Page 94 of Temptation
His eyes were wide as I stepped away from him, but he didn’t complain. With one simple nod, he turned around and went down the stairs just as the doorbell rang.
A smile spread on my face when I heard them talking from downstairs, and even though it seemed forced, I knew they would find a common ground. Once this mess was resolved, I was certain that we would be able to work on ourselves and where we wanted to go from here.
* * *
The driveto Emercroft Lake was strained, to say the least. Sebastian sulked in the back seat, right next to a quiet Dylan. Ash kept tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and I tried not to think about the body in the suitcase.
That could’ve been me. That could’ve been any one of them. If these people were ready to drop it in front of the school in the middle of the day, who knew what else they were capable of? Worry gnawed at me, and my gut kept churning the closer we got to Emercroft Lake. It felt like forever had passed since I last came here, and I couldn’t help the tears filling my eyes as I remembered Lauren and those carefree years when we came here with her parents. We drove down the road, and my eyes automatically zeroed in on the crystal-clear lake in the middle of the town. The Ioann University stood proudly on top of the hill on the other side of the town, overlooking the lake. Even with the clouds above, Emercroft Lake held a lightness that Winworth never had.
Maybe it was all the blood spilled in Winworth, forever cursing the ground, but the darkness that could always be felt in Winworth was nowhere to be found in Emercroft Lake. It was no wonder that many residents from Winworth decided to relocate here, unable to live underneath the constant gray clouds and the dark streets.
You would’ve thought that with the amount of filthy-rich people Winworth had, the town would prosper, and they would try to make it better, but I knew now that they preferred it this way. The reason why tourists were not so welcome was because they tended to snoop where they weren’t supposed to, and locals didn’t like that.
I didn’t know much about Emercroft Lake, except that it was founded not long after Winworth, but it wasn’t called the Murder Capital of the country. Unlike Winworth, where people tended to disappear and where bodies of young girls showed up in the middle of the forest, and the culprit would never be found.
I looked in the rearview mirror at Dylan, at his strong face and those high cheekbones while he stared out the window. One of those culprits was right here in this car with us, but the monstrosities he committed were not the ones I wanted to hold against him.
I guess that saying about monsters was true.
When is a monster not a monster? When you love it.
But what kind of a hypocrite was I for loving him then, for being willing to forgive him for everything he’d done? Yet, I couldn’t find it in myself to care about the consequences. He was mine, he was ours, and nothing was going to take him away.
His sins were his to atone for, but I wasn’t going to forsake him just so that I could feel better about what was wrong and what was right.
Dylan suddenly turned his head and his eyes met mine in the mirror. A small smile played on his lips. His eyes were clearer than this morning and whatever he and Ash spoke about, obviously worked. He didn’t seem tormented right now, and after Ash shared that his uncle was part of the Order a long time ago, and that was the reason Sebastian wasn’t safe with him, I knew we had to go.
All of us, not only Sebastian. Trusting the wrong person could get us killed, and even if Ash’s uncle had his reasons for keeping that part of his past to himself, we couldn’t trust him. Not right now.
“We’re almost there,” Ash murmured, breaking through my thoughts. I looked at his profile, at those stubborn lips, and smiled, happy because I was here with them. They weren’t at each other’s throats, and even with all the tension in the car, I knew we were doing the right thing.
“Which is?” I asked, still holding a small grudge because he didn’t tell us where exactly we were going.
“Paraphernalia Club, Moonshine.” He smirked. “I think you’re going to like Indigo,” he said as he parked his car.
“Who’s Indigo?”
“That.” He pointed with his head.
I looked through the windshield at the tall figure standing in front of the club. Even with the chilly November air, he wore a short-sleeved T-shirt, with a leather vest over it. I couldn’t see the inscription, but I heard enough stories to know what it was.
“Well, fuck.”
We were really doing this.
19
ASH
Every decisionI’d ever made was driven by the anger that burned red hot inside of me. But for the first time in my life, I’d allowed rational thoughts to drive me, instead of an anger that ruled over half of my life.
And fear.
God, I feared for my brother’s life, and watching him from the corner of this club, playing pool with Skylar, made it even harder to focus on what Indigo was saying. I could see his lips moving, but my entire focus was on the two of them.
Skylar, with her hair down, looked like an angel in the middle of the lion’s den. We were the only people here, but she didn’t belong in places like these. Paraphernalia Club wasn’t exactly confetti and rainbows, and even with that leather jacket she was wearing, she just didn’t look like she belonged here. And Sebastian… my little brother who carried so much tension around his eyes, I was surprised he still hadn’t snapped at me.
I didn’t have a chance to tell him what was really going on, except that he was in danger. Probably, possibly, I didn’t even know. But I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t lose the only family I had left.
