Page 34 of Play The Game

Harley gives him nothing.

When their bickering starts to escalate into something vicious, Avery throws herself into the firing line because she’s the best fucking friend I could ever ask for. It works but only briefly, because while Ash finally calls a truce with Harley, he arrives at our room in a vicious and argumentative mood. Avery puts up with it for about three minutes before she throws a towel at his head and tells him to go cool off in the shower. I make dinner and ignore them both, because I’m smart enough to know that you shouldn’t involve yourself in a fight between twins.

Avery dishes up our food and pours Ash a bourbon from her secret stash. I raise my brow at the pint-sized glass she fills, because he’ll be slurring his words in no time with the way he drinks. She shrugs and when the bathroom door opens, she leans in to whisper, “There’s no way he’s going to talk about it without a little something to loosen his tongue.”

Fuck.

Nodding, I sit in my usual seat and take a deep breath, like maybe that’ll help me get through this without bloodshed; mine or his. Ash hesitates for a second before taking the seat next to me, an icy look on his face even as he kisses the little wedge of skin that’s exposed on my shoulder thanks to Blaise’s oversized band tee I’ve, ahem, borrowed.

“Thanks for dinner. I’ve really missed the slum food since we got back to civilization,” he murmurs, and I roll my eyes at him while Avery kicks him under the table. Turning in my seat to face him, I hold up a hand to stop the tirade that’s about to spill out of Avery, and Ash’s eyes narrow at her dangerously when she instantly stops to collect herself.

I’m quick to cut in before he can start shit with either of us, aiming for a neutral but warm tone despite how deeply unpracticed I am at it. “No amount of shitty attitude is going to stop this conversation. I realize this isn’t something you want to do and I’m willing to offer you a trade; I’ll tell you my shitty stuff if you tell me yours.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Avery’s eyes flare before she can hide it. Her interest in what I’m offering to Ash as an incentive to talk is obvious and predictable; there’s a whole list of things she is desperate to ask but she’s also perfect and refuses to overstep with me. Another reason I love the girl but I’ve given this a lot of thought, and there’s only one answer here that matters.

I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us all safe.

“What exactly are you asking me for, Mounty? Are we trading questions, like you did with Harley or are you just going to tell me all of it,” Ash says, his eyes icy as he glares at his drink. He hasn’t picked up the glass yet.

He might be avoiding meeting my eyes, but I’m taking in every inch of his face like I have a chance of reading it, despite knowing that his ability to hide behind a glacial demeanor is second-to-none. No lie, there are members of the Twelve who would kill for half his smarts and capabilities. Fuck, the Jackal wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand if they did.

Taking another breath, I shrug. “I need to know specific things, so questions would probably work better but the rules would be different. No passes, for either of us.”

That gets him looking at me, his eyes burning into my skin with their frigid depths, and I can’t help but shiver as I continue. “You can ask me whatever you want and I’ll answer what I can.”

His head tilts. “That still sounds like you’ll pass if you can’t.”

I shake my head. “I don’t mean it like that. There’s probably stuff you want answers to that I’d also love to know. Like if you ask me anything about whoever knocked my mom up, besides his name, I can’t answer you. I’ve never met the asshole. But, if I have an answer, I’ll say it even if it chokes me on the way out. We can’t afford for you to pass on any of my questions and I doubt there are any you don’t have an answer for.”

His eyes narrow a fraction, but when it’s clear he’s not going to agree yet, I keep going. “I need to know everything about your father. Why he’s trying to kill you, what he’s done in the past, why he favors Joey, and anything you know about who he chooses for his cleanup. I wouldn’t be asking this of you if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. I also wouldn’t be pushing for it right now if we weren’t on a time crunch, but the sooner I can get a handle on this, the safer we’ll all be.”

There’s a fraught silence, but I only count two heartbeats before Ash picks up the glass and drinks half of it in two gulps. When he speaks, it’s with clinical detachment and a steady tone. “My father is a sadist. He used my mother as a front for his standing in high society. He’d beat her, slap her around, ‘punish’ her, but he was never a monster to her. He saved that for the girls he’d buy at auctions. He enjoys hurting people. He prefers to fuck females, but it’s the pain that gets him off and really, as long as the person is screaming, that’s all he needs. The day my mother was killed, she had followed him through the manor to his private chambers. They always slept separately and she was never permitted to enter his rooms. He had a twenty-one-year-old college student, who had been kidnapped and sold off to him, strapped to a table, and he was carving his name into her skin with a scalpel, over and over again, while he jerked himself off over the open wounds.”

