Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
My cell rings, and I pick it up off the table where it sits next to my mimosa. UNKNOWN lights up the screen.
“Sorry, I have to take this.” I get up and rush outside, hitting answer. “Hello?”
“You have been given your assignment,” the voice announces. It’s altered so I can’t make out who it is. Not like I’d be able to anyway. No one knows who is ever actually in charge. There are rumors, of course, but you can’t believe everything you hear.
“Okay.” I’m excited and nervous. I’ve been waiting for this call since I completed my initiation back in August. “What do I need to do?”
“A package has been delivered to your house. You will have three months to prepare before the official assignment begins.” The voice continues. “During that time, you will get a new life.”
I frown. “A new life?” I figured it would be a quick “kill this person and you’re in” type of situation. That’s what I get for assuming. The Lords always like to throw curveballs at you.
“New identity. New friends, new occupation. And…a boyfriend.”
What the fuck do the Lords have me doing? Why does any of that matter? “O-okay.”
“You will remain untouched.”
“Wait.” I give a rough laugh. “You want me to get a boyfriend but not put out?” Another laugh, thinking I heard him wrong. The Lords world revolves around sex. It’s literally all they think about and want. It’s not their fault. It’s what we’ve all been conditioned for. “He won’t stay around long.” I’m not dumb. I know how relationships work and what men expect. Hell, I’m horny all the time. I’d like to get fucked, but the Lords hold power in sex. They tell you when you can get it and who you get it from.
“He likes to ruin his toys,” the voice says cryptically.
Ruin his toys? Is he telling me that I have to fuck someone? “Who?” I wonder.
“Three months, Annabelle. If you don’t have everything ready to go within that time, you have failed.” Click.
HAIDYN
“SKELETON LORDS” by HALLOW fills the small concrete room from my phone while the Lord lies on the floor, covered in his own blood, but he’s not dead. That’s not what we do here.
Death is a luxury we don’t supply.
Exiting the cell, I lock him inside and go over to the sink in the corner. I turn on the water and begin to wash his blood off my hands and ink-covered arms.
The sound of someone coming has me looking over my shoulder to see Kashton joining me. Turning off the water, I grab some paper towels and turn to face him.
He’s got his head down, staring at the empty pits recessed in the concrete floor while rubbing the back of his neck. Kashton has always been the most expressive out of the four of us. He can’t hide how he’s feeling. “What’s on your mind?” I ask. If he’s down here, he wants to talk about something.
“Saint just got a call,” he says, and my heart picks up, hoping it’s not what I think it’s about.
For almost four years, I’ve lived on pins and needles while Saint has continued to look for Ashtyn, and I’ve kept quiet. I made a friend a promise.
“And?” I question when he doesn’t elaborate.
“And they found a woman…she was restrained with barbwire, and her throat was slit.”
“What do they want us to do about it?” I ask.
His eyes meet mine, and he looks hopeful. “It reminded me of our meeting at the house of Lords back when…” He pauses. “Do you think it’s Adam?”
Senior year at Barrington
“Over five months last year, twenty girls went missing. Five of those were found raped and murdered,” the man tells us-me, Saint, Adam, and Kashton sit down in the basement at the house of Lords. Lincoln called us in for a meeting while we were at the party tonight. We had to wait for Saint to arrive because he had to take home a drunk Ashtyn-Adam’s twin sister.
“The other fifteen?” I ask, scanning the picture of a naked woman that he gave us. She’s covered in blood. Her head hangs off the side of a bed. Her throat was slit, her ankles tied with barbed wire, and her wrists bound behind her back with barbed wire. Whoever did this to her made her suffer. They must think a Lord did it. But we’re not the only sick bastards out there.
“Still missing,” the man answers my question.
Adam slams his folder down. “What does this have to do with us?”
“Did they attend Barrington?” Kashton questions before he can answer Adam.
“No.” He looks at Kashton. “All were still in high school-seniors-but none of the five were connected to one another. As far as we can tell, they didn’t know the Lords existed.”
“The ones who are still missing?” Saint questions.
He shakes his head. “Not that we have found.”
“I’m with Adam,” Lincoln adds, scanning the folder Adam put on the table. “What does this have to do with them?”
“Adam didn’t kill anyone.” I shake my head, answering his previous question. “Not an innocent woman anyway.” We’ve all got a body count. Just as many kills as we have fucks.
But someone tried to set our brother up, which resulted in his mother being killed and Ashtyn almost dead. Adam’s been gone ever since.
“Then why did he leave us?” His soft voice sounds like a little boy asking a mother why his father left. Four years have passed, and Kashton can’t seem to accept that our brother isn’t coming back.
“You’ll have to ask him that.” I shrug, knowing the truth, but it’s not my story to tell.
He sighs, and we hear the elevator ding, letting us know Saint is about to join us. He storms into the room a moment later. He looks pissed off as usual.
Things changed after Adam left. We took Ashtyn in to protect her, but it was beyond our control by that point.
“What else did they have to say?” Kashton asks Saint.
“They think Adam is in town,” he says through gritted teeth.
“He’s not??”
“I don’t believe he did it either, Haidyn, but you have to admit it looks bad.” Kashton interrupts me.
I run my hands through my hair, wanting to scream. I know where Adam is, and he’s nowhere fucking close to here at the moment. He’s in Las Vegas, where he belongs, but I can’t say that. “It’s never as it seems,” I argue.
Saint snorts. “Yeah, well, until he shows his fucking face, I’m going to assume he’s fucking us all over.”
EIGHT
ANNABELLE
Iimmediately left the caf? after my call from the Lord. I didn’t even tell my friends that I was going. Pulling into my driveway, I see a box on my front porch. I stop my SUV, get out, and pick it up. Taking it inside, I place it on my kitchen table and open it. It has a laptop, cell phone, Apple watch, and a wallet. Going through it, I find an ID with a new name and birthday on it, but my address is the same. What the fuck is that going to do for me? I feel like I’m going into the witness protection program.
Opening the laptop, I turn it on to see they’ve given me a new email address to go with my new identity, and I have one in my inbox. In the subject line is HAIDYN JAMISON REEVES.
Clicking on it, I read over the information listed in the email.
That’s it. They didn’t give me a birthdate or age. He has to be at least twenty-two because he’s an active Lord. That means he finished all three years of initiation while attending Barrington-he wears the Lord’s brand. But that also means he could be fifty for all I know.
I don’t know much about Carnage, though. I’ve heard of it, but the Lords keep it under wraps for the most part.