The sinners, p.1
The Sinners, page 1
part #2 of Raven River Academy Series
The Sinners
Raven River Academy
Ruby Vincent
Published by Ruby Vincent, 2020.
Copyright © 2020 by Ruby Vincent
Cover Design: Enchanting Covers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
The End
Keep In Touch
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prologue
What happened?
I cringed. Thinking made the pounding in my skull worse.
What was going on? I was with Hiro. Then... we went to Caesar’s Garage and... and...
Slowly, I peeled my eyes open. The light was a sharp spike to my foggy brain. Through the pain, I made out multiple blurred figures.
“Ember?” One of the figures moved, coming toward me. “You’re awake. Let me apologize for the rough treatment.”
Rio materialized before me—agreeable smile nowhere to be found. His apology poured from bloodless lips and nothing reflected in his eyes but coldness.
“It’s abhorrent to handle a young lady in this manner but circumstances have brought us to this.”
I blinked at him, not comprehending what he was saying. Movement flickered out of the corner of my eye. I looked away from him and choked on a gasp.
Cassius and Clay had been taken down and tossed on the office’s threadbare couch. Hiro was placed between them and all three had been beat to shit. Blood wept from cuts on their faces and Hiro cradled an arm that was surely broken. They might have gotten up and done something about this if the three men with Rio weren’t standing before them, guns trained on their forehead.
Cold seeped into my back. I was sitting on a metal chair and—
Cloth bit into my wrists as I strained against my bindings.
—and I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Relax, my dear.”
Rio shifted to the side, giving me a view of Royal a few feet behind him—unscathed, unrestrained, and unthreatened by the men and their guns. He looked at his friends bleeding on the couch, face unreadable.
We were in a small room with nothing to say for itself but a desk, couch, file cabinets, and hooks on the ceiling.
Rio followed my gaze up. “Things get much more civilized from here,” Rio said. “As long as you cooperate.”
I just looked at him, feeling the wetness running down my temple and dripping off my chin.
Rio motioned to the couch. “While you were out, my men here were explaining their well-intentioned but misguided attempt to reward your saving their sister by claiming your debt and paying it off with my own money—”
Clay opened his swollen mouth. “Rio—”
His assigned brute backhanded him with the gun, startling a scream out of me. Clay’s head snapped to the side. He swung back, lips peeled back as he glared unyielding defiance.
“As I was saying,” Rio continued, “I understand their gratitude, but I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way. My son pleaded on your behalf when you did not have my mother’s money by the deadline. He assured me you’d make regular on-time payments and the matter would be settled. Instead, Cassius brings an envelope filled with the bills I marked for him and his brother, and he claims it’s from you.”
Rio stepped away. My attention glued to him as he walked over to Royal. “How this happened under my son’s watch is a question for another day.” Rio circled his blank-faced son like a hawk does its prey. “He assured me he had this under control, but here I am, forced to deal with the matter in person. At this point, my patience is at an end.”
“I can still take care of this, Dad,” Royal said, voice placid. “If you had let me know about the payment, I would have taken care of the triplets and made sure the next was—”
“Shh, shh, shh,” Rio crooned. He clasped the back of his neck, bringing their foreheads together. “It’s okay, my boy.”
Despite his words, Royal visibly tensed. Seeing the two of them together, their resemblance was obvious. I should have known the moment Rio stepped out from behind the tires. The raven locks, the strong jaw, the air of promised danger.
“Even the strongest of leaders face betrayal,” he said, “but the most important lesson we must learn is”—Rio withdrew a gun from his overcoat—“there are no second chances.”
He punctuated each word with a tap of the gun on Royal’s chest.
I bit through my lip, keeping in another scream. It leaked through my teeth as Rio turned on me.
Pull yourself together, Ember. Don’t give the shadow man the fucking satisfaction of seeing you cry! This man has proven himself to be exactly what you thought he was and you will see him carried off in handcuffs if it’s the last thing you do.
Sucking in a breath, I held it long, willing my galloping heart to slow. I would get out of this. That morning would not be the last time I saw my brother.
“I gave the lovely Miss Bancroft a chance,” Rio went on. “All I asked for was the hundred grand for your grandmother, but now...”
Rio gripped the desk chair and pushed it in front of me. He sat down, gun trained on me, and looked me in the eyes. “Now, I’ll have it all.”
“A-all?” I croaked.
“Everything your parents stole, dear.”
My blood ran cold.
“Twenty-five million would go a long way to getting you into my good graces and possible forgiveness for your friends over there.” He motioned to the couch. “I’ll have it right here and right now. Tell me where your parents are hiding.”
