Page 71 of Poison Ivy
“Simple,” Torin says, draining his glass and setting it down with a sharp clink. “You are going to put out a hit on me through The Syndicate. Request Poison specifically.”
My blood runs cold at his words. This is bad. Very, very bad.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Bram exclaims, voicing my thoughts. “That’s insanely risky. Not to mention, last time you requested her, some blue-haired pain in the arse showed up.”
Torin shrugs, looking utterly unconcerned. “High risk, high reward. When Poison shows up to take me out, we’ll be ready. We’ll capture her, and then...” His eyes glint dangerously. “Then we’ll have all the time in the world to convince her to help us with our little Syndicate problem.”
I force myself to take a deep breath, trying to keep the panic from showing on my face. “And if she doesn’t take the bait? Or worse, if she succeeds?”
Torin laughs coldly. “Oh, she’ll take it. The Syndicate doesn’t let its assassins turn down jobs. As for succeeding...” He trails off, smirking. “Well, that’s where you two come in. I trust you’ll have my back?”
Bram nods eagerly, but I hesitate for a split second before agreeing. “Obviously.”
Torin’s eyes narrow at my hesitation, but he doesn’t comment on it. “I want you to talk to Vex and see if he knows anything.”
Glaring at him, I stand up and shake my head. “No. That arsehole is not helping in this clusterfuck.”
“He might know something we don’t.”
“Like what, exactly?”
“Well, I don’t fucking know. But he seems to be the type of warlock to have his ear to the ground. Do it.”
I clench my jaw, fighting back the urge to tell Torinexactly where he can shove his order. “Fine. I’ll talk to Vex. But I’m not making any promises.”
Torin nods, satisfied. “Good. “
Every instinct in me is screaming to protect Ivy again, to warn her again that she is being set up. But I can’t risk tipping Torin off that I know more than I’m letting on.
“Any questions?” Torin asks.
I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak. Bram, on the other hand, looks eager.
“When do we start?” he asks, a predatory gleam in his eyes.
Torin grins wickedly. “Now. Tate, you’ll put out the hit tonight. Make it urgent - say you want it done within forty-eight hours.”
I nod mechanically, but all I’m desperate to do is get out of here and get to Ivy. She said she needed time, and I intend to give that to her. I’m not letting her, Poison, be captured and tortured if she plans on helping in her own way. “How do I even get on The Syndicate’s web page?”
“Follow me.”
Torin leads us to his bedroom where he opens up the laptop and then throws some runes. Moments later, the screen flickers, and it shows a dark web chat site.
“Won’t they know it came from you?” I murmur.
“Just sit and don’t worry about that. If they trace it, just say you used my runes because you didn’t know how else to do it.”
Okay, well, I can’t fault that logic, I suppose. I sit down and start typing, creating a user name for myself: BlackWarlock69.
Bram snickers, and I grin. Then I go back to typing:
URGENT HIT REQUESTED
Target: Torin Ashford
Location: Thornfield Academy
Timeframe: Within 48 hours
