Chapter 274
Chapter 274:
On the dresser sat a cheap beaded clutch Maeve had provided. I shoved both devices inside, burying them beneath a compact and a tube of lipstick.
“Done,” I announced, gripping the bag like a shield.
Maeve turned back, her gaze raking over me. A smirk curled her lips. “Finally. You look worth at least half the debt Silas owes p>
From downstairs, Silas’s voice drifted up, tight with panic. “Maeve! Adella! We’re late. He doesn’t like to wait p>
I followed Maeve down the grand staircase, my feet now encased in towering stilettos that pinched my toes. Every step felt like a walk to the gallows. But as my fingers brushed the clutch and felt the hard plastic of the phone through the beads, I reminded myself: I am not the victim. I am the bait.
The ride to the city was suffocating. The black sedan smelled of Silas’s nervous sweat and cheap leather. Outside, the rain had turned into a deluge, blurring the city lights into streaks of neon violence.
Silas and Maeve sat opposite me, avoiding my eyes. They were selling their own blood to a Rogue warlord to preserve their pathetic social standing. I opened the clutch under the pretense of checking my makeup. In the dim interior light, my thumb moved quickly across the keypad of the burner phone.
At The Onyx Fang. Going in.
Send. Delete. Snap the bag shut.
𝖬or𝖾 𝗇𝘰𝗏e𝘭𝗌 oո
The car slowed to a halt just as I settled back against the seat.
The Onyx Fang was a fortress of black stone in the industrial district, a place where Pack law held no sway. A line of Rogues and criminals snaked around the block, but our driver pulled directly up to the velvet ropes.
A bouncer the size of a grizzly bear blocked our path. He wore a suit straining at every seam, and his eyes were entirely devoid of warmth.
“The girl goes up,” he grunted, his voice like gravel in a tumbler. He looked past Maeve, who had stepped out with her nose in the air. “You stay here p>
Maeve bristled, her face flushing an ugly shade of purple. “Excuse me? We are the Thornes. We are here to facilitate the p>
“Boss said the girl only,” the bouncer said, stepping forward. The threat of violence rolled off him in waves.
Silas, ever the coward, grabbed my arm and practically pushed me toward the bouncer. “Go, Adella. Do this for the Pack. It’s the only way p>
“For the Pack,” I repeated, letting every ounce of venom I possessed bleed into the words. “Right p>
The bouncer ushered me past the velvet rope and into a private elevator. The doors were polished brass, and they threw my reflection back at me—a girl in a red dress, looking small and frightened.
The reflection lied.
As the elevator ascended, leaving my treacherous family on the wet pavement below, I reached into my bag. My fingers closed around the slender metal cylinder of the voice recorder.
Click.