Part of me felt I should have known this is where we were headed.
I started to speak. “I—”
“Before you make the mistake of lying to me,” Rio cut in, “you should know I’ve been following your parents’ case very closely since I discovered my mother was one of their victims. I know about the message they left you and I requested a copy of it from a friend of mine on the force.” Rio’s gun remained on me as he pulled a slip of paper from his pocket.
My eyes widened. No, no, no.
“Ember,” he read, “surrender an offering onto the goddess. Tell your brother we love him. From, Mom and Dad.” He met my eyes over the paper. “That first line is a hidden message if I’ve ever heard one.”
I licked my lips, tasting copper blood. This was an entirely different situation from the FBI’s interrogation.
“It is a message,” I said carefully, “but it doesn’t lead to their location as I’ve tried to tell everyone for the last few months. It’s just an”—I cast about for the phrase—“inside joke,” I finished. “It’s a joke between us.”
His perfect brows shot up his forehead. “A joke? Please share. I love a joke as much as the next guy. Don’t I, gentlemen?”
The brutes he brought with him murmured their agreement.
“Well, Miss Bancroft?” Rio pressed. “I’m listening.”
The explanation rose in my throat and lodged. Every fiber of my being rejected the notion of giving in. Of telling him what my parents truly wanted me to do. Of sharing the secret of the music box.
Tears filled my eyes despite my resolve not to cry. What else could I do but cry when the only thing I could say would certainly get me killed?
“I won’t tell you.” My voice was small, but strong. “It’s got nothing to do with my parents or the money, and I won’t say it no matter what you do.”
“Ember,” Royal said. His face was no longer blank. A clear emotion shown in his eyes and it wasn’t anger. It was fear. “Just tell him!”
“No!” I bore into Rio. “No.”
“You should rethink this, my dear,” he said softly. “I will not hear no again.”
I leaned as far as my restraints would let me. “No,” I hissed in his face.
All of a sudden, Rio was on his feet. “Damien, Saito if you please.”
One of the brutes seized Hiro and ripped him off the couch.
“What are you doing!?” I cried.
He threw Hiro in the middle of the room. The boy fell hard on his bad arm, crying out. He pushed himself to his knees, wincing in pain, and froze before the barrel of the gun.
“Dad!” Royal surged forward.
“Don’t fucking move, boy,” Rio hissed, peeling back the mask of civility. “This ends on her word, not mine.”
Rio looked at me as he flicked off the safety. “What does the message mean?”
All pretense was gone. Hot tears gushed from my eyes. I wrenched at my bindings, twisting and jerking in the chair. “Stop! Don’t do this! Please!”
“What I do is entirely up to you,” said Rio. “I will not ask again. What does the message mean?”
Hiro did not beg or plead. Resignation shone in his eyes. He knew he was about to die and accepted
“Ahh!” A scream ripped from my throat. For thirteen years my horrid, painful shame stayed buried. I couldn’t speak of it now or ever.
I can’t. I can’t.
“I can’t!”
“I see,” Rio said. “I’ll have Clay next, Damien. Let’s see if she has a softer spot in her heart for him.”
Rio raised the gun.
“No!” shouted the triplets.
“Dad!”
“The message was for my sister!”
Rio stopped, finger twitching on the barrel. “Your sister?” He rounded on Royal, and the gun flew away from Hiro. “What sister?”
Royal shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t have a sister,” Rio growled. “And I’m through playing games.”
“Wait,” I shrieked as he set Hiro in his sights again. “I do have a sister... or I did. She was— She was—”
You have to get this out. It’s time.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “She was my twin sister,” I rasped. “Her name was Aurora B-Bancroft.”
Silence gripped the small space.
“Rory loved her name,” I said. “Dad told her it meant goddess of the dawn and that pleased her to no end—being a goddess. When we played pretend, she was always the goddess and I was her devoted servant because every deity had to have one.
“I didn’t like playing along but Dad did.” A tear dangled off my nose. I sucked it in as I took a sharp breath. “He’d come in our room with our snack and bow before her saying ‘please, goddess, accept my offering.’ It would make her giggle like nothing else.
“After she died, we’d visit her grave bringing flowers and Dad would say the same thing as we placed them under her name. An offering to the goddess.”
I glowered at Rio. “There. That’s it. In my parents’ final note to me, they told me to tell my brother they loved him and put flowers on my sister’s grave. Are you fucking happy now?! Leave Hiro alone!”
Rio’s eyes narrowed. “No.”
“What?”
“No,” he repeated. “If the message was that innocent, you wouldn’t have hidden its meaning all this time. You clearly do not take this seriously.”
