Page 15 of Call It What You Want
“What the hell is this?” Lucas holds up a black envelope with the gold Burning Crown seal broken. “Lindsay is delivering these to the senior members. She said you called for a last-minute ceremony.”
Lindsay is the Burning Crown member in charge of coordinating our official society events. I texted her after my chat with Christian yesterday.
“I just got one, too,” Ash says, pulling the gold-embossed invite out of the envelope to read it out loud. “‘Special ceremony to be held tonight at ten o’clock tomorrow night. Attendance mandatory.’”
“What the hell is this ‘special ceremony’?” Lucas asks.
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll find out tomorrow,” I say cryptically. The less I tell my fellow Sacred Sons, the less likely they are to try and intervene.
“Does it have something to do with Ava?” Lucas asks, clearly suspicious.
He’s right to be.
“Why the hell are we down here?” I ask, abruptly changing the subject. “I’m busy. I have shit to do.”
Ash crosses his arms over his chest and settles into a wide stance. “We need to make a decision about Sin. He’s been in this fucking basement for weeks now, and the longer we have him here, the more likely Shadow and Ash are to retaliate, or worse, try to break the motherfucker out.”
Shadow and Ash—a rival secret society that’s been gunning for the Burning Crown for a while now. We had no clue they even existed until they flipped one of our own members and used him as their personal Trojan horse to gut us from the inside. The plan failed, but here’s what we’ve discovered about Shadow and Ash: failure only makes them hungrier. They don’t quit. They adapt, then come back swinging.
So, yeah, Ash is right to be concerned.
“So, what’s the move? Kill him?” I cross my arms over my chest and shrug. “I’m down for that. Fuck, I’ll slit his throat right now, but we’d have to be unanimous to do something like that.”
“All in favor of killing Sin?” Lucas says, holding his hand up.
Ash pushes out a breath, like he’s about to say something for the millionth time. “We told Christian?—”
“Fuck Christian,” Lucas snaps. “Eve has him so pussywhipped, he couldn’t see the truth if it grabbed him by the balls. Getting rid of Sin is the only answer, and you both know it.”
Lucas and Christian are identical twins, but they haven’t spoken since Lucas tried to drown Christian’s girl, Eve, a few weeks ago. So, yeah, I get why Christian is furious—hell, I’d be ready to snap someone’s neck, too—but this rift between them is exhausting. Every time they’re in the same room, it’s like a storm ready to break: sharp glares, tense shoulders, clipped words that barely make it past their clenched jaws. It’s annoying as fuck.
With a heavy sigh, I glance at Lucas. “If you want Sin gone, then take it to the Senior Council and make a case for it. That’s the only way we can bypass Christian’s vote.”
“Dude, come on,” he says, annoyed by my response. “We kill guys like this on a daily basis, and we’ve never had to run it by the Senior Council for approval.”
Fuck, I’m ready to inflict some pain. I get off on it—the snap of bones, the warmth of blood. It feeds the monster that’s clawing at me from the inside, and that bastard is starving.
But, still. We have rules. And they need to be followed; otherwise, what’s the fucking point of any of this?
“We can kill him when we all agree,” I say.
Lucas rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything because he knows I’m right.
“Fine,” he finally says, clearly pissed.
That’s when Sin laughs. “Having trouble making decisions without daddy’s permission?” His voice is hoarse from weeks of captivity, but the arrogance is still there.
Lucas takes a step toward the doorway, but I hold up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t let him rile you up,” I say. “He’s fucking powerless in here.”
Sin’s eyes find mine, and that fucking smile widens. “Oh, I don’t know about that…”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I ask.
“You think you’re untouchable here, but information travels. I know about the girl upstairs. Ava Baldwin.” That smile turns cruel. “Pretty little thing. Shame she got caught up with you.”
How the fuck does he know about Ava?
