Chapter 27

“What’s going on?” I ask Axel when he finally returns to the table. He ordered me to stay put when The General left after Odi and against my better judgement I listened to him. I’ve been distracted, unable to get my mind off of Odile the last few days. “Where’s Odi and Kaiden? And my dad?”

I frown, wondering why they haven’t returned. Something’s going on.

“Odi isn’t feeling well so Kaiden has taken her home. Your father has been called away on urgent business unfortunately.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?” I snap. I’m so sick of still being kept out of the loop. Things improved once we got away from Deathfall, but now with Odi back on the scene it’s starting to feel like we’re slipping into old habits.

Take the fight night for example, I was sent away to deal with Rob while Axel and Kaiden stayed together. And that was after being made to play chauffeur to The Doe.

Although I guess that wasn’t entirely a bad thing. I did get to kiss her after all. I’ve not been able to get the feel and taste and smell of her out of my mind ever since.

Once we were at the hotel though, I didn’t miss the way Kaiden draped himself all over Odi like a blanket…something has happened there. They’re way too chummy with each other. And yet she’s still holding me at arm’s length, acting like I ripped her heart out and killed her puppy while shitting on her doorstep. What gives? We all left. Why am I being held accountable when Kaiden and Axel are as much to blame? More so, in Axel’s case. Two years is a long time to hold a grudge, we can’t help being older and needing to leave.

“Do you really want the truth right now? Here?” That question fills me with dread.

Do I want the truth?

“If it involves my father and Odi, then I think I have a right to know.”

Axel sighs and scrubs a hand over his face, a sure sign of how stressed he is. My gut sinks. This can’t be good; Axel never lets his emotions show in public.

“I don’t know.”

“Axel—”

“No. That’s the truth. I don’t know. When I went to find Odi I found her with The General and he had hold of her arm.”

“He what?” My chair scrapes across the parquet flooring as I unconsciously get to my feet, my blood instantly simmering.

“Sit down,” he snaps, grabbing my wrist. “People are staring. Eat.”

I do as he says, sitting down, but I can’t bring myself to eat. Instead I stare at him expectantly, silently urging him to go on.

It takes a moment for him to continue and I swear I visibly age in the time frame.

“I don’t think he was hurting her but she…she looked absolutely petrified. She was clammy and shaking.”

“Why would she still be so scared of him?”

“After all this time? I don’t know. That’s what I was wondering. I can imagine and with all the places my mind’s taking me right now…none of them are good.”

“But, you had eyes on her the last two years, right? You said she was fine, so—”

“I lied.”

“What?!” I bang my fist on the table and it earns me another warning glare from Axel as people turn around stare and immediately start whispering.

With forced calm, Axel picks up his cutlery, poignantly looks at me to do the same, and then begins eating. I gape at him, incredulous. What does he mean, he lied? Lied about what? Odi being fine?

“What does that mean?” I force out from between my gritted teeth.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s clearly not fine and there’s more history there with The General than we first thought. I’ll handle it. I’ll keep a closer eye on him and now that he knows Odi’s The Doe, he wouldn’t dare come near her.”

I laugh at that but it’s a humourless sound. Axel glowers at me. “Yeah, okay, you tell yourself that.”

“If you’ve got something to say, just spit it out,” Axel snaps.

“Forget it.”

“I thought so.” My hands curl into fists, itching to punch his smug, condescending face.

“Actually, you know what? Fuck you, Axel,” I spit. “If anything happens to Odi because of this, because of you, I’ll fucking kill you myself.”

“I will let that one slide because you’re clearly still an emotional wreck where Odile’s concerned,” Axel sneers. “But I won’t tolerate being spoken to like that. Take Odi’s things back to her room and fuck off for a while until you’ve calmed down and can remember who we are.”

I don’t need telling twice. To avoid making even more of a scene and undermining Axel’s authority completely by laying him out cold in the banquet hall, I get to my feet, snatch Odi’s things off the table, and storm out.

I’m seething.

I can’t fucking believe Axel. Still keeping secrets, pulling strings, thinking he’s the boss when we’re supposed to be a trinity. Fuck politics and appearances, we’re supposed to be friends. Brothers. United by a bond thicker than blood. He shouldn’t be keeping anything from us, especially not where Odi’s concerned.

My feet carry me across campus until I’m standing before my McLaren 720S and thinking, why the fuck not? It’s fast enough to get me where I’m wanting to go. I could take Axel’s car – we all have copies of each other’s keys – but I don’t need to be driving something that flashy tonight, even if it’ll be guaranteed to get me there faster than the McLaren will.

Besides, I don’t want to owe Axel anything. If I’m doing this, I’m doing it my way.

I unlock the car and climb in, swearing that Odi’s scent still lingers in the air. I drop her things on the passenger seat and fasten my seatbelt.

Shit. Does that box really contain her mother’s ashes? Why didn’t she tell us she had passed away? And why the fuck does my dad of all people have Mrs Kemp’s remains?

A sudden thought makes me feel sick to my stomach and I’m glad I haven’t started the engine yet otherwise I may have run myself off the road. My father is well known for having affairs. What if he had Mrs Kemp’s ashes because – What if she’s the surrogate to my new little sister?

Jesus. No wonder Odi was jumpy. She’s bound to have known. She can’t have been around her mother for nine months and not noticed she was pregnant and wondered where the hell it came from. Why didn’t she tell us?

Probably the same reason why she didn’t tell us she died. Shit. Did her mum die in childbirth?

I guess this all confirms that Axel didn’t have eyes on Odi like we thought. If he had, there’s no way her mother’s pregnancy and death would have slipped by him unnoticed. Which leads me to wonder, did Axel really lie? Or do we have a Judas in our midst? Did whoever Axel entrusted to keep tabs on Odi betray us, or did he really just dump her and leave town, without ever looking back? As much of a nightmare a mole within our inner circle would be, I hope it’s the case. That’s far better than the alternative.

When I’m finished in Deathfall, I better return and drop off Odi’s things. She’ll be asleep, but I’d be willing to bet that she still sleeps with the window open. I can sneak in and return her stuff, so that she doesn’t have to go looking for it in the morning.

Pedal to the metal, I navigate the quiet roads home to Deathfall, my hometown, yes, but not really my home anymore.

When we first left, I was convinced we would be returning, partly to take over our fathers’ legacies, partly because Odi was still there. Home would always be wherever she was. But once we arrived in Black Hallows, Axel wasted no time in establishing the town as ours. It took me a while to realise what he was doing: building an original empire, one we could control and mould from the ground up, rather than having to wait to inherit with strings and conditions attached. Axel never wanted to be the dutiful son – none of us did – I guess he just faked it better than we realised because even Kaiden and I didn’t see his moves coming. And we’re supposed to be partners. Now it’s so obvious that he would want to do things his own way, I feel stupid for not seeing it sooner.

And now that Odi has come to Black Hallows and will be inextricably tied to us as The Doe forever, I feel like tonight could very well be my last time in Deathfall.

My first time going back in more than two years and I’ll be using every ounce of strength I have not to kill tonight. As much as I’d like to murder my father, I know it’ll be too risky. Instead, I’ll just have to send him a message.

Once I know exactly what he’s done to Odi and her mum since I’ve been gone, then I will kill him. Axel, politics, and his plans be damned.