Page 193 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“It was you in the tree,” I say.
“Yep!” She grins proudly. “I rubbed myself on Kalen and then changed into Jasper's shirt and ran for my life.”
“Amelie, I forgot to introduce you to Dirk Kessler, a friend of my father’s.” Amelie looks at my dad, and then towards Dirk and Grandfather. Her eyes scan the knot tattoo on the inside of his left wrist.
“Nice to meet you,” she says politely.
“You’re Marco’s daughter.” Confusion washes over Amelie's face.
“You know my dad?” she questions.
“A long time ago, when he was no older than you. Before he went back to Australia.”
Amelie and Dirk talk quietly amongst themselves. We know that Dirk is Debbie's uncle. We’ve wanted to tell Amelie about Laura for a while now, but we are bound by The Order under some old fucking bylaws.
Most of The Order might run on favours, and a lot is above board and about getting ahead in life, but it isn’t all like that.
There are a lot of illegal activities: drugs, guns, trafficking – though we draw the line at sex slaves and children. We even do good in that department, using our connections to bring those criminals to justice. Though with us being in university, we have never been involved in any of those things directly. Instead, we have specialised teams that we send in and do that, because we have connections everywhere.
The Order is blood in and blood out, we recruit members while in uni, from select families. If you have a kid with a mob boss father, chances are they will join the mob. There isn’t any type of person we don’t have in The Order. Onyx has already expressed his interest in running the marksmen division; he will sic The Order on those who haven’t complied, and his teams will do what needs to be done.
It’s a lot to take in, but we have grown up in this world. No one is forced to join; even when you pass your last test, you get a choice. That’s where Baxter fucked up. He was happy to join, but now he tries to distance himself and he was hand-picked by his family to follow in their footsteps. He should have just said no, but because he didn’t, he’s here til the bitter end.
Many of our Ghosts – our invisibles – come from the Branson family. We never underestimate Baxter; he has been trained as a weapon. We also never force anyone into a role they don’t want, but that pisses off the board. Baxter is one of the best they have ever seen. He never leaves a trail, he can pop up out of nowhere and kill a man using pressure points before they would notice he is even there. He’s smooth and reliable, he just prefers violence and mess.
Baxter also isn’t stupid, he knows why we want Amelie, which is why we also know he will try whatever he can to stop her from joining. For whatever reason, he is drawn to her – but it doesn’t appear to be in a sexual way. Their whole relationship baffles me. We know that he has been planning to go off grid when he finishes here at Knox, which will ultimately sign his own death certificate. If Amelie takes over, he won’t be able to – his connection to her will save him. It would be better for him if she does take over, so why is he so against it happening?
Grandfather, clearly annoyed by how well Amelie is doing, excuses himself and takes Dirk and my father with him. He says that they have business to attend to, but we’ve learnt that is code for ‘I’m done with this conversation’.
“What was that all about?” Amelie asks. We all look at her.
“How about we take a walk? I have Marshmallow locked up in the laundry room.”
When Sawyer mentions Marshmallow, Amelie’s eyes light up and she jumps out of her chair ready to go. Kalen runs upstairs to change.
We all head to the back of the house, and Marshmallow starts yapping when he hears us coming. Amelie runs ahead and opens the door, the white fluff ball jumps into her arms and licks her face.
“Hey, baby,” she coos, “Did you miss me?”
Sawyer joins her and Onyx stands beside me. Something is up with him and he hasn’t spoken to me about it, which worries me. The issue with him is that if he keeps it bottled up, someone will pay the price later. He usually attends more of Taco’s fights when he has something on his chest.
“What’s up with you?” I ask while we watch Amelie and Sawyer take the dog out the back door.
“Hearing Amelie say she wore Jasper’s shirt makes me want to slice him to pieces. She’s fucking me up and I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“You know letting people in isn’t a bad thing.”
“That's easy for you to say. She left us once before, so what’s stopping her from going again? When she finds out exactly what our future holds in The Order she may very well disappear.”
“Stop being a big baby,” Kalen says, coming up behind us. “I have a plan.”
“And what’s that, oh smart one?” Onyx says sarcastically, looking him up and down as if to say ‘look how well your last plan worked out for you’.
“Well, we use her hatred of Laura to get her to join The Order. Like, properly. At the moment she’s only interested in getting answers. We need her to stay, so we give her arealreason to want to join. When she finds out about her” – Kalen lowers his voice – “real mother. I suspect she will be furious and want to use The Order’s resources.”
“That's all good in theory, but she has Smalls, and when she feels threatened, she’ll turn to him,” I say.
And it’s true, all we can do is hope that she wants this, and if she does, that she will stick around with us. We all messed up with her, and we know it. Every single one of us has so much baggage – from our childhood to being in The Order. Don’t get me wrong we would all live and die for The Order, but Amelie is a game changer. We know it, Dad knows it, and even Grandfather and the board knows it. One person has come into our lives and is stripping us of everything we have ever believed in.
