Page 107 of Reckoning

“Maybe she should…” Ben begins but as I turn on him he clearly realises he needs to keep his mouth shut.

“She’s a fucking cannonball.” I snap. “She’s so wound up by her trauma, and her anger and her self-hate that she can’t see past it, but I’m working on it, I’m helping her to channel it the right way.”

“We’ll need a drug test.” Hastings says. “It’s part of her DUI conviction.”

I grunt back. We all know that was bullshit. If Hastings had any balls he’d tell the courts and the press to shove it.

“And we need to discuss next moves.” Roman says glancing at the Governor.

“Meaning?” I ask. What the fuck is going on, what don’t I know about?

“We think there’s a purge.” Hastings says. “Suspects, individuals we believe to have been involved with Otto have been disappearing. It’s likely it’s an inside job.”

I grunt, hiding the smirk. Yeah, they’ve been disappearing alright. I’ve made damn sure of that.

If Hastings sees something in my face he doesn’t say it but he narrows his eyes at me and he pulls out a piece of paper, bagged up like evidence from a crime scene, and he lays it down for us all to see.

“This goes no further.” He murmurs.

Roman nods. Ben quickly agrees.

I snatch the thing up, staring at it before anyone can stop me.

“Where the fuck did you find this?” I growl, barely believing my eyes.

Hastings stares back at me. “That’s need to know.”

“Is Sofia in danger?” It’s a stupid question, because of course she is. She’s got to be number one on their target list.

Oh, I know about the Brethren. I know how much influence they have. How much power. They make the likes of me look like amateurs in comparison. They say the President himself is a member. That most of the political elite are. For a while I believed Darius was but his downfall proved that wasn’t the case. That or he caused too much shit for them to protect him anymore.

But them being after Sofia makes no sense. What the fuck has she done to gain their attention?

My skin prickles, my fists clench and it’s taking everything I’ve got to not run and get back on my bike, to race across the city and see for myself that she’s okay.

“What do we do?” Ben asks.

“You do nothing.” Hastings states. “Leave it to me.”

I don’t listen to anymore. I don’t care what bullshit resources he has, I don’t care that the President himself placed Hastings here and that that should grant her some protection.

Sofia is my responsibility. Mine to protect.

Roman calls out to me as I leave and I don’t look back. I don’t pause. I just snatch up my helmet and head right back out the door I came through.

* * *

She’sin the kitchen with Tia. Apparently Tia is teaching her how to make cakes. Apparently the two of them are becoming friends, though I’m not sure when exactly that happened.

She smiles at me in a way that tells me she’s uncomfortable and embarrassed about our earlier conversation, about how it ended, about what she admitted as though she has a reason to be ashamed.

I’m still so riled up that I don’t think of the consequences, I don’t think about the fact that Tia is right there. I grab Sofia, yanking her from the room, all but dragging her down the hall.

She screams, fighting me but it doesn’t make me stop.

I shove her into the study, shove her face first onto the desk.

She said I can have her whenever I want, didn’t she? Well, that starts right now. I’ll show her she has no need for embarrassment or shame, I’ll make it clear that from now on, I’m giving her everything she’s ever dreamt of. Every sordid, dark twisted moment.

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