Chapter 7

Unknown Location

Lee

Time is running out. I can feel it. My body knows it, as if it's coming to terms with the fact that it will no longer breathe. My heart will no longer beat, and blood will no longer rush through my veins, sustaining it. Instead, it will be spilled on the floor of this room next to my sister and…Kali.

The grief this will cause Taylor makes my chest clench. She loves Kali. Taylor doesn't have a lot of friends, and the people who are in her life she loves with everything she has. She's no doubt beside herself worrying over her best friend and roommate. I only had her for such a short time. Only felt the joy of her touch, and the life she brought to my darkened soul, for mere weeks. I don't want to leave them, any of them. For the first time I'm happy, truly happy and the future we want is so close, within our reach.

I don't want Succo to be destroyed by losing the woman he loves either. My sister deserves her second shot at love and life. I glance at her again, her long, dark hair forms a curtain around her face.I have to figure out a way to free her. I've watched my mother die. I didn't protect her from my father like I should have. I've let my sister down countless times, but that ends now. I will get her out of here and make our father suffer for all this.

"You'll get out of here," I promise her. The only sign she gives me that she heard is the slight twitch of her leg.

It's an empty promise, one I don't know how to fulfill. But with my dying breath I will make sure that she does. Her, and Kali. Because somehow, they will have to form a sisterhood after this. We're all Amir Concord's children. Kali needs to live too. If so can't then she will need to be there for Tay along with Soren and Steffan.

It has to be my father behind this. Who else? He murdered my mother for speaking up. Are we next to be silenced? His obsession with power and control. It's not like he couldn't have another heir. I'm as replaceable as anyone in his army.

A door bangs closed and footsteps sound on the floor. I tense in my seat, ready to fight. The same cloaked figure returns, only this time they're wearing a mask. Not just any mask, it's a replica of ones we usually wear at Halloween. The X'd out eyes, and the mouth are glowing neon red. Their head tilts when they catch me looking.

"Got something to say, brother?"

Brother? Are they part of The Illicit? The fraternity? Or has my father actually started a mini army of his offspring? I wouldn't put it past him, or any psycho, in The Illicit.

"Let them go. You can keep me to get to the others, but let my sisters go," my voice hardens.

Kali's head lifts and her gaze falls on me. I'm sure she never thought I would put it together or even acknowledge her. I see the brief look of surprise in her eyes before she goes back to the usual blank expression she has around me.It makes me wonder if she knew before I did and how she feels about it. Or, if she was hoping I would never find out. Being Amir Concord's child is nothing too astounding once you know the man behind the name.

"I could," the masked villain runs their fingers over the edge of the mask. "But what true fun is it if they don't all lose something, someone who means the world to them, just like I did."

"You hate our father, right? I don't blame you. Knowing the guy for twenty-four years didn't exactly make me a fan either. He hurt Chanda the most. He overlooked her, sold her, helped her late husband break her. No one is more excited than her that our father will be rotting away six-feet underground once we find him. The sniveling piece of shit couldn't even face his own mistakes." I glance at Kali again. "And Kali, whether she knew before now or not, she never came looking for his legacy. All she did was become friends with Steffan's girlfriend. She is just as innocent."

The black face stares at me with dead eyes. A silence stretches between us. I flex my fingers behind my back, trying to keep the blood flowing, preparing in case they lunge at me.

"I'm Amir's heir. If you want to hurt him, hurt The Illicit, I'm the only bargaining chip you have."

The person chuckles and moves backward, to the empty seat across from me. "You must think I'm very stupid. Which doesn't make sense, because for months, none of you have figured all this out. You think I didn't watch? You think I didn't see things? You hate your father, yes. Congrats, we all despise Daddy Dearest. But you're wrong if you think losingall threeof you won't hurt all of the precious little heirs of your seedy organization."

"Why are you after all of them? I get being after us because of our bloodline, but why them too?" I ask the question that's been gnawing at my insides since we were taken.

"Why target all of the heirs? Don't you know the elders will just replace us all?" Chanda asks as well.

The voice is void of any emotion. The answer comes out more as a statement, a rehearsed chant almost, than an actual answer to our questions."The elders need to pay for the sins of the past. Greed for power and money has always been their biggest downfall."

I can't argue with that because it's true. It always has been. That's why all our moves against them have been slow, calculated, and done with the patient precision of a surgeon. One wrong move and we would be dead. Still, something feels off.

"So you're a child of Amir as well?" No response. "We all know Amir is our father, but who is your mother?"

The person stands and whips a knife out of their back pocket right as Kali starts laughing. I glance at her and watch while her head full of red hair tilts back and she laughs loudly, her eyes trained on the knife. She sounds almost manic. My blood chills. This is not the first time Kali has given me a weird feeling, but it is the first time I've been in a situation where I couldn't leave or defend myself with her.

"Cut the crap, Paul," she sneers.

The guy's gloved hand reaches up and he pulls off the mask. Betrayal heats my blood. Paul is a new brother who just initiated last year. This is the killer? Another half-sibling? But how did Kali know it was him? He jumps down and walks over behind her chair.She taunted him and now he's going to kill her.

"No!" I scream at him as he swings his knife. I wait for the blood, the cry of anguish, the sound of skin tearing and bone breaking. Only the knife never nicks her, it cuts right through the binds at her wrists.

Horror fillsmy gutwhen Kali jumps to her feet, surprising Paul, who just a second ago was basking in my astonishment of his betrayal to the brotherhood.She holds out her hand and he slides the knife into her grip. They share a sick, demonic smile that raises the hairs on my arm. They're familiar. An understanding exists between them that Kali has never shown or had us. Panic flares in my gut. This is bad. He tips his head to her and then sneers at us.

"Fuck you, and our father," Paul hisses at me and Chanda. I twist in my chair, the binds pulling at my wrists while I try to escape. My eyes can't look away from the scene before me. Kali's knuckles turn white as her hand tightens around the knife and my heart stops. I can't let things end this way. I can't leave Taylor or Steffan and Soren. I can't let Chanda's light go out before she has a chance to fully shine as the strong woman she is. I still need to catch Amir and take him out, cleaning The Illicit from his evil wrath. I need to avenge my own mother. I plant my feet, ready to strike back, maybe break the bonds that hold me down, right as Kali reaches for Paul, catching him off guard. Herhand grabsthe front of his shirt, and using her body weight she pulls his front into her hand, right on the knife. Paul's eyes widen and fear flashes across his face, but she keeps stabbing. Paul's lifeless body falls to the dirt floor.

"What?" I wheeze out. I'm baffled at this turn of events.

Kali swings her gaze to me, blood splattering her face. She twists the knife in her hand, as if she's done it many times before. Confusion. Hurt. Dread. Helplessness. Anger. I am overcome with emotions. Chanda and I are sitting ducks in God knows where, and at this point, anybody could pop up with a knife. My brain can't comprehend what's happening. I've never seen this side of Kali before. This is not the same girl Taylor befriended.

"What is such a boring question." She rolls her eyes, walking closer to me. "How about, why?"

"Why?" I keep my gaze focused on her.

Kali smirks and throws her leg over my side, straddling my lap. Bile coats the back of my throat when she pushes her chest into mine. She holds the knife against my neck with one hand and I freeze again. Her fingers trail over my cheek before she grabs my jaw, pulling my face closer to hers.

"Amir might have been my father, but he made a mistake underestimating my blood line. You all did. Soleil Boudreaux's blood runs in my veins. You see, Lee, my mother wasn't in The Illicit. She was The Illicit. And they all killed her."