Total pages in book: 331
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
“You have sixty seconds.” He pulls the cuff back on his suit jacket and watches the seconds on his Breitling.
My eyes fall to the revolver that is sitting on the table. I’m all alone. My brothers made this horrible life tolerable.
The thought of suicide has never crossed my mind, but I’ve never thought about living alone, either. My brothers and I were in this life together. I had their backs and they had mine. I let them down. They needed me and I didn’t help.
I’ve got one more initiation to pass before I have any power in our world. Right now, I’m just a son of a Spade brother, and my best friends are dead.
Their deaths are on me. My father was right. It doesn’t matter that he rigged the game. He set me up and I fell right into his trap.
“Twenty seconds,” he warns.
Stepping forward, I pick up the gun with shaking hands and open the cylinder. I slip the bullet in, lining it up with the barrel and close it.
“Fifteen,” he calls out.
I lift the gun and point it at his chest. His eyes find mine and the corner of his lips twitch. I hate myself even more. He knew I’d make this move. He fucking knows everything.
“Going to kill me?” He snorts. “Just like you did your brothers?”
“I didn’t kill them,” I scream in his face. “I was trying to save them.”
“Time’s up, Kash.” He steps into the gun, and it trembles in my hand. “You or me?”
As much as I want to kill him, it won’t solve anything. My father deserves to be miserable; he deserves to know what it feels like to suffer, and I’m the only one who can do that. There’s no one left to punish him.
I move the gun to the right of him and fire. “Fuck you,” I shout over the ringing in my ears.
He begins to laugh as he pulls my cell phone from his suit jacket. “You’ve always been weak, Kashton. Not killing yourself proves just how much.” Placing it on the table, he shakes his head before he disappears through the plastic strip curtains.
“Goddammit.” I slam the gun down on the table.
I’m shaking and tears sting my eyes. I fucking hate the Lords. Everything about them. My father, most of all. He wants me to hate life. We’re tested to see just how low we’ll go, and I will not give him the satisfaction of killing myself. I’d rather live and disappoint him. No matter how alone I am.
My cell begins to vibrate next to the gun, and I tense seeing Haidyn flash across the screen. “Hell-hello?” I stammer.
“Hey, man. Where the fuck are you?” Haidyn asks. “You were supposed to meet us at the House of Lords twenty minutes ago.”
“I—” Scanning the basement, I notice the plastic curtains aren’t covered in blood like they were before. Maybe they cleaned them. I glance at the pits and they are empty.
“Kash?”
I make my way down the hallway and see the cell that Ashtyn was in is also clear of any blood, and there’s no table in the center. I continue on to see the room where my brothers’ dead bodies were hanging. Nothing.
I clear my throat. My heart is hammering in my chest. What the fuck is happening? I saw them. The blood, the sound of Ashtyn screaming for help.
“Us? Who are you with?”
“Saint is here with me. Adam is on his way with Ashtyn.”
I run a shaking hand down my face. “I’ll be right there.” Hanging up, I place my cell in my pocket and pick up the revolver on my way to leave.
My father is standing next to the elevator with a scowl on his face.
“What did you do to me?” I demand. “They were dead. I…I saw them.”
“I gave you a hallucinogen,” he answers. “This isn’t on me, Kashton. That was your mind. Your hallucination. You told me your brothers and Ashtyn were dead. I just twisted it to make you believe that it was your fault.”
“I can’t…no.” I shake my head. “I know what I saw,” I shout.
His eyes drop to the revolver still gripped in my hand. His demeanor is much calmer than mine. I think I’m having an out-of-body experience. “Keep it,” he says, referring to the gun. “Maybe one day, you’ll grow some balls and decide to put it to good use.”
THREE
KASHTON
INITIATION
Commitment
Junior year at Barrington University
I’m nauseous. The gum the older woman offered me was working, but I think it’s wearing off. That was hours ago.
I don’t care how big this yacht is; I feel us rocking back and forth out here on the Atlantic Ocean. We’ve been on this mega yacht longer than I’d like. We were supposed to get in and get out.
It’s a joke. The four of us can’t do anything on time.