A Destiny of Carnage (A Violent Agenda)

I shake my head. “I don’t want any of it.”

“I’m not going to give you any more money, so you should at least keep half.”

I grit my teeth at him. “Fine, we’ll share. Happy now?”

“Almost.” He shifts in his stance. Head cocked. “I’m opening a training arm of the agency there. I’d like you to head it up.”

I stare at him. “Fuck, no.”

“It won’t be for a while. Think about it. I could use someone like you. And it pays well.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good. Otherwise, the academy is your home, regardless. If you don’t want to stay here, that is.”

I don’t ever want to come back here, ever again. “Is that all?”

He shifts his attention to a file on my dressing table. It’s one I recognize. My bloody prints all over it are a silent beacon reminding me of when I fucked up the most. The file wasn’t on the dresser before. Dante must have put it there.

“Just…I came to give you that. It’s the file you found on me in your father’s office. It’s yours. The agency changed the dates and names to protect you. Everything, who you are, who your real parents are, is in there.”

I stare at it blankly, but deep down feel as though it might come alive and bite me.

Do I really want to know who I am?

“What about Rebecca? How does she fit into all this?”

“It’s all in the file, V,” he says, giving me a cryptic look. He doesn’t want to tell me—OK. I dart a glance at it. I’ll read it in the car.

After a pause, I exhale and look directly at him. “So, us inheriting equally, does this officially mean you’re my stepbrother?” I ask.

Dante shrugs, blue orbs searing into my soul. “I’ll be whatever you need me to be. I’ve always been yours,” he says casually. “Just as you’ve always been mine.”

I slit my eyes at him. “Have I?”

“You have. Although now, I’m willing to share you,” he says matter-of-factly.

My mind flies to indecent places and all the things I might just have to look forward to. “We’re going to need a bigger bed,” I say. “At the academy.”

My ex-mentor doesn’t say anything else; he just smiles—a cold empty one, but a smile nonetheless.

I’ll consider that means an Alaskan King is on order then.

Lorcan,Dino, and Jude are waiting outside with their cars as I’m finally able to leave. As the three of them look at me, coming down the stone steps, suitcase in hand, I know something is up.

“What?” I ask, coming to a stop in the courtyard.

“We’ve made a decision,” Lorcan says, taking off his shades, so his cut-grass green eyes immediately spear me. He’s wearing his usual black t-shirt and ripped jeans, looking undeniably edible. “We’re coming with you.”

“Are you now?” I say, jutting my hip out as I look at him, all off them.

Dino, wearing his biker jacket and rings all over his fingers, runs a hand through his hair. “You’re more important to us than any fucking family obligation.”

“You are our family, babe.” Jude grins, threading a hand around my waist. The hunter-green shirt he’s got on brings out the hazel of his eyes as he slips a hand into his pocket and pulls out a lone knuckle duster in a silver-white metal, glinting in the sun.

It’s not Jude’s usual weapon. This one is small, elegant where the metal tapers, with the barbs much more discreet hidden beneath a line of diamonds set into the curves. He pushes it into my hands. “I think you’ll agree this is much better than a fucking ring,” he says.

“What is this? Why are you giving me this?” I ask, furrowing my brow, adrenaline spiking through me.