Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
The thought of May brings tears to my eyes. “Those poor people…”
“You’re right.” He brushes a tear from my cheek. “And it’s up to us to stop her.”
“How can we? She has the cops and the politicians on her side. She even sits on the board of my bloody hospital.”
“True, but we have this.” He holds up the ruby-encrusted key. “If we find whatever this key goes to—probably a safe or something—I bet we’ll find some damning evidence. The kind that the cops and politicians won’t be able to ignore. The kind that will turn the court of public opinion against her.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure about any of this, Alissa. But my father’s dying wish was that I get my hands on this key. I’m guessing he figured out what Rouge was up to, but she caught him. He knew his days were numbered, so he hid this key in the pocket of the car door. He was already planning on leaving me the car and the club membership—I figure he wanted to give me a taste of the high life, tempt me into going for that trust money—but he realized that he could use those bequests to his advantage. That’s why he stopped at my mom’s house, made sure that someone living knew how important it was that I get the car. And then he came up with that little riddle to get me to find the key.” He sighs. “Only took the better part of a decade.”
“But if Rouge suspected your father knew something he wasn’t supposed to, why on earth would she have allowed you into the club? I assume she could have rescinded your membership easily.”
“True. And Rouge is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.” He rubs his forehead. “Like we were talking about earlier, it would have aroused some suspicion if she had rescinded my membership. My father was unpopular, but his death was still covered by all the major news outlets. If word had gotten out that his only heir had been cheated out of one of the only two things he was bequeathed by his father, she would have had to make up some reason.”
“So she decided to keep you close.”
“She did. And she liquored me up. Got me hooked on those damned gin and tonics. And… Oh, fuck, Alissa.” He buries his head in his hands.
“What is it?”
“We… It only happened once, but I slept with Rouge.”
I drop my jaw. I’m not sure whether to be angry or frightened. The only thing I’m certain of is that I’d like to toss my crumpets. “You did?”
“It was a one-time thing. She made that very clear when I asked. This was years ago, long before I met you, of course. But that… That wasn’t it.”
“What do you mean?”
“She… She made me take a magic mushroom. A special variety that she had cultivated herself.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah. I kept blacking in and out between reality and hallucinations. And one of the things I saw—I thought it was a hallucination at the time, otherwise I would have turned tail and never returned. She made me drink this goblet full of…”
My heart is beating into my throat. “What, Maddox?”
He swallows. “Blood, Alissa. Human blood, I think.”
I gulp down the acid in my throat. It doesn’t help. “Oh my God. And you thought…”
“I thought I had just hallucinated it. I thought that it was the shrooms. Until we found May’s head in the ground. Then I couldn’t help wondering…”
“If it was real.”
He nods. “Yeah.”
I swallow again, trying to quell the nausea. “So…if what you saw was real…”
“I think we can assume it was.”
“Then Rouge is into something really dark. If she simply…had human blood on hand, she’s probably been killing people for years. Servers who break the rules, people like Bill who betray her trust…” I wrinkle my nose. “But why on earth would she make you drink it?”
“I thought it might be some kind of ritual. But now that I’ve given it some thought… She wanted to see if I shared her fucked-up sensibilities. See if she could recruit me to her side. Make me a King, maybe. Keep your enemies close, you know. But she gave me the shrooms first so she could write off anything I thought I had seen as a vision.”
God…
This has gotten so much more fucked up than I could imagine.
And that’s coming from a woman who’s not even a week separated from finding the decapitated head of a young girl in the ground.
I can’t shake an awful feeling.
That this… Rouge’s blood ritual, the disappearances of May and Svetlana, Bill getting his throat slit…
This is just the tip of the bloody iceberg.
33
MADDOX
Alissa finally agreed to come to the club. We got into the car, both soaking wet, of course, and made our way back to her apartment.