Page 50 of The Oath We Give

“You gonna sic your dogs on me? Should I expect Alistair to start beating whatever bullshit you want out of me?” Easton snarks, turning his head to look over at me.

My finger rubs the trigger. Just a little pressure and he’s dead.

“I’m too old for games with you,” Alistair answers, grabbing his shoulder and shoving him into an empty chair. “You’re going to make this easy. We ask a question, and you answer.”

I press the butt of the gun to his forehead, applying pressure for emphasis.

“Where is he?” Thatcher speaks for the first time since we got here.

“Be more specific,” He smirks. “He who?”

Alistair grabs a fistful of his hair, jerking his head back so he’s looking up at him, sickly, sweaty skin highlighted by the overhead lights.

“I said I’m too old, not that I won’t. Being a smart-ass is only gonna make it worse. Where is your father?”

Easton grins as he flicks his tongue across his dry bottom lip. “This is fucking priceless.”

I swing my arm toward the wall, pressing the trigger, feeling the slam of the hammer on the metal thrum through my arm as a bullet lodges itself into the wall. Splinters of wood filter through the air.

“It’s going to be bloody if you don’t talk.”

His jaw twitches, teeth grinding together as he moves his eyes to me.

“He hasn’t contacted me. I found out he was out from the news like everyone else. The last time we spoke? He was being arrested.”

“Bull-fucking-shit. His only son has heard nothing from him in two years? Try again, Easton.”

“I wanted out.” He shakes his head. “When I knew Sage wasn’t going to leave you, I told him I wanted out.”

“Watch your fucking mouth—”

“How much you hate me will never,” Easton interrupts Rook, jerking his head from Alistair’s grip, “nevertake away what she means to me, Van Doren. Get the fuck over it, or kill me.”

I don’t know all about what happened between the three of them. Not the trauma Sage experienced at the hands of Easton, a boy she’d known her entire life. What I do know? She was a pawn in a business she never wanted a part of. Their young relationship quickly became an exchange she didn’t consent to. A way for her father to pay off his debts, and she was the cash.

Despite all of that, one thing I know for certain? Easton Sinclair doesn’t love Sage.

Maybe in his mind with his skewed view of love, it’s real to him. Or maybe it’s the power he had over her and her life that he craves.

But he doesn’t love her. Not the way Rook does.

There is a stark difference between the two.

One would risk the girl for power. The other would give it all up for her.

Rook is my best friend, but if it meant killing me or saving Sage?

I’d be dead.

“You’re telling us you didn’t take the video we were sent?” I ask, trying to redirect the conversation back to the matter at hand. They’ll spend hours arguing, and it’ll lead nowhere.

He sighs, running his palm across his mouth. “Yeah, I took the video of you getting rid of Godfrey’s body. Followed you from town to Lyra’s cabin. I recorded it, but I don’t have it anymore. Once I sent it to Stephen, I deleted it.”

Alistair’s fist slices through the air, landing a solid punch to Easton’s jaw, making his head snap to the side. The impact of skin on skin echoes in the room, but it’s only Easton’s laugh that follows.

“You four are so fucking dense.” He spits blood onto the ground, a chuckle vibrating his chest. “Heads shoved so far up each other’s asses, you can’t even begin to understand how much I want Stephen dead. Him being out doesn’t just affect you, it fucks my life too.”

“Save your daddy issues for a therapist,” Rook says harshly, arms crossed in front of his chest. “We aren’t on the same team here.”