I STAND AT the end of our bed. She’s passed out. I brought her home, gave her a bath, and she was out before her head hit the pillow.
Her and I are a lot alike, if you think about it. Lords are trained, groomed, and manipulated. You can put fifty average men in a room with a hundred Lords and they’ll be able to pick each one of us out. Even if they weren’t aware our secret society existed. Why? Because we’re raised the same. We’re conditioned to think a certain way. We’re meant to be possessive, dominating, and fucking vile. Death means nothing to us.
James took the training he got from the Lords and used it on Ellington. Where I spent three years of celibacy for initiation. He put her through three years of initiation too. She listened to grown adults talk about their fucked-up fetishes and kinks. Her body craved it but was never allowed a release.
Am I mad that she willingly left Blackout with Marcus? Absolutely. Can I blame her for it? No.
I’m the fourth man she’s ever been with. But what if she wouldn’t have caught me that night at the party killing James? What if she hadn’t seen the masked me save her? I wouldn’t have been getting her off those two years. She would have worked her way through the college. Man after man. Dick after dick. I had to keep her at arm’s length but satisfied at the same time.
No one knows how fucking hard that was. It was like dangling a piece of meat in front of a starving man.
Elli needs constant reminding that she’s owned. That she belongs to someone. Otherwise, she feels lost. Like a child roaming the streets looking for their parents who don’t give a shit about them.
My cell begins to vibrate in my pocket, and I pull it out. My brows crease when I see who it is. Exiting the bedroom, I answer. “Hello?”
“My office. Twenty minutes,” he snaps before hanging up.
Pocketing my cell, I walk back into the bedroom and kiss her forehead, pulling the covers up to her neck. “Sweet dreams, little demon. I’ll be back.”
_______________
I STEP INTOthe back entrance and take the elevator up to the third floor. Exiting, I knock on the door.
“It’s open,” he calls out.
I step inside to see Tyson Crawford leaning his ass against his desk at Blackout. It’s seven a.m. and he’s dressed in black slacks and a matching button-up with the sleeves rolled up. Like me, I highly doubt the man has been to sleep. “You wanted to see me?”
“Sit.” He points at the couch to his right. Tyson never has been a man of many words if you’re not a close friend of his. He gets to the point and doesn’t give a fuck if you like what he has to say or not.
I fall into the leather and lean back, getting comfortable.
He hands me a card. I take it, frowning as I read over it. “Detective Haynes. Don’t know him. Or her.” I go to hand it back, but he walks behind his desk and sits down. Picking up a remote, he turns on the TV that hangs on the opposite wall.
Over twelve different angles show multiple cameras displaying the surveillance of Blackout. He clicks on one that is focused on the parking lot. It shows me and Corbin walking in with the girls through the back entrance. He goes to another camera and fast-forwards a little, showing the girls going to the restroom. They bump into Marcus and another guy I know of. They then enter the bathroom, no longer in view. He fast-forwards some more and you see my sister rush out. A new angle shows her walking up to our table, slapping Corbin, and then storming off. He follows after her. I smile at the memory. Then another angle shows Elli exit the bathroom looking pissed. Why did they both come out so mad?
She stops and looks in the direction that we sit. Another angle at the bottom shows Amelia sitting beside me. But she looked mad before she spotted the booth. She turns and runs into Marcus again. This time she lets him pull her over to the bar. He places his hand on her back and Tyson pauses it.
“Want to tell me why the girl you arrived with left with him?”
I turn to face him but stay quiet.
“Sin,” he growls. “Detective Haynes left Blackout five minutes before I called you. They’ve recovered a body. And it belongs to this guy who has his hand on your date.”
I smile.
“Goddammit, Easton,” he snaps my real name.
I’ve always liked Tyson. He was a senior when my class was a freshman. He stayed to himself a bit more from what I saw. But he was always ruthless. Then he lost his chosen, and well, he gave up everything for Blackout. I hope whatever he asked for in return was worth it.
“Did you show them the surveillance?” I finally speak.
“No.” He shakes his head. “Blackout doesn’t cooperate with the police.”
“Well, then that’s that.” I slap my thighs and get to my feet.
“You’re not stupid, Sin. So don’t act like it.”
I tilt my head. “What is that supposed to mean?” I wanted them to find his body. He’s got a friend who was going to fuck my girl with him. I want Marcus’s death to be taken as the threat that it was intended to be.