Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 137326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Jude and especially Preston get the blood all over me. And while I try to throw them off, these two are actually the perfect fucking team and they overpower me.
They’ve always done this, since we were in boarding school. They’d be bickering and I try to break it up, so they gang up on me just because.
I only manage to shove them off of me after Fred’s blood is covering me from head to toe.
Preston laughs and Jude watches with a satisfied expression as I walk out of the warehouse to talk to my father’s men.
Fucking children.
Doesn’t matter how Fred died. It only matters that he died and won’t be betraying Vencor anymore.
The upper echelon, aka the Founders, will pick a replacement for him soon enough. That is, if they haven’t already.
My mission as the Vipers’ captain is to make sure the campus is under control and fulfills its role as one of Vencor’s multiple tentacles.
Since this town is obsessed with hockey to the point of considering it a religion, it makes sense to use the most popular team as our base, through which we keep an eye on Graystone University and even recruit those we deem worthy.
Though, the vetting process only allows us to invite high-ranking members of society.
Usually, that is.
Because as I slide into my car, I’m thinking about the exception to that rule.
The fake fan who claims she wanted to be offered a chance to be on the inside. A chance I’m granting not because I sympathize, but because I want to see her on her knees.
Literally.
Figuratively.
I hit the gas. Time to get to the highlight of my evening.
Here’s to hoping she doesn’t disappoint me. If she does, I might have to drive her to one of our warehouses.
And it’d be a shame to turn those bright hazel eyes red.
5
DAHLIA
Months.
It’s been months of constant, careful plotting, thorough calculating, and painstaking patience.
Months.
And today’s finally the day.
I wipe my clammy hands on my jeans as I park my bike in a parking space and power walk through the dimly lit streets. I actually followed Kane’s advice and came in my most relaxed outfit—a plain gray T-shirt and my comfiest sneakers that are slightly beat up.
If I said I wasn’t scared, it’d be a flat-out lie.
I’ve only heard rumors about Vencor’s initiations, and they all mention a grueling interrogation process, having to endure physical and mental tests, and being stripped bare of one’s humanity.
But they all remain rumors.
No one but Vencor members know the truth.
Despite the slight tremor that invades my limbs and the heaviness in my steps, no amount of fear will deter me from bringing Violet justice.
Violet and I aren’t blood-related, but we met in a foster home—one of the most abusive ones I lived in—and we bonded. She protected me when the man who was supposed to take care of us got too drunk on liquor and hit us or when his wife tried to get me addicted to meth.
Then one night, Violet took my hand and suggested we escape. We were homeless for a while, and she refused to take us to a shelter or anywhere else in the care system. Neither of us trusted it. I was maybe twelve at the time and she was thirteen.
For some reason, our previous foster parents, Martha and Gerald, didn’t report us as runaways or missing right away, and Violet said she ‘took care of it.’ I’m not sure how she convinced them, but something told me it was because of the black eye she was sporting, and I wanted to go back and kill them.
But the last thing we wanted was to be found and shoved into another abusive foster home.
Thankfully, Violet looked older than her age, so she got a job at some shady restaurant and begged the owner lady to let me study in the storage room while she worked the evening shift.
She fed me, made sure I was keeping my grades up, and took me for late-night walks. She’s my mom, my dad, my sister, and my savior.
She shielded me when she was in the cold. She fed me and stayed hungry herself.
She was the warm shelter kids like me don’t get.
Until she was snatched away from me.
Because of Vencor.
They cut off my lifeline, and now, I have nothing left except the need for cold-blooded revenge.
The light dims further until only a few lit bulbs remain. They’re so far apart and barely there that I have to rely on my phone’s flashlight to see the path ahead.
I follow the directions Kane sent me, which becomes a challenge when the lights gradually disappear, especially when I start taking twists and turns down an uneven path.
Finally, I arrive at the old three-story building that’s no longer in use. The entrance to the front door is hidden in plain sight, concealed behind an overgrown iron gate that’s covered with chaotic ivy and large bushes.