Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
So what the hell is this about?
In all the years Sai’s been my guard, never once has he “taken leave.” Sure, there are certain hours of the day, some days, depending on what’s going on and where I am, that allow him to, at the very least, sit in peace. So does he accept his allotted time for himself? Duh.
What he does not do is take a fucking leave. He’s never even been late, let alone “called in!”
So where is he and how did my dad find out?
Did he punish Sai?
Threaten him?
Does my sister have something to do with this?
Probably, not that my dad would tell me if I asked. I’m next in line as head of the Revenaw name and he still has me on that “need to know” level because “the less I know, the safer I am.”
Grinding my jaw, I throw my door open and stomp inside.
My father says I’m the perfect daughter, that I’ll “change our world” and “lead us into a new era,” whatever the fuck that means.
He pushes me but pacifies my sister.
My girls don’t know this, but I’m “not allowed” to rank below them. When I was forced to walk away from swimming, he was angry, as we all were, but his anger went beyond the situation. He suggested we find a “nonviolent” way to make Delta stop playing piano and to get Bronx to retire her paint brushes, so we girls would remain “equal.”
I guess my Olympic gold medal, literally topping me out in the sport, my perfect GPA, and my role as captain on both the fencing and the skeet shooting team doesn’t mean much to the man who has the Mafia in his back pocket. Without him, they would have a quarter of what they do.
He’s indispensable and he wants that for me, but it’s never enough, not for the man who took over the northern district organizations as a whole at the young age of twenty-one. Took down his competitors before he turned twenty-two, and after that, men twice his age traveled from across the nation to kneel at his feet. Literally, I’ve seen the photos.
Ignorant people believe I have it easy, but they couldn’t be more wrong, and now, as if I don’t have enough on my plate, my sister’s problem has become mine, but that’s how it goes, right? The strongest cleans up the weakest’s mess.
Not sure how exactly her royal fuckup can be “cleaned,” but I’m sure Rayo Revenaw has a plan.
A plan he won’t include me in.
He can’t risk her being seen at our childhood home in the city, and he can’t stay home to make sure she’s not, even if he does have a dozen guards on-site at all times. It’s bullshit to put those of us at the manor in this situation, but I can’t say I don’t understand his reasoning.
Still …
Fuck her, fuck him, and fuck this.
Chapter 8
Rocklin
When a hunter explains such a sport to her class, she will say something along the lines of “you have to block everything else out” or “a clear mind is key.” She wouldn’t be wrong. That is the easiest way … and that is precisely why we teach things differently at Greyson Elite Academy.
We focus the chaos in our minds on our problem, envisioning the prime frustrations long before the target is released. We teach them to let the noise take over, to drown in it to the point of desperation, where the only way to find the air they need to survive is to take out the person threatening it.
Mine takes the shape of the person I see in the mirror every morning, her blonde hair a single shade darker than mine.
I mount my shotgun, drawing the stock close to my cheek and blow out a long breath.
“Pull.”
The first target is released. My weight is focused on my front foot, my eyes tracking the target, the muzzle of the gun following. I gently squeeze the trigger so as not to disrupt my shot, and the clay pigeon shatters in the air, as does the second and each one after that.
My body shakes with anger and I lower the gun to my side, staring up at the final smoke spot in the sky.
“Perfect, as always,” is spoken from about ten feet behind me.
My lips press into a tight line and I blow out a harsh breath, annoyed even more than before. “You really shouldn’t approach me when I have a gun in my hands. I might pull the trigger by accident.”
“And allow a single mistake on your perfect record? Not like-likely,” she stutters over the word when I whip around to face her, small creases forming along her temples.
“Watch yourself, sister, and get the hell out of here before I humiliate you more than you’re humiliating our family.”