, and I felt connected enough to them that I knew. If they understood how much I needed them to be truthful, they would never risk a lie at this point, anyways.
“We saw an opportunity and we took it,” Kingston kept explaining. “I heard what was happening and we went to find you. When I saw that guy with the phone, I grabbed it to save your friend the embarrassment, but we also knew we could use it to bribe you.”
“We were supposed to find anything to bribe you with. There was no way for you to avoid being Tribute, but it was easier if you felt forced into it,” Valen said.