Page 58 of Broken Empire
“Yes.”
“So why would videos from their initiation ceremonies be here on the Schöneberg Group database?”
Killian and I exchanged glances. “It’s a long story,” he said. “But this is the gist of it. The Hellfire Club recruits students from elite universities. Each recruit has to kill someone on film during their initiation in order to get accepted.”
“Killsomeone?” Leah cut in, eyes widening.
“Yeah. Someone bad. Like a child sex offender, or a murderer.”
“Jesus. Okay.”
“The Schöneberg Group is a separate secret society—or at least they pretend to be on the surface—and they pick their new recruits from the Hellfire Club membership roll based on… god knows what. Wealth and connections, I would assume, but I’m not sure.” Killian stroked his jaw and went on. “Basically, the Hellfire Club is a funnel into the Schöneberg Group for those who make the cut in their eyes.”
Leah lifted a palm as the information registered with her. “So… not everyone in the Hellfire Club gets into the Schöneberg Group, but everyone in the Schöneberg Group was a Hellfire member while they were in college?”
“That’s right.”
“And the Schöneberg Group uses the initiation videos from the Hellfire Club as leverage to keep their members silent about all the nasty, evil shit they get up to, I presume?”
“Yup.”
Leah nodded slowly. “Got it. You know, I’ve never been so glad to come from a poor family. None of these secret society assholes would ever try to recruitme.” She suddenly sat up straighter and looked Killian dead in the eye. “Wait…youjust joined the Schöneberg Group to try to find Shay. That means you’re also in the Hellfire Club, right?”
“Yeah. Like I said… long story.”
“So that means you’ve killed someone,” Leah went on. “And it’s on tape.”
Killian steeled his jaw. “Yes.”
I jumped into the conversation, feeling the need to defend Killian from judgment. “To be fair, the guy he killed was a rap—”
Leah lifted a palm and cut me off. “I get it, okay? That’s not why I brought it up,” she said. She turned her attention back to Killian. “I mentioned it because if there’s a tape of you killing someone, then it’s on here in the Schöneberg database, seeing as you’re a member now.” She tapped on the laptop screen. “Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Yeah.” Killian nodded slowly. “If we use this information to fuck over the Schöneberg Group, I’ll be getting fucked over as well.”
My eyes widened as fear jabbed at my chest. “Oh, shit. I didn’t even think of that,” I said, voice barely above a murmur. “You’ll go to prison with them. And not justyou.Your whole family will go away.”
“I know. I’ve already thought about it,” Killian replied calmly, eyes lingering on mine.
I slowly shook my head. “Killian…”
“It’s fine. I’m okay with it,” he said, reaching over to take my hand. “I deserve it for all the shit I’ve done.”
I shook my head, tears springing to my eyes. “No. You’re not likethem.”
Killian squeezed my hand tightly. “Shay, it’s the only way for us to get any kind of justice for you and all the other victims,” he said softly. “It might also be the only way for us to find out what happened to my mother.”
“But you… I can’t…” I trailed off, too choked up to form a coherent sentence.
Leah reached over to rub my shoulder. “Let’s just cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?” she said. “For now, we should concentrate on figuring out a way to let the whole world know what these Schöneberg assholes are up to. We’ve already ruled out going to the cops. So what next?”
“What if we try to make a viral post about it?” Killian said. “You can help with that, right?”
Leah shook her head. “It’s too risky,” she replied. “For one, I’m not a social media expert, so I wouldn’t really know what to do. And secondly, even if Ididknow exactly what to do, we run the risk of the post failing to go viral. Nothing will happen then.”
“Fair enough.” Killian looked at me and squeezed my hand again. “Shay, do you have any ideas?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and shook my head. Most of the space in my brain was currently taken up by bleak images of Killian in prison.
