Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Most of the time, Onyx can feel like any good fraternity. Guys I know better than anyone else, living in one house, helping each other.
But right now?
I feel like I’m part of something more special.
The way the vaulted old ceiling in this house looks as the candles cast shadows all throughout the room.
The way all of us look with our capes on.
The Confessional is always one of my favorite Onyx Society traditions.
Weston comes in and plops down on the sofa next to me, the cushions sinking a little under his weight. He has a short glass in his hand full of ice and a clear liquid.
I tap the edge of it. “Starting early on the gin and tonic?”
“It’s just vodka,” Weston says.
“You’re drinking pure vodka?”
He nods. “Roman’s cousin got him a bottle that costs four hundred a pop. This doesn’t even taste like alcohol. Roman told me his cousin’s description was that it tastes like the tears of the gods, or something.”
I snort. “Give me that.”
I take a little taste, swallowing as the vodka burns down my throat.
“Good, huh?” Wes says.
“Tastes like vodka. May as well be paint thinner, as far as I’m concerned.”
Wes laughs, giving me a little shove. “Don’t tell Roman you said that. He’s got a lot of pride for this shit.”
As I hand the glass back to Weston, he looks at my wrist. It’s exposed as my long-sleeve rides up a little on my arm.
He brings his fingers up, thumbing the thin, black leather bracelet on my arm.
Weston frowns.
“You’re wearing his bracelet?” he asks.
I bite the inside of my cheek, looking down at it. “Oh. This?”
Weston’s looking at it as if I had a deadly spider on my wrist. “Hunter’s worn those for years. He’ll probably pull a knife on you if he sees you wearing that, just so you know.”
I breathe in deep, giving Wes a nod.
Funny thing about that: he was there when I took the bracelet, right from his arm.
In bed with me.
And Hunter has already pulled a knife on me, anyway, before he shoved it into my headboard and came all over my chest.
“Every secret’s in?” Noah says as he makes the rounds again, shaking the box near me and Weston.
“Put it in yesterday,” Weston says, taking another long sip of his vodka. “Wrangle everyone in here. It’s time for secrets.”
Over the next five minutes, everyone streams into the room, one by one. As we wait, Weston keeps running his fingers through his hair and taking huge sips of the vodka until the glass is polished off completely.
And then he gets up, goes to the kitchen, and comes back with the glass completely full, again.
When he looks at me again, I can tell he’s already on his way to being very drunk.
He’s been doing that too much lately.
“You okay, Wes? You don’t have to drink the whole bottle, you know.”
“I watched you drink plenty of my whiskey the other night at the fair.”
I nod. “I had some fun, but drinking glass after glass of pure vodka is a little different than that. You seem… upset.”
Weston’s eyes usually look kind, but right now there’s something dead behind them.
He gives me a glance and for a moment I think he’s going to brush me off again.
But instead, he pulls out his phone.
He navigates to a group text message, and I see that it’s between him, Hunter, and their father.
There are two texts from their dad, from an hour ago.
Barrett Knox: First quarter exams are unacceptable, Weston. Hunter, yours are where they need to be.
There will be consequences, Weston. You know what that means.
I furrow my brow.
“Your father checks your fucking grades?”
Weston looks down at the phone, turning it off and then staring into the middle distance at nothing.
“He’s had access to our online term grades since freshman year. It’s just never been a problem until now.”
“And what does your dad mean by that? There will be consequences?”
Weston chews his lower lip, then just takes another sip of vodka. “It means he’s still pitting us against each other for who gets to take over his company when he’s done.”
My heart feels like a stone pit in my chest.
In this moment, I know too much.
I know what Hunter has told me about Weston’s past with his father, but Wes isn’t aware of that.
His father has been putting him through a lifetime of abuse, and even if the physical abuse ended, the mental abuse is still clearly there.
“You both should raise a fat fucking middle finger to him, and neither of you take over that goddamn company.”
“My dad has it written into our inheritances. We get nothing if we don’t take it over. And you know how badly I want it, Rayne. The moment I step in and take over, I can make the changes the company has needed for years. I can finally do something good with it. Take it from corporate greed and make it actually mean something.”