Page 53 of Seduce & Destroy

Thankfully, Neenan wasn’t addressing those words to me, but a man beside me. One I’d never seen before. Strange. I’d thought the high heat in the room was just my emotions, but looking around, it was crowded. They were expecting someone.

I had so little time.

Fine strands wrapped around my fingers as they took yet another stroke through my hair. The men strode toward the door, and I followed behind him.

When we got to Laney’s bedroom door, she wasn’t there.

Neenan looked at me as if I had made it up. A distraction. Just the thought that Laney was some kind of joke hurt.

“No–” I started speaking when a door down the hall opened. Dylan’s brother stepped out of Sir Ravencroft’s office, in handcuffs, Laney appearing a moment after.

My eyes grazed her body up and down. Unharmed. But gaunt and pale.

She looked at me with deep sorrow and it was as if a curtain had descended between us, but I didn’t see who had pulled the string. Neenan went to them, but I was barred.

“Miss Whether.” Richard held a hand up for me to stop my approach. “Find your station. Away from my daughter and away from us. You make her worse. Don’t come near her until she is well.”

“Kenna.” A deep baritone voice said in my ear, too close. “This way, please.”

I stepped backward, away from her, watching her father drop a soft kiss to her head. An intimate act I envied. I turned around and walked behind Forrester’s surly stature as he imprinted heavy step after heavy step into the maroon carpet of the house.

What’s happening right now?

He led me outside on the pavement beside the barracks. As we turned a corner, Grant barrelled into me. Briefly, out of sight from the cameras and onlooking cadets, he gripped my arm tight, leaned in close and whispered. “Don’t fight, go limp.”

“Now, Traitor.” Forrester’s voice boomed from in front of me.

I furrowed my eyebrows, but he was already out of sight before I could respond.

Running to catch up with Forrester, I found him standing at the back of the barracks, on the tarmac at the furthest point from the estate, just before the treeline. It was quiet.

When I reached his side, he pushed me down, the pavement scuffing the skin right off my knees on impact. I whipped my head up to him, about to argue, but that was the moment I saw the metal glint of a gun in his hand.

“No,” I said, eyes wide. “You don’t want to do this.”

All he said was, “Stay.” Like a dog.

I pushed up on my foot, but a hand touched my shoulder. Turning my head from side to side, I searched for a way out.

The shuffle of boots distracted me from the gun in his hand and the crowd forming. Some look surprised, but most look hungry, as if they were salivating to see violence. To see me marked by that violence.

An old brick wall was behind me. This was old-school strategy.

“Today, we witness the death of a cadet charged with conspiracy to murder Richard Ravencroft.” I was starting to think that I may have been a topic of conversation in Richard’s office—not only Dylan’s brother. They found out. They found out.

They know.

Oh god, was he going to be dragged to this spot? Right where my blood will barely be cold, puddled beneath me.

Four feet in front of me, Forrester stood, legs shoulder length apart, slowly raising his arm.

I was staring down the barrel of a gun. My dad taught me not to cower in death, that pleading for your life would ruin your image. Accept the consequences and stay confident in death. I pushed back my shoulders and pinned him with a meaningful look.

Go limp, Grant said. Those are not words spoken if you were about to murder someone. They were words of mercy. Why would he save me?

Eyes on the barrel, I saw the twitch of his finger on the trigger and restrained a flinch. I was going to lose everything.

When the bullet discharged, I fell forward. Faithful to a man I always thought hated me, I disengaged from all my muscles and closed my eyes. I hit the ground in a puddle of my own limbs.