We enteredthe party, and Laney hadn’t been exaggerating. The place was packed, and everyone looked to be having a good time.
We maneuvered our way through the house and to the kitchen, got ourselves a couple of drinks, then kicked off our girls’ night. A little while later, when Laney caught the attention of a sexy, ripped, blonde male who had tattoos peeking out from under the sleeves of his shirt, I knew she’d found her prey for the night.
Two hours later, I was buzzed, Laney was drunk and wrapped around the sexy, ripped, tatted-up blonde-whose name was Jay, by the way-and I was having such a good time that even August Remington’s surprise appearance hadn’t bothered me.
Chapter 19
Stone~
Staring at thetext messages, I still couldn’t fucking believe what I was seeing. There was no way this could be real, but it was.
It fucking was.
Rylee:Bn thinkn n Im going 2 live a little b4 marrying u
Rylee:Sow sum wild oats, u know
Rylee:Feel free 2 fuck as many girls as u need b4 u cant anymore
Rylee:Im going 2 party 2nite and do the same. Get all that dick out of my system
Rylee:No hard feelings. We’ll be faithful after the wedding. We’ll even get tested
Rylee:Will be recuperating 2morrow n studying Sunday. TTY Monday
Rylee:Have fun
August had called an impromptumeeting, and while I’d had reservations about it, when he had sent out the group text with the time and place, he had mentioned that Alexander, Jacob, Donovan, and Arlene were also going to be in attendance. So, in my eyes, that had deemed it an official meeting. After sending Rylee a text that we’d be in a meeting tonight and that our phones would be off, I had gone to the rundown clinic in Riverleeds, and figured I’d catch up with Rylee afterwards. After all, it was a Friday night and I had planned on spending it making out with her.
All the guys had shown up-like I knew they would-but I soon discovered that our little get-together hadn’t been for business purposes at all. It had been August’s way of putting me and Saxton in the hot seat, and I had been surprised and suspicious that Alexander had gone along with the agenda August had set up.
Oh, the bastard had tried to play it off as inquisitive curiosity, but I knew better. August wanted my girl, and he’d call the meeting to try to find any loopholes in the Hera contract. Since mine and Rylee’s contract was the first ever, he had asked questions, and Alexander had made it clear that the only way out of the Hera contract was if the member called it off. The Order did not want any ‘mistakes’ making their way into the organization, so if a member was having second thoughts about their Hera supporter, it was allowed, and encouraged even, that he break it off. Even if he’s already slept with her, a broken Hera contract was better than a bitter, resentful, vengeful woman coming into the folds of an organization who prided themselves on ultimate control.
And everyone knew that an angry, bitter woman was unable to be controlled.
After Alexander had made the stipulations on the Hera contracts clear, August had goneafter Saxton. He had wanted to know why Saxton had asked Kincaid Black to sign up for such an underling role. Though I was curious myself, it was none of our business, and Saxton had the right to refuse to answer his intrusive questions.
What had gotten myback up was how Alexander had allowed the questioning. Everyone had seemed to be eager to hear Saxton’s reasons for picking Kincaid, and it was because we all knew she was different. Had Kincaid been a male, she’d be a member like we were.
Saxton’s answerhad been simple and believable. He’d answered that, who better to owe him a future favor than someone as powerful and wealthy as Kincaid Black? If anyone were going to be beholden to him, he wanted it to be someone who could make mountains move and oceans crash in case that’s what he needed. He’d stated that an average girl from an average family wouldn’t be able to do that for him. He planned on controlling the world’s media one day, and if he needed someone in his pocket to make that happen, who better than Kincaid Black.
Everyone seemed to buy his explanation, but something told me there was more to it. Even Fox hadn’t looked completely convinced. However, I had also noticed how Fox hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off Kincaid during the initiation, but that wasn’t saying much since Kincaid was stunning.
After everyone else had taken Saxton’s answers as satisfactory, we had actually move on to some legit Order business, and Alexander had reiterated how he was remaining in town for the next few months for additional support. Having never officiated a Hera contract before, he was sticking around to see it become legal and to observe any issues that may come up after the marriage. I hadn’t bought his bullshit, but I had nothing to argue against it with.
Besides, just because we were official members now, that didn’t mean we weren’t still on a tight leash. We still had to graduate college before we were given the full power of our futures.
As soon as the meeting had concluded, August had taken off with Alexander, Jacob, Donovan, and Arlene, and for a brief moment, I’d wondered if they were all headed off to entertain Arlene together. After that show she had put on the night of the initiation, I could see those kinds of encounters becoming a part of her future.
Once they’d left, Ross had taken off because he’d had some drama going on with his younger brother, Banks, and the guy hadn’t even bothered to sugarcoat it. Whatever his brother was going through, it had to be important enough to make him dip out so quickly.
Fox, Saxton, andI had stuck around for a while longer to discuss August, and how none of us trusted him. We had all agreed to discuss it more when Ross was available, and after about another half hour, we had all headed our separate ways.
And now, sitting in my car as everyone drove off from the site, I was staring at the texts Rylee had sent while I’d been in that fucking meeting. Rage was blinding me, but I wasn’t so far gone as not to pull up her social media accounts, and the first one I pulled up had her tagged by Laney in a picture that was clearly showing both girls drunk.
However,rage had quickly morphed into unbridled fury as the next picture to pop up was a group selfie of Laney, some blonde guy she was hanging all over, Rylee, and motherfucking August Remington.
It wasn’t hard to find out where Rylee was. Her locations were on, and it showed her at Field House, and that just further backed up her claims of wanting to get dick out of her system before we got married. The Field House was nothing but jocks, and girls were always outnumbered by the guys whenever there was a party there. Rylee wouldn’t be short options in that place.