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“Make this go away, Rowan,” she says sharply. “No blood of mine fails. You’ve already had one chance—this is your last.”

I hear the veiled threat loud and clear. My eyes fall to my father, but he only looks back at me, no hint of sympathy behind his eyes. I’m not sure what I was expecting.

I nod. “Understood,” I say, then turn on my heel to get out of there, not bothering to wait for my mother’s dismissal like the good soldier she wants me to be.

As I make my way downstairs, my phone vibrates in my pocket, and I see Xander’s face light up my screen.

“What?” I answer curtly.

“That’s not very polite,” he says on the other end.

“I’m not in the mood, Xan,” I say.

“Fine,” he says. “Guess you don’t want to know about one of our guys selling Haze.”

“What?”

“Told you I could help,” he says smugly on the other end.

“Where are you?”

“Sying,” he says.

I let out a quiet breath, the tension building behind my eyes. “Okay, see you in twenty.”

“Looking forward to it.”

When I get to the warehouse, it is full of men and women carting off piles of boxes from one end to another, packing theminto trucks and then doing it again. They all move aside, wide-eyed when they spot me, doing well to stay out of my way.

Sying Peak is one of the warehouses we run The Snake business out of. Unlike Summit or The Serpentine where the men in suits frequent, Sying is where we smuggle all of sorts of products—weapons, cigarettes, alcohol, stolen art and precious jewels—you name it. It’s where Xander’s foot soldiers mostly work out of too, tattooed men and women brandishing bats, guns, chains, knives, whatever weapons they deem fit to make sure the northern side of Senna remains in the hands of The Snake.

I walk up a metal flight of stairs, several men bowing their chins in greeting and moving aside quickly like I’m some terrifying animal. But I’m not paying attention to them. My mind keeps drifting to my conversation with my parents.

I’ve never held any desires for them to treat me like a son. Unlike Hayden, I’ve never believed they needed to love us in the same way most parents love their children. That’s not why we were born. But my mother has the power to take away everything I’ve ever wanted, and it makes my stomach roll.

Someone pulls open a metal door and the first thing I see is a man seated on a metal chair; his hands bound behind his back with hemp rope. Fluorescent white light beams over the empty room that smells of wet cement and gravel.

A trail of blood runs down his pale face, one eye swollen and black. Xander is leaning against the far wall, his arms crossed, showing off his arms covered in tattoos. There’s a swatch of blood on his cheek and his knuckles are raw and marred with crimson slashes.

“Hey Ro.” He waves, a knife in hand and an angelic smile dancing on his lips. “So happy you could join us.”

I look back at the man in his chair, who is shivering violently in his seat, his one open eye tracking me warily. “Please,” hewhispers, “Please you have to help me. I haven’t done anything wrong.Please.”

I ignore him, looking back at Xander in question. He gazes back at me, that fake innocent smile on his face. “Meet Key. He sold a few pills to our dead guy a few days ago. As you can see, I’ve tried to question him but he’s not budging. I thought you might want to take a crack at it.”

“Please,” Key says again, keeping his functioning eye on me. “This isn’t … This isn’t…” But he can’t finish his sentence because he hunches over and coughs out a glob of blood mixed with saliva. It lands on the floor with a splat.

Xander makes a dramatic gagging sound from where he stands. I wrinkle my nose, crouching slightly so Key can see me clearly. “Hello, Key. My name is Rowan,” I say, although he already knows that. “Before we start, can I get you anything?”

Distrust flashes through his eyes. He looks at me, then at Xander, his split lip quivering.

“It’s okay,” I tell him, trying my best to sound reassuring, but we both know it’s false. Nothing is okay and Key probably won’t survive the night. “Tell me what you need. I’ll make sure you get it.”

His gaze meets my eyes again and swallows loudly. “Water. Please—water.”

I nod at one of the guys standing in the corner and he rushes out of the room without a word. I look back at Key and smile. “Let’s get these ties off you, shall we?”

“Really?” Xander chimes in from his corner.