I glanced over at Samson sporting his smile and looking around. If I didn’t know him. I’d mistake him for one of those overly happy party boys. Others were hanging around who had their own crew. Most of them went to different schools. There was an agreement that no one overstepped not until the new rulers were chosen. We still clashed in certain circles.
“I’m glad everyone could be here,” Douglass said.
He’d made his way down here at some point. His perfectly fitted tux screamed money. In Aridole, that was the only language everyone understood. Those with the most money thrived and set the rules. If you didn’t have it, you faked it.
And no one faked it quite like the O’Malleys. Even my own family despised the chief of police. It was the only thing I sided with them on.
“We are choosing the top of the elite today,” Douglass said.
The applause came mainly from the working girls in the room. Right on cue, as if they rehearsed it, they continued passing out drinks or servicing members in attendance.
“The theme has been chosen by random selection,” Douglass said and paused for fucking dramatics.
“Think if I jam the tip of my knife underneath his toenail, he’d actually get to the point?” I asked, dragging in a lung full of smoke.
Rem snickered. “Nah, it would just make him scream like a bitch and then faint.”
“He is a fainter,” Samson added. “The likely chance of him passing out before the fun is eighty-two percent.”
“Fainters are the worst.” I fucking hated them. They always tried to ruin the fun. You constantly had to wake them up with more pain, but then they’d faint again, cutting off their screams.Selfish bastards.
“Hurry the fuck up,” someone shouted.
“Samson?” Lux ground out. His golden eyes were filled with boredom but were alert, always scanning our surroundings. It seemed exhausting.
“The one rushing Douglass is Bolton Clark, and next to him is Harry Von III, as in the newest developer in Aridole, who seemed to have bought property everywhere and has his hands in everyone’s pocket. He keeps Bolton, Thadeous, Nicholas, and Patrick. And the word is that Douglass is trying to join them.”
“What happened to him sticking with the jocks? He’s supposed to be a good ol boy,” Rem said.
“Chief is in hot water currently. It’s being covered up for now but will come to light soon. And the jocks won’t accept him for much longer without the money to back him up,” Samson provided.
It was all stupid to me. I didn’t care too much, but Lux tended to ask me pesky questions. I was aware I needed to know at least our enemies’ basics.
Douglass cleared his throat. “Right. The challenge this year is the hunt.”
My ears perked up. It sounded promising, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. If it were boring, I wasn’t entering. Lux would handle it.
The screen flickered. The sight before us had my idea of sitting this one out, flying out the window. Pacing in a cage amongst others was the girl who made my fingers tingle to spill her blood.
“Son of a bitch,” a woman shouted as she stood up, her hands balled in a fist.
Guards moved toward her, and she flipped one over without breaking a sweat and dropped kick the other one. She grabbed his face and lifted her knee at the same time. She smashed his face into her knee. The crunch of bone and cartilage could be heard around the room. The music had been turned down to hear Douglas talk, but this was so much better.
“That’s my brother you have in there,” she said, looking ready for blood.
Three guys came backing her up but didn’t once get too close to stopping her. It was more as if they were there just in case.
“Megan Denvers and her boyfriends. Most likely to take the top spot at Grace High. Her family is old money but no longer has any holdings within Aridole, but as of late, they have been welcomed back into certain circles,” Samson supplied.
So they weren’t in direct competition for the night. Douglass cleared his throat, looking paler in the face of the girl’s wrath.
“Twenty that he pisses himself,” Rem said.
“Oh, I’m in on that twenty that she breaks his jaw,” I added.
Samson sighed, but his stupid smile stayed in place. “Twenty that she breaks an arm somewhere not easily excused away.”
I didn’t dare tear my gaze from the sight before us. I waited for Lux.