Page 198 of Knox Academy Omnibus
The man’s phone rings and he answers. I immediately recognise that they are speaking in Italian. I don’t speak it fluently, but my father still throws some out occasionally, mostly when he’s mad and wanting to curse us out without Aadi or I knowing. Seriously though, what teenagers don’t know cuss words in foreign languages? Especially when it’s the native language of a parent. I smile fondly at the memories before my minder curses under his breath and draws me back to the present.
The hairs on my arms stand on end when I understand one sentence:The girl will sell for a lot.
Aadi attempted to learn the language when he was twelve. He was practising hard and he was supposed to say ‘the cow will sell for a lot’. Instead he changed it to girl to get a laugh out of his tutor. I mean, it would be funny to a teenage boy, especially one hell-bent on selling his sister to the circus, but now my stomach is in knots.
Would Harold reallysellme? Why? To what end? And to whom?
This doesn’t feel like an initiation prank anymore.
Maybe I was wrong about him killing me...selling me makes more sense; it would be almost impossible to find me, and with no body turning up, he wouldn’t be breaking any rules. He could spin it that I freaked out during my ‘test’ and ran away. I doubt the guys would have approved this kind of test. Did they even get a say? Do they know what I’m going through? Onyx knew enough to warn me.
I bide my time. We have to stop, the driver said as much, but I can make a plan. I need to get away. After another ten minutes the limo pulls into a small service station. The driver jumps out and starts to fuel up the car. It’s now or never.
“I have to use the bathroom,” I blurt out. The stranger looks up from his phone and nods. He wouldn’t expect me to run, because where would I go?
I don’t trust the driver, he could be in on whatever this is, and the workers inside could end up dead before help came.
The driver heads inside to pay for his fuel, which makes me thankful this is a dingy old place where you have to go in and pay, no fancy pay at pump here. I slide out of the car and my chaperone goes straight back to his phone, unconcerned. I sling my bag over my shoulder and duck down below the window to crawl around to the driver’s side. I’m thankful that the car is a limo with a divider separating the driver from the passengers. I pray to a god I don’t believe in that the driver left the keys in the ignition, and fortunately for me, he did.
The one thing I love is that I can lock the entire car from the front, locking my minder inside. My only issue is that I have no idea where I am.
Fuck.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sawyer
“FUCK!!!” Onyx roars.
Kalen is on speaker phone to Amelie’s best friend, Jason. Smalls.
We thought we managed to convince Grandfather that Amelie didn’t need to go through a regular initiation, that she has more than proved that she is capable, but he insisted that we have her kidnapped like the rest. The plan was that she would be brought to the ceremony, where all the others who passed their tests would be waiting.
We should have been suspicious, but I was confident that he believed the lies about making sure Kalen knocked her up and taking his birthright. We agreed we would all take our spots on the board and vote against her being in charge too, so everything was in place to get rid of the old man and use his plan against him.
“We’re idiots,” Slate groans, deadpan.
“Will you all shut up!” Kalen snaps. “Amelie wants to know where you are so she can meet you. She’s safe and has a GPS on someone’s phone.”
Kalen paces with the phone in his hand and I snatch it from his grasp.
“Send her here, I will send you the address,” I bark. Smalls ends the call so that he can call Amelie back.
“What the fuck are we going to do?” Kalen demands.
“Since Branson’s family owns this place, we need to find him. Kalen, call him and tell him to meet us here now,” I instruct, taking charge.
Kalen pulls out his phone and, much to our surprise, Baxter answers. Most likely because he’s here and bored out of his brain. This is one event he must attend, no matter how much he wishes to distance himself from The Order. Blood in, blood out, and until that happens, he’s at the mercy of the board as much as the rest of us.
The wait is agonising. You never know with Branson if he will just pop out of the shadows or take his sweet ass time. Onyx looks about two seconds from smashing something, Slate’s on the verge of tears, and Kalen is a nervous ball of energy wearing a line into the carpet.
“And to what do I owe this pleasure, after our last encounter…?”
“Shut the fuck up!” Onyx snaps, making Baxter laugh.
“Amelie has been kidnapped,” I say, forcing myself to keep calm. Baxter narrows his eyes like he doesn’t quite understand what I’m saying.
“All initiates are kidnapped,” he points out, unconcerned and unimpressed. “My grandfather said you managed to convince them to have Amelie skip the pleasantries. It’s the only reason I didn’t kidnap her myself and make a run for it.”
