Exodus (The Ravenhood)

“And me?”

“You’re not a part of this.”

“I am now.”

“No, you’re not. I made sure of it.” His smug reply sends a bolt of realization through me.

“You’re the reason…you’re the one who made them get rid of me.”

Dom’s words from just days ago have my gears rolling.

“We were trying to make a point, and we fucking failed miserably.”

Someone from the meetup got the message to him that I was here. Because this man in front of me is the someone they both answer to.

Silence lingers between us before the hostile stranger speaks up. “You were never supposed to be here.”

“You knew about me. You all knew about me.” Of course, they did. Rule number one is to know your enemy and their weakness. But to them, I was an estranged daughter and posed no danger to their plans—another one of the reasons why Sean was hesitant about bringing me in.

“Who are you exactly?”

Silence.

“So why show up here, now, and talk to me?”

He remains mute as I mull it over.

“Someone couldn’t keep a secret.”

Someone from one of the chapters had reported back to him, and that’s why Sean and Dominic did what they did. They were trying to make a point to those in attendance at the garage—the night they ostracized me—while relaying the message to the man glaring at me. To protect me.

Click. Click. Click.

“That’s why I was the secret,” I whisper. “You didn’t know I was coming. You knew Roman and I didn’t have a relationship.” His eyes flare as a smug smile buds on my lips.

It’s clear now why he’s so angry. “You never expected me to show up here because it was a last-minute decision to come. I slipped through the cracks, and they hid me from you.” A little thrill runs through me. “You don’t know everything. How does it feel?”

He takes a menacing step forward. “You’re out of your depth in ways you’ll never understand, and you need to drop the tough girl act and really talk to me because I’m only giving you two minutes.”

And I do. I drop all pretenses because I’m fighting for a lot more than my pride. “I’m not the disgusting person you’re making me out to be.”

“My opinion of you doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does. I think it does a lot. You’re keeping me from my—”

“You can find someone else to fuck you, Cecelia.” My name sounds abhorrent coming from his thick lips. He considers me a menace, a thorn in his beastly side, and most definitely a wrench in his well-oiled machine. But I slipped through the cracks, because of my eight-year hiatus, and they hid me from him.

And I can’t help the thrill that runs through me at the thought.

“You may hate him, you may hate my father, but right now you’re acting just like him, like a machine. A control freak void of humanity with a God complex.”

His nostrils flare. “Watch yourself.”

“Or what?”

He towers over me, eyes flickering in warning. “You do not want to piss me off.”

“This isn’t pissed off? And who the hell are you to tell me what I should watch? You may have most of the cards, but you’re missing mine. It would be in your best interest to play nice if you want my cooperation, my silence.”