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Next time, I’ll have a better one.

Bas reaches out, giving me an apologetic clap on the shoulder. “I tried, but you know Connor… he’s as protective asyou are, and with him freaking out about the auctions… he can’t let Haven out of his sight because he’s terrified Jack will order his wife to the basement.”

I blink. “What was that? The basement? Offerings don’t go in the basement.”

Bas sits back in his seat. “I know. And that’s why Connor’s freaked. After what happened to her?—”

“It wasn’t her fault.”

“Tell the King that. She would be send to the auctions if he can figure out how to get her way from Connor.”

Hang on?—

“The auctions?”

“I used to think they were bullshit myself… like a myth or something… but it looks like the King brought them back. I saw Luke and Kev at the Court a couple of months ago. The confirmed it. Said that Jack started up monthly auctions about…” Bas’s forehead scrunches. “You know what? It was shortly after his wife’s accident.”

Accident.

We both know it wasn’t an accident, but in Harmony Heights, you never know who’s listening, either.

Still, I don’t understand. Or maybe I do. When Aunt Reese died… that was around the time that I stopped paying attention to any other woman in town: Order or not. I get why Jack didn’t tell me about the auctions, either. Dallas and I were against them, and as kids, we let Jack know.

According to my uncle, some women are too damaged to be Offerings, too valuable to be Used—and, during the auctions, they become Bought. He sells women to the highest bidder, usually men who come from out of town and leave Harmony Heights with their new ‘wife’ in tow.

But that doesn’t make sense. If Jack brought back the auctions, there’d be a huge influx of cash. I’m in charge of theOrder’s books, the legit ledges and the cooked ones. If we had sex trafficking money, it would come through me.

Unless it wasn’t for the Order.

Unless Jack is embezzling from the society he rules…

This is something I should know. I can’t blame Bas for not mentioning it before. He avoids everything Order-related in town, and if he accidentally gets information, he makes himself forget it as though it’s meaningless to him.

But now that Idoknow, this leverage I can definitely use.

It’s probably the worst possible time, but I smile.

Yes. Fuck Jack Collins. If he’s embezzling from the Order, I can use that against him. He wants to come between me and Loni? Good luck when the old guard votes to get rid of him because he betrayed the society.

I smile—and it lasts just as long as it takes my phone to buzz four times, so quickly, it rattles against the glass tabletop.

I pick it up, and my heart stops.

DALLAS

Emergency!!

Get your ass back to the Fortress

Jack has Loni in your office

NOW!!

No.

No.

I have two weeks. Two whole fuckingweeksuntil the Claiming ceremony. There’s no reason Jack would send someone to get Loni, or for her to go without telling me…