Sweet lord fuck. Ash takes the glass again, a fine tremble in his fingers, and he finishes the bourbon. Avery looks like she’s going to vomit, like knowing the facts and hearing them laid out right now, with our dinner growing cold between us, are two very different things.

Ash continues without so much as a grimace. “Joey found us in the kitchen as my mother was getting us out. She had known for years that he was a sociopath too; he’d already broken my arm twice. She had no intention of taking him with us and when he found us he called my father. Senior caught her by the chauffeured car and dragged her back to the house by her hair. He laid her out on the same table that girl had been strapped to—the blood was still warm—and he got Joey to help him. Then the two of them butchered her. When our nanny brought us down for dinner that night, my father had Avery wait outside the formal dining room, and he described to me exactly what they had done to her. He called one of his crooked higher-ups in the police department and my mother’s death was ruled a suicide.”

I swallow the bile in my throat and, very carefully, I reach out and cover his hand with mine. I hold back a sigh when he doesn’t shake me off.

“What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything,” I say, trying to offer him a break from his demons.

Ash shakes his head sharply and looks at Avery. “He told me that if I didn’t ‘show some promise soon’ he’d be forced to do the same to me. He can’t stand that I love my sister, that I loved our mother, and that I see them as people deserving respect. Dehumanizing everyone around him is so ingrained that I’m the anomaly in that house, not him, and not Joey. He thinks it’s something that can be ‘fixed’, that’s why he put that piece of shit in charge of teaching me how to be a real man, not a pathetic waste of space who doesn’t get off on hurting women. Joesph Beaumont doesn’t want sons; he wants a legacy. He wants to die knowing his sick fantasies won’t end with him and that his progeny will continue to torture, beat, rape, and destroy everyone and everything around them. He’s insane, clearly, but he’s also very smart. He looks handsome and put-together in a suit. Not a soul on this Earth would believe the things he’s done. The only thing reining the two of them in is our standing in high society. He gets away with everything because of who he is. If he were to be exposed, he’d be facing the death penalty in at least ten states and three countries.”

I squeeze his fingers, but he ignores me. I’m starting to get a little worried that we’ve broken something in him and the damage won’t be undone. I know that feeling all too well, but the idea of it living inside of him makes me want to scream.

“They’ve used Avery as the bargaining tool from the moment they killed our mother. I am to submit to everything Joey chooses to teach me, to do to me, or she’s the one who’ll pay the price. If I fight back, Avery ends up on that table. I tested that once, and Harley nearly went to juvie to get Avery to the hospital before she was gone forever, too.”

My gut churns and I have to swallow hard against the bile creeping up my throat. Avery shivers and rubs her arms, trying to fight the memories prickling at her skin, refusing to meet my eye when I glance over to her.

Ash spins the glass on the table absently, his voice still hollow as he stares at Avery. “The cleanup is all done by officials. He has so many dirty pigs in his pockets that it would be harder to find someone clean than to find someone he owns. That’s it, Mounty. That’s everything about Senior. If you need specific information about his crimes, I’ll probably need a day or two to find the details.”

Shaking my head, I clear my throat but my voice is still thready. “This isn’t about his other victims, I only have a couple more questions. Do you know why he would contact someone else to kill you? To kill you both? If he’s so… proficient and willing, why would he pay an obscene amount of money for someone else to do it?”

Both of their heads jerk up to stare at me, identical scowls on their faces, but Avery is the one who replies. “The threat is against us?”

Grimacing, I look between them both. “After I inducted Illi, I asked him to put feelers out about us all to make sure we weren’t blindsided by anything. I knew the Jackal would be planning something for Harley, but I wasn’t sure how much he knows, thanks to his spies in the school. Illi got word that your father contacted a hitman about having you both killed. The one he picked is… actually pretty similar to your father, except he’s not hiding any of it. He’s notorious for his work; I think he likes the attention of being so good at covering his own tracks that he’s untouchable. It just doesn’t make sense that your father would contract your murder out when it sounds like he would enjoy doing it himself.”

Avery stares at me for a second and then her eyes flick to Ash. I wait for the planning to start. I wait for her phone to come out and her sharp, ruthless mind to get to work. I wait for her to snap out a cold and cutting assessment of her father, and maybe even to cuss out the entire country for this mess we’re now in.