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“Seriously?” I almost shout in frustration. “A girl?”
Ethan lets out a small chuckle. “What?” I can imagine him raising an eyebrow. “Would you prefer me to hire a dude to take care of you?” His sense of humor might kill me someday. “Are you still mad that I brought Zane and Dante here with me?”
My nostrils flare. Now, he’s reminding me that it wouldn’t only be him who could get his head shot there but also my best friends. I don’t like people, but strangely, Zane and Dante have no problem hanging around me.
“Zane will be ecstatic to hear that you miss him,” he says in amusement, “but Dante…you know him. He will shoot you if you say that you miss him.” Ethan tsks. “He’s one cold-hearted man.” It’s clear from Ethan’s voice that he’s trying to muffle his laughter.
“You’re enjoying this, huh?” I say sarcastically.
“Come on.” I can imagine him grinning smugly. “Let’s look at the bright side of this. I just hired her, and you already picked up my call. Judging from my experiences, it’s one in a million chance.”
My blood is boiling. “Rather than waiting for me to pick up your call, you could just drag your a*s back here.”
Ethan sighs. I know that I’m being childish again, but I just don’t want to hear that my brother died on a mission. He’s the only family I still have.
I distinctly hear Dante reminding him to be quick from the other side of the line, and my heart sinks, knowing that he’s about to be in danger again.
“I have to go,” Ethan says, already lowering his voice down because of whatever happening there. “You may have a hard time warming up to her in the beginning, but give her a chance.”
I grip the phone in my hand tightly, trying to hold my anger down and knowing that I can’t escape this. If there’s one thing that I will regret later, it’s disappointing my brother.
I sense that he will hang up, so I quickly say, “Wait. Before you go, I need you to clarify it one more time.”
Ethan doesn’t say anything. All I can hear is the sound of a car door slamming shut and tires screeching, but I know that he’s listening.
“That girl.” I take a deep breath. “She’s really not one of us?”
“She wasn’t a part of Eagle Wings,” Ethan says in a serious tone. “I didn’t choose her among our members, but she is a part of us now. It’s the only thing that will make her safe.”
I curse silently.
Had I known that earlier, I wouldn’t have thought that she was a poser or a Eagle Wings member who stupidly tried to upgrade her status by telling some f****d up lies.
“You have to accept her,” Ethan says. “You can’t tell me that you’re fine, Liam. Physically, yes. But you’re always angry.” He sounds like he’s speaking through gritted teeth, leaving me no room to argue. “I’m not dicing with death here just to hear that you’re f*****g destroying yourself over there. I’m not f*****g coming back from France anytime soon, no matter what you do to make me. I hired Emily, so I will contact her if I need to. You don’t want to pick up my call, anyway. I had to figure out a way to be assured that my brother wasn’t going insane.” With that said in full authority, Ethan ends the call.
I roar at the ceiling, throwing my phone somewhere across the room with such fury that my body is shaking all over. My breathing is hard and fast. My chest is heaving up and down.
I can’t believe what Ethan has decided for me. I can’t believe that I have to accept that girl, that I need to be friends with her. This is f*****g ridiculous.
He said that he wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going insane, but he just made it worse.
I lower myself to sit on my bed, my arms hanging on my thighs. While I’m still trying to breathe properly, my thoughts wander to the girl.
I remember the last thing I said to her.
“Get lost.”
I clench my shaking fist, knowing that saying those words in front of our members would only cause her one thing.
Death.
I can’t breathe. I’m going to die.
Air is being sucked out of my lungs. My face is being pushed forcefully into the water. The grip on the back of my head is so painful, it makes me nauseous.
I choke, my arms flailing wildly and helplessly. I’m struggling to breathe for dear life.
Just when I think that I can’t make it, the hand pulls my hair so roughly, my scalp is burning. I breathe the oxygen again, opening my eyes, which only hold fear.
I make out the shape of the water fountain before me. A strangled sob escapes from my mouth while two other Eagle Wings members secure my arms with their grip so that I won’t be able to escape.
“You’re trying to kill yourself, huh?” the cold voice echoes again in my ears.
My vision is already blurred because I’m slowly losing consciousness. Yet, I’m still trying to stand on my feet because I don’t want to die.
I’d never been so close to death as I am right now.
They’ve been trying to drown me in the fountain located in the middle of the backyard of this mansion.
I squint. The guy who claimed himself as one of the Knights’ right-hand man laughs at me. Everyone else laughs too, watching me. They’re standing near the fountain and forming a circle to get a better look at me — the joke.
I hear a girl scoff. “Told you. No one would believe your story.”
I turn my head, only to find the girl named Tasha crossing her arms over her chest and watching me with pity.
“Do you know her, Lizzy?” someone asks out loud, and now I know that her real name is not Tasha.
Her boyfriend interrupts, “Not at all. We figured out that she lied, but she was stubborn and didn’t listen to our warning.” He looks at me in disgust.
“Is that true, Jude?” another person asks, and now I also know that the boyfriend’s real name is not Nico.
They weren’t stupid enough to expose their real names if I ever got out of this place after spilling to me about their leaders.
But now that it’s not possible for me to run away, there’s nothing to lose for them.
Tears spill from my eyes as I remember my family. What have I gotten myself into? Will I never see them again? Will I really die here soon?
Liam’s words are like a stab to me. It doesn’t just kill me inside, but it can actually kill me.
“Get lost.”
Such words uttered by the King of Eagle Wings are enough to make the members take it as a death sentence for me.
“You said your name was Emily, didn’t you?” the guy who has been ordering around asks me again, and nothing can describe how much I hate him.
He said his name was Kelvin and that he was Victor’s most trusted person.
I remember Lizzy telling me that Victor is one of the Knights, and apparently, Kelvin here has been assigned by Victor to run the place while Victor himself is out for a search mission.
“So, Emily, you might be stupid for telling people that you’re Liam’s caregiver, but your face is surely better than your brain,” Kelvin says. “You’re quite pretty.”
My body shudders as he eyes me from head to toe like a hunter looking at his prey.
“Not pretty enough to fool any man,” a girl shouts in the background.
Kelvin steps forward to me while I’m struggling to break free from the two people holding me. My clothes — my cardigan and jeans — are soaked because of all the splashing that happened while I was trying to get my face away from the water.
I’m already shuddering, but the way Kelvin stares down at me makes me shiver even more.
“Our king might want you dead,” he says with the cockiest smirk. “But I’m sure that he won’t mind if we use you for a while before that.”
My heart jumps like a wild stag due to the fear consuming me.
“No,” I stutter, my mind already figuring out what he has in mind. “Please, let me go.”
Excitement becomes more obvious in his expression. “Not that easy, filthy little liar.”
He tips my chin up with his finger. My lips tremble as another tear drops from my eye.