Page 120 of Allegiant

“A few years?”

“Yes. Took some classes to impress a girl. Got quite good at it.”

My head lifts, and I blink at him. “Your wife?”

“No, never liked her. Someone else.”

That makes me snort despite the tears. “Who?”

He stares at the wall before him, blinking a few times. “No one. No one that matters, anyway.”

I file that away for a moment, and then my face meets the cushion once more. He must think I’m crying, because he pipes up again. “Would you like to know more about The Order?”

“The one that’s like The Firm? That you used to belong to?”

“Yes.”

I’m silent long enough to give him the go-ahead. I may hate it, hate who Samson is and what he does, but I am intrigued to know more, to understand it. To understand why he did what he did.

And it seems Larry is one of them as well. Retired, but still…

“The Order is like The Firm, just the East Coast version. We’re secretive, powerful, and we rule our town with an iron fist. We’re a myth, but always end up the last resort for people who are desperate enough to sell their souls. But The Order is older than The Firm, founded in pre-Revolutionary times with ties to old family dynasties. Samson’s great-great-grandfather got the idea from us and brought it here. He ran it differently, but the principles remain the same.”

Again, I don’t know if I want to hear this, but I can’t stop listening. “How are you different, then?”

“We don’t murder.”

I push myself up on my elbows and stare at him.

“We disappear.”

I flop back down on the couch. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Larry. That’s the same thing.”

He stops petting Nugget for a moment and gives me a nod. “Yes, I guess so. Though we never felt like it was the same. We thought ourselves above it.”

An uneasy question fills my mind. “Were you hired to murder me?”

His gaze flashes to mine in surprise. “No. Never. I didn’t even want to know you, but you spun your way into my life. I wanted a quiet retirement of loneliness and boredom before that.”

I can’t deny how relieved I am. At least my friendship with Larry isn’t tainted. “I didn’t spin.”

“Chicken Nugget did. He spun around and around, and hell…” He works his jaw back and forth. “I have done nothing but protect you. And I should have done better where Samson was concerned, but I knew him when he was a child.”

“I don’t want to talk about him.” But the way I say that tells Larry that I don’t mean it. I want to know more. Want to know why he is the way he is.

Larry must hear it too, because he keeps talking. “He was always sensitive, a mama’s boy. His father hated it. I remember because he commented about how one day Samson would be tough. The most ruthless any of us had ever seen. All I saw was a mild-mannered little boy with a cowlick and a stuffed animal tucked under his arm.”

I close my eyes, hating Samson’s father more with every word. “I can’t even imagine what he was put through.”

“He was a sweet boy, felt more than others. Not that you’d know that today, but he was. I swear it.”

I lay my hands flat against my ears and close my eyes, as if to keep the information out, but it’s hard. It’s too much. I don’t want to love him more than I already do. I remind myself of the reasons why.

He was going to kill you.

He lied to you.

His whole family betrayed you.