“Close to magic,” Roman offers. “But I need something from all of you, too. I need you to not befucking lazy. There is information on every alum coming to the event in the Onyx shared drive. Look at it. Study it. Fucking memorize everything about the people, their companies, and even their goddamn favorite cocktails.”
“Why do we have to do that, if you already did yourvoodoo magic?” Ollie jokes.
Roman narrows his gaze. “Because I want them to continue respecting me and my family. Do you understand?”
The whole table goes quiet for a beat.
That tends to happen when Roman gets serious. We’re notafraidof him, but there’s a tacit understanding that we know when he isn’t fucking around. He acts like the society bodyguard and that means that he commands respect more than anyone else.
“Well, then I’ll be studying up,” Ollie says, breaking the ice for the rest of us.
“Your boyfriend could charm a rabid animal, you know,” I lean over and tell Niko.
“Isn’t he the greatest fucking thing on Earth?”
I puff out a laugh. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m glad you love him.”
Everyone breaks off into side conversations as we start to eat. Niko leans back in his chair, sighing.
“I don’t hate secret societies like I did when I first joined, but I still don’t understand you guys,” Niko says. “Aren’t you all rich and well-connected already? Why are you fighting for alumni connections like you’re wolves tearing apart fresh prey?”
“Because it matters,” Rayne says from across the table.
“Unfortunately,” Hunter adds, then hauls a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth like he’s starved.
“All of us are competitivebecauseof our backgrounds,” I tell Niko.
He shrugs me off.
There’s a reason Niko feels differently than I do.
Niko only exists because our father went off and cheated on my mom when I was a baby. There’s a reason Hunter and I never met our half-brother until last year. Our fatherpaidto keep Niko out of our lives, until he died.
Which means that Niko didn’t grow up with Dad.
And Dad’s form of abuse was like a slow-boiling pot of water that Hunter and I were trapped inside. Dad would be encouraging one moment and a monster the next. And if I wasn’t competitive in school, he’d threaten to disinherit me or take away my ability to work for his company after graduation.
Now?
Shit’s different.
I want to put every scrap of money Dad left me toward something better. Somethinggood. But the rules used to be written out for me, and now I’m lost.
Do I want to start a charity? A nonprofit for abused children? Maybe something related to athletics, because sometimes sports were my only safe place growing up? I don’t know how any of that works. I desperately want connections because Ineedamentor to guide me who isn’t cruel and corrupt like my father was.
And I don’t want to think about the real world, anyway.
Onyx House is the first place where I’ve been certain that I belong. I wish I could freeze time and stay here forever, sometimes.
“Roman,” I say across the table, nodding over at him. “Do you know about anyone who was at the party Friday night who was new?”
He sips black coffee and thoughtfully looks up at the ceiling for a moment. “There was a guy I met who said he was from Lakehollow College. A woman who Matt invited from a bar. I think, maybe, another guy who Miller brought, an old high school friend. Is there a problem?”
“Apparently there was a guy there saying homophobic things about an Onyx member.”
I don’t mention that it was about Niko specifically, because it’s heartbreaking and I don’t want him to feel singled out.
Roman furrows his brow. “No chance in hell the Lakehollow guy was homophobic, because he told me he was gay within thirty seconds of conversation. The woman from the bar also talked about Pride, so I doubt it.”