Page 204 of The Silent Note

His voice when he answers me is firm, authoritative. It tells me that he doesn’t need to raise his voice to be obeyed. “If your leaders, your politicians, your prominent families wanted something else, do you think I would not give them? This is what they wanted.”

“Teenage girls?” Finn bites out.

“No.” His father seems disappointed in the outburst. “Power. The power to know theycanhave what they should not. The power to act on the impulses that they should not act on. The power to walk away from having done these acts and not suffered the consequences.”

A shudder runs down my spine.

It’s his directness that affects me. Kurosaki looks at us as if this is the reality of the world and we’re the crazy ones.

Who gave him the right to exercise that power over innocent children? Over my best friend? Who gave him the right to decide if she lived or died?

“What did Sloane do?” I ask, my nostrils flaring. “To die in such an inhumane way?”

Kurosaki opens his hands.

Immediately, his guard sets a book in it.

He proceeds to flip through the pages. Watching him, I realize he has no idea who Sloane is. She was nothing but a pebble in his path. He kicked her away without thought.

I dig my nails into my palms until they draw blood.

He stops on a page. “Someone’s mask fell during one of the parties. She saw a face that she shouldn’t see.”

“Mask,” I wheeze, my throat closing up.

“Yes, discretion was a priority.”

“Discretion is another word for not getting caught. Which makes sense. You fed the scholarship students at Redwood Prep to a sex club.” I’m trembling harder now. “Everyone who participated in The Grateful Project was a criminal.”

Kurosaki sips his tea calmly. “Those students were well compensated. I am not an animal.”

My heart is thumping so hard I feel like I’m on the verge of a heart attack. It’s strange knowing I’m looking right into the eyes of evil and I don't have a gun or a plan.

“From the very beginning, we made it clear what behavior was expected. This young lady broke her contract and wanted to threaten us with what she knew. It was a problem of her creation, and so she was invited out one night to discuss a negotiation.”

“It was a call from Harris.”

I gasp when I hear Sloane’s voice and find her sitting beside me around the table. Her face is bruised, her hair mussed and her shirt is hanging off her shoulder, exposing her bra.

She’s staring, unseeing into the blue sky. All her spark is gone. All her smiles and mischievous quips.

A shell of the brilliant, charismatic girl I knew.

I launch to my feet.

Finn jumps up too.

Immediately, I see men rushing out of the trees, emerging from their hiding places.

Kurosaki lifts a hand.

“You abused and mistreated her. Yousoldher like she was cattle. Then, you killed her when she tried to get out.”

“Get out?” Kurosaki arches an eyebrow. “On the contrary, your friend wasn’t trying to leave.”

The seconds slow down so I can hear every desperate breath, rattling in my lungs.

What is he talking about?

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