Page 67 of Corrupt Me

I miss her smile, our banter, how she feels in my arms, our talks—everything. The withdrawal messes with me so badly I’d forsake my life for another euphoric hit.

While the rest of the group gets ready for the weekly Friday night dinner with the Matriarch, Bailey and I are stuck in the living room, keeping to opposite sides.

I lean against the window, nursing a glass of whiskey, watching her by the fireplace. She looks gorgeous in her elegant ruffled yellow one-shoulder jumpsuit, her strawberry hair side-swept, cascading in loose curls. But she could wear a burlap sack and still be the most stunning woman on this planet.

She’s focused on her phone, and I never thought it was possible to be jealous of a device, yet here we are.

The rift between us is my fault. I knew what I was doing and why I had to lie to her. She called me a coward, and if my past gets out, that’s exactly what I’ll be—a coward in everyone’s eyes. I don’t want the stigma or the label of being called a victim.

I watch her, hoping to get her attention, but nothing works. It’s like the fire in her has dimmed, crushed under my rejection. She knows I’m looking at her. It’s in her almost inaudible sigh and the scrunch of her nose. She screams “stop looking at me” without saying a word, fully committed to ignoring me.

Is this the end of us? It didn’t take much.

She might be mad at me and punish me with her silence, but I’m bound to make her explode—an undeniable fact. Just as she starts to look at me, the others walk down the stairs, oblivious to my emotional turmoil.

Bailey smiles at them while I groan a greeting, and then we all head for our cars.

She slides into Abi’s Porsche with the other girls while I get in the back seat of Kaden’s BMW.

“You’re depressing as fuck, man,” Blake sighs as we pull out of the driveway.

“Just let him be,” Kaden says. There’s a silent conversation going on just with their eyes, but I don’t care.

“It will only get worse. Just a piece of friendly advice: stop fighting the inevitable,” Dane says.

I don’t bother responding. Instead, I shove my earbuds in and blast some dubstep. But not even the broken beat, heavy drum, and low bass help ease the tension coiling inside me.

It’s Friday night. After dinner, my friends are going out, probably to The Cave. I will spend my night at the training center. Some alone time is exactly what I need, accompanied by an adrenaline rush to make me feel better.

The moment Kaden parks the car in front of the estate, I am the first out of the vehicle. Inhaling the fresh air to anchor myself, I take two stairs at a time to the front entrance.

Samuel, the butler, opens the imposing hardwood door, its surface adorned with an eagle emblem. The beak is so sharp it looks ready to pluck your eyes out.

We walk down the long hallway and into the formal dining room. I greet Cassandra and take my seat—coincidentally, right next to Bailey. She’s everywhere. Might as well accept it.

When we’re all seated, Cassandra clasps her hands together, looking at us with bright eyes. I hope she tells us she found that asshole and is gifting him to me to kill him.

“Everything is planned. You’re leaving tomorrow for your vacation,” she says excitedly.

Silence falls around the table. Cassandra exhales a long puff of air as if she expected applause. The girls share small smiles, but there’s a current of cautiousness weaving through the room. I don’t know what she thought would happen. Did she expect us to embrace the idea of taking a vacation when someone out there wants us dead?

No one around the table blatantly says no—we all knew it was coming. This damn weariness that has been settling over us is reason enough. It’s tiresome facing death threats left and right for what feels like forever.

“It’s all hush-hush,” Cassandra adds. “No one knows where you’re going.”

“Ma’am, are you sure?” Celine asks, and her mother’s eyes soften for a moment before she shifts into the matriarch of the Family.

“Yes, and it’s done. I want you to have normal life experiences. I won’t let him ruin them. There hasn’t been any more movement on Felix’s part.”

I’m about to protest, but she cuts me off. “Enough of this talk. You deserve this break, and you’re going to enjoy it.”

The first course arrives, but instead of food, the staff member lifts the silver lid to reveal a shiny, black envelope stamped with the golden eagle crest of the Family.

“This is all you need to know about what to pack,” Cassandra explains. “A van will pick you up tomorrow morning at eight o’clock.”

Curious, I reach for the envelope and open it. The instructions are cryptic, but one line stands out:Why does the ground sparkle like diamonds when it’s sunny yet cold?

It must be somewhere in the mountains. I haven’t been snowboarding in a while—maybe that will help clear my head.

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