I was so busy wondering if she’d lost her mind that I didn’t see Cole pull a gun until it was pointed at the back of the driver’s head. “No,” he said. “Don’t stop. Lock the doors. You, girl. Hands in the air.”
The driver went white and sped back up, and Elodie’s hands came up gradually.
“What’s going on?” I scrambled away from the twins, onto Jack’s lap, and I could feel his heart thudding against my back as he pulled me against him protectively. “Lydia? What’s—”
“You too, Keeper,” Cole said. His gun was swinging lazily between all of us, so close in the car’s small backseat, he could have pressed it to my forehead. “Hands up. Bishop, too.”
Jack slowly took his hands off my waist and put them in the air.
“What the hell, Cole?” I said.
“They didn’t care that the Order was there.” Elodie’s voice shook. “They showed up at the same time.”
I suddenly had the urge to put my hands over my ears.
“Put it together faster, sister,” Cole said, his voice mean and cold.
I felt Jack’s chest tense against my back. “No,” he whispered. Stellan turned, the shock mirrored in his eyes. And Cole’s smirk and Cole’s gun and it all hit me like a tidal wave and I was drowning.
All the time we’d spent talking, Lydia teaching me about the Circle, acting like she’d understood. We should have a secret signal in case you need anything. This one’s hot; you’ll like him.
“Yes,” Cole said, almost like he was bored, explaining something obvious to a child. “The person you call Scarface is ours. All of them are.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Lydia had been quiet, but now she sat forward, pleading. “Avery, just listen. You were planning to give whatever you found to someone you thought was Order. Of course we had to watch you.”
“But that means—” I couldn’t seem to finish a thought. Every bit of tension I’d interpreted as normal family drama. The Saxons’ insistence that they would help find my mom. Their deadline for my marriage into the Circle, so conveniently aligned with the Order’s deadline. My vision narrowed to just my sister’s eyes, so much like mine.
“None of it was real,” I whispered.
“It was real,” Lydia insisted. “It is real. I want a sister. I’m the one who convinced Cole and father to give you the chance to do what’s best for our family.”
“But you never wanted to be one of us,” Cole broke in.
I was choking on the words. “You’re—you’re the ‘Order,’” I stammered. “It’s all been you?”
In the front seat, Elodie sucked in a strangled breath.
And then a new realization dawned. “You have my mom.” I lunged toward the twins, my voice shifting into a snarl. “Where is she?”
A gun, cold at my temple. Lydia swatted it away. “Cole, no. We’re not shooting Avery. Pay attention to the rest of them, though, or they might do something they’ll regret.” Lydia held me at arm’s length, back against Jack. “Your mother is safe.”
“It’s you killing all the Circle members, too?” Elodie demanded. “Did you attack Luc today?”
“We didn’t hurt him,” Lydia said. “It was a little nudge to remind you who has the upper hand.”
Stellan and Elodie both surged forward, like they’d strangle her with their bare hands.
Cole waved his gun, and they stopped.
“You killed all those boys!” I yelled. “How could you do that? Why?”
How was it possible? I thought of the fear in the eyes of every Circle member I’d met recently. The hatred. That kind of reaction was for something truly horrifying. Not for little Lydia Saxon and the rest of my family.
“You made Eli Abraham kill himself.”
“It had to be done.” She shrugged, and in that tiny gesture, I saw exactly how it was possible. She’d giggled at Eli while he performed for us. Flirted with him like she was just a normal girl. But that same normal girl had done all this.
“You did it all yourselves?” I asked. None of us had bothered to put on a seat belt, and Jack and I both grabbed a handhold when we turned sharply. “Or did my—our—” I shuddered. “Did Alistair help, too?”
Cole scowled. “Haven’t you heard of plausible deniability? We have the same goals, but he’s too soft for most of our plans—if it were up to him, we’d be as weak as the rest of them.”
“He’s wanted you locked up and safe the whole time,” Lydia said, sounding exasperated. “He’ll be happy for an excuse to do it now.”
I knew I sounded pathetic when I said, “You’re supposed to be the good guys.”
Lydia shook her head. “There are no good guys, Avery. Did you not understand that the Dauphins—your little friends here—were trying to enslave you? And the Mikados and the Rajeshes—if you knew more about the Circle, you’d get why we couldn’t let you marry into those families. It’s for your own good. And ours.”
“Are you saying that you killed those guys so I wouldn’t choose them?” My voice had gotten shrill. “Who are you?”
She frowned. “Who says killing a few people to get the whole Circle not only more powerful but better is wrong? We’re more right than anyone.”
“It’s got to be done,” Cole cut in. “Our oldest brother died. My father’s older brother died. It was the Circle’s fault, for being so soft. The only way for us to ensure our family’s survival is to rule them all.”
“We have the purple-eyed girl,” Lydia took over. “It’s fate. If the rest of them see that the killing spree stops once our family fulfills the mandate, there’s no way they won’t take us as their leaders. And maybe we’ll have the tomb on top of it.”