Page 56 of Chaos Crown

She scrambled off the bed.

“No, you stay,” Cairo barked at her. “And you.”

The world spun. In a blink, I was hanging off his shoulder—pounding his back in the midst of being carried off.

“Put me down, you cheating piece of shit. If you touch her, they’ll never find your corpses! Put me down,” I shrieked.

Cairo hauled me into Roan’s room and over to his bed. I had no idea why until I heard a faint click. A cool metal bite encircled my ankle.

“Cairo!”

The guy flipped me on my back, plopping me on the bed I was now handcuffed too. With that, he strolled right out.

“Come back here! Cairo, I swear, if you sleep with her, you’ll regret it for the rest of a very short life.”

I shouted and raged at the shared wall all through the night. None of the other guys came in to free me. Legend was likely getting a kick out of the karma, while the others were thinking I’d carry out my many violent, graphic threats.

All night I screamed and threw everything in reach at the wall. It was the only thing I could do. I was afraid if I stopped, the tears beating behind my eyes would drag me deeper than the river under Chaney Bridge ever could.

***

JACQUES

I sipped my smoothie in silence, eyes fixed on the same sight everyone else at the dining table was looking at.

Ivy slammed around the kitchen, white-knuckling a large knife she needed to open the package of bacon, but certainly did not need now that she was making eggs.

Cairo kicked back next to me, looking entirely too cool for someone unlikely to see tomorrow.

“One of us should probably take that away from her,” Legend mused.

Bang!

Ivy flung the pan in the direction of the sink. It bounced out and clattered on the floor. She paid it no mind in favor of banging the drawers open and shut.

“You first,” Roan said.

“Why did you free her in the first place?” Cairo breezed.

His guest left two hours before. I watched her go from the living room. I had woken up early and gone downstairs, away from Ivy’s shouting, to mentally sort through the information I collected on the seven out of nine on my list. It was Thursday. Our last day to finalize a plan to either rescue Sheriff Jack, or kidnap the members of one of Hunter’s Crest’s richest families.

Roan shrugged. “I wanted to see what she’d do to you.”

It wasn’t hard to answer why people were tempted to beat Roan unconscious.

Ivy stepped out of the kitchen, snapping five heads up. She carried a plate of bacon and eggs... and that knife.

Spines stiff, we didn’t say a word as she went back and forth to set a plate down in front of Roan, Legend, and then Arsenio, accompanying each one with a kiss on the cheek. “Here you are, baby.”

She returned for the last plate, and narrowed on Cairo. She approached fast, raising him half out of his seat. “Here.” The plate went flying, crashing on the table and tipping half the contents on his lap. “Choke on it.”

He chuckled with a bit of egg decorating his nose. “Thanks ever so, sweetie.”

A fierce growl was her reply. Ivy went into the kitchen and finally dumped the knife in the sink. We didn’t resume conversation until she stomped up the stairs.

“We’ve lapsed on our pet’s training,” Cairo said, brushing off his pants. He wisely pushed his plate aside. “Jacques, we’ve got one day left. You said you’d have something by now. Who’s in the Black Letter Crew?”

“Out of the seven I’ve gotten to so far, I can eliminate two. I had to go back in and recall the information, but the night Rainey de Souza was killed was the same night as Stacy Becker’s party. Those two were there.”

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