Page 25

“That’s not fair,” he complains as we leave the office.

Life never is, and neither are we.

THEO

Casually walking into the Cellie’s Mystics through the front door for a change, I smile as I see Brea.

She really is very passionate about her job, never treats any of us like dumb kids, which I appreciate.

Even when I finally turned twenty-one, that doesn't mean that I’ll stop hiding behind my lawyers.

This area is full of old money and old men. It’s been difficult to get my voice heard without my lawyers. It sucks that I have to use them as my mouthpiece, but hopefully at some point I’ll be able to step into the limelight.

In the meantime, I’ll work from the shadows. The club is my domain, and no one bats an eye about how old I am when they just want to have a good time. Therefore, we just get to be ourselves, and if we encounter an asshole here and there, then we say we’re the bosses’ sons.

Whatever makes our lives easier.

“Well it’s the boss man. To what do I owe this honor?” Brea teases lightly with a smile.

“I wanted to see how the new girl is doing, and I keep forgetting to shoot you a text,” I lie. “Figured I’d swing by in person.”

“Oh she’s wonderful,” she breathes with wide eyes. “Rachel jumped right in to help, and she’s going to be doing tarot readings as well. Seriously, I love her.”

I chuckle at her enthusiasm, nodding. “Is she coming in today? I think I’d like to meet the girl who impressed you so much.”

Her face falls, and I think, “ Gotcha.”

“She says she’s not feeling well,” Brea says with a pout. “I’m hoping she didn’t catch anything. Someone was sneezing non-stop while they were here.”

“That’s alright,” I soothe her. “I’m sure she’ll be back soon enough.”

Saying goodbye, I walk out of the store and to the SUV that’s idling in the back parking lot.

“Looks like we’re going hunting, boys,” I say, shutting the door. I’m wearing dress pants, a long sleeved black shirt, combat boots, and my suit jacket is waiting for me in the back seat. Same for Elijah and Jared.

We anticipated Rachel might not come in tonight after her run in with Elijah. Regardless if she’s Rachelle or Rachel, there will be a hunt. Elijah needs to put aside his obsession and idea that he’s seeing her everywhere.

My hallucinations are due to Liliana looking so alike to Rachelle. Nothing more, nothing less. Now that it’s been put to bed, I no longer see Rachelle around every corner.

Brea will either need to hire someone else, or I’ll bribe Rachel to continue working for her if she turns out not to be a dead girl. I don’t think she will, but very strange things have been happening lately.

“Yes!” Elijah crows, making Jared and I grin wildly. His bump on his head already looks better today, though it’s a little tender. It’s right on his forehead. He hasn’t thrown up again, nor has he complained about being dizzy.

It appears that it was just a mild concussion and he’s bounced back pretty quickly. Throwing the car into drive, I follow the GPS directions to Rachel’s home that I took straight from her employment papers.

If she didn’t give us a fake address, then it will be disturbingly easy to find her. Lips pursed, I see that she lives a couple of blocks away from the store, which explains why she applied for the job. My search last night did not uncover any vehicles under her name, so I doubt she has one.

Parking a few houses away, I raise my brow at the guys.

“We wait for the sun to finish setting,” Jared decides. “Is it that apartment building down the street?”

“Yeah, on the second floor,” I murmur. “I bet the door has some bullshit lock on it. This will be like taking candy from a baby.”

“We’ve done a lot of shitty things, Theo, but that’s taking it a bit far,” Elijah says, faking how scandalized he is as I roll my eyes.

He always manages to lighten the mood. The mention of babies reminds me of my sisters and how the probability of seeing them is nil. My parents are all about control, which means that since they no longer have any over me, my sisters will see the brunt of that decision.

One of them will be pushed to become a lawyer that they can puppeteer, because the legacy must go on. I’d feel bad about it if we had any kind of relationship, but we don’t. This is the nature of our world.

Watching the last of the sun’s rays die in the sky, I grab a full face mask that has a white printed skull on it, and the guys follow suit. Getting out of the vehicle, we hold the masks at our sides where no one else can see.

Walking as if we’re walking home or to visit someone, we chat quietly.

Everything is stated in code. I know that I’m going to be picking the lock, Jared will smoke her out with a mini smoke bomb he has in his pocket, and Elijah has the zip ties.

Our breaking and entering has a side of kidnapping attached.

Oh well. It’ll be even better if she runs, so Jared will be extra creepy as he talks to her through the door before I open it. I don’t need to be sneaky, I honestly want her to run. It’s been too long since we’ve hunted someone.

We’ve all been on edge and moody as fuck. Jared face fucked me in the shower three days ago because he said he couldn’t handle my attitude anymore, and we are very close to double teaming Elijah.

The only thing stopping us yesterday was the concussion.

The three of us walk up the stairs loudly to the second floor, and Elijah even laughs loudly. If it really is Rachelle up here, she’ll remember his laugh. It’s unhinged and psychotic, which is why he doesn’t do it often.

Smirking, the three of us pull on our masks and I drop to my haunches to begin picking her lock as Jared bangs on the door.

“Rachel, Rachelle, who fucking knows who you are. You hurt your boss, and there are consequences to that,” he roars.

“I guess we’ll finally see if you’re a hallucination or not, sweetness,” Elijah calls out.

The girl inside gasps, and I can hear her whispering to herself.

“It’ll be no fun if you’re rocking back and forth having some kind of fucked up attack,” Jared says callously.

The game is on.