Page 41 of The Blood we Crave

“Thatch.” Silas says my name steadily and waits for my eyes to meet his own before he says anything. “What if it was Rosemary?”

“Excuse me?”

“If it were Rosemary that was missing still, and she was alive, being sold into slavery, would you do it then? Would you risk it if I told you I want them all dead? Every last one of them that had a hand in Rosie’s death, all the way to the top of the Halo. Would you do it?”

Silence thrums through the air for only a moment.

“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth, “I won’t be happy about it. But if that’s what you need, I would do it.”

Silas knows me, unfortunately. Knows things about me I didn’t tell him or want him to know. But he is aware my loyalty to them is the most important thing to me. That I would do whatever they needed, whenever they needed it.

My only weakness.

Is them.

And I think a part of me hates them for that.

Rook scoffs, tossing his hands up in the air, ready to argue with me once again, but Silas’s steady tone interrupts.

“Good. Because I want their heads on stakes.” He looks at me a little longer before turning to Alistair. “Get with the girls, find out everything they know. And get closer to Easton and Stephen Sinclair.”

“I fucking knew it!” Rook announces, causing workers to look at him with furrowed brows and shameful stares.

I give a reassuring smile to those who are still watching us warily, putting on my best politician mask and trying to convey with my face that we aren’t doing anything too terrible.

When they all return to their task, I lift my hand and swat the back of Rook’s head with a thump.

“Please, Van Doren, shout from the top of your lungs that we are planning mass murder. While you’re at it, let them know you’re an idiot.”

He rubs the spot on his scalp, lifting his middle finger up to flip me off. “I knew it.” His voice is much quieter this time.

“Why?” Alistair demands.

“Before everything went down with Frank, I was looking into Stephen’s finances. He has quite a bit of money.”

“That’s a red flag? Should I be on this list of possible ringleaders?” I inquire, unashamed of my wealth.

“More money than he should have for a dean, even if it is a school like Hollow Heights. There are multiple offshore accounts I couldn’t track, even after running it through my software,” he explains.

“You hacked his bank account?” Alistair muses, a smile on his lips.

“And his search history, cell phone, emails. Oh, and his security cameras.” The first facial expression other than his normal brooding scowl threatens to peek out, his lips barely twitching at the corners.

Silas is good at a lot of things, but he’s great at hacking and holding a gun. Two vastly different hobbies, but he made them look so effortless you’d think they were the same thing.

“If you can convince my parents to let you into my room, I still have the fed linked to one of my monitors. He knows how to work with them.” He nods his head towards Rook. “I’m not saying he’s got anything to do with it, but it’s better than nothing. It should get you started—Lyra?”

Lyra?Lyra Abbott?

Amusement fills me.

How bold of my shadow to show up here like this after her little cliff-diving stunt. I knew she’d seek me out eventually to discuss the bargain. The one where she’d cheated me.

The girl who had cheated death.

For the second time.

However, following me here while I’m with the boys? Is she that dedicated to the cause? Better yet, is she that dedicated to me? For the first time, a question rocks its way into my brain regarding Lyra. Just how much had she seen over the years of her spying?