A bang ripped through the quiet. Hiro toppled over clutching his arm. His groans could hardly be heard over my screams.
Clay, Cassius, and Royal tried to run to him. Cassius and Clay were roughly thrown back. Royal knelt beside his friend. The feeling in his eyes as he looked up at his father told me everything I needed to know about their relationship: hatred.
“The next one goes between his eyes,” Rio promised. “Tell me the real message.”
“That is the real message, you fucking insane thug! What else would it be! If it was a message telling me where they were, why would I have stuck around here? Huh? How’s that for proof I’m telling the truth!”
“If that is true, why did you hide it?” he demanded.
“Because—”
“Because what!”
“Because I killed her!”
Rio dropped the gun. A lesser man would have let the shock show on his face. His gave nothing away, although I sensed his surprise all the same. “Excuse me?”
“I killed my sister,” I sobbed. “I didn’t mean to but... I did.”
Clay, Cassius, and Royal watched me in disbelief. I dropped my head. I couldn’t bear to see their faces.
“My sister and I were playing on the front lawn a little after our fifth birthday. Grandpa gave us the best gifts. A music box for me and a porcelain doll for Rory. She was jealous,” I whispered. “She had a bunch of dolls but she didn’t have a music box. I took my box outside to play with the treasures I put inside.
“Rory came out of nowhere and snatched it from me. She said she wanted the music box and I could have one of her other toys. I said no and tried to get it back from her. Rory got angry and th-threw it.”
My voice—my heart—cracked on a sob.
“I heard the splinter as it broke apart, and I was so mad, I took her doll and flung it as hard as I could. Rory ran after it, racing into the street... just as the car came.”
“Holy shit,” Damien breathed.
I paused a minute, getting myself under control. “After the funeral,” I continued dully. “My grandfather returned the music box—fixed good as new. The only thing fixed. The way my parents felt about me after that day. The look I’d see in their eye every now and then. That wasn’t fixed. I haven’t spoken her name since Mom drove me to Grandpa’s house saying she couldn’t stand to look at me. I wasn’t allowed back home until I was six.
“And you all ask me why I don’t want to talk about it? Why I won’t tell the FBI, the town, and the entire world the worst thing I’ve ever done. The reason why my parents left me and didn’t look back. I won’t let Rory be another thing you bastards throw in my face.”
Raising my head, I held Rio’s gaze. “I’m here where I am because of me. But I kept the music box and our matching baby shoes as a reminder of your lesson. There are no second chances.”
He nodded. “I understand. What’s more, I believe you. Which is rather unfortunate.”
“What? Why?” I asked.
“Because if you can’t lead me to your parents or repay what my mother lost.” The gun flew up, fixed on me. “You’re no good to me. I do pray you meet your sister again, sweet Ember.”
I didn’t have a chance to beg or scream. Rio set his aim and pulled the trigger.
Chapter One
“No!”
Royal shoved his father’s arm up, careening the bullet over my head in a whoosh of air that jostled my strands.
Terror struck me speechless. He would have killed me.
Rio’s expression as he beheld his son was terrible to behold. “What do you think you’re doing, boy?” he hissed low.
“You can’t kill her.” Royal shielded me, crossing the line of fatal defiance by blocking the bullet’s path. “We need her, Dad. We— We can still get the money.”
“Oh? And what do you suggest?”
Rio advanced on him. Royal retreated, bumping into my knees and staying between me and his father.
“Ransom her.”
“Ransom?”
Through my fear-fogged mind, I picked up his interest. Rio was listening.
“This is about Gran, right? Eighty-four thousand dollars. She can’t lead us to her parents or the money they stole, but her aunt and uncle are right here and they have plenty.” Royal spun on me. I shook as he brushed the tears from my cheek. “We tell them we got her, and if they don’t hand over the money, they’ll never see her again.”
Rio made a harsh sound. “Interesting idea, but you’re well aware the Horsemen don’t deal in kidnapping and ransom. Too many things can go wrong. Too many variables to account for. And police search harder for those who kidnap pretty rich girls than they do for car thieves.” A hand gripped Royal’s shoulder. “Move aside, boy.”
My heart jumped in my throat.
“Let me handle it,” Royal said, planting his feet. “I’ll get in the Estate to deliver the message. I’ll stay on them and make sure they don’t call the police. One hundred grand is nothing to people like them. They probably have that much in their sock drawer. The Bancrofts will dump it in a trash can at Oleander Park, I’ll pick it up, and this will be done.”
“Why Oleander Park? They can make the drop at a park in the Outer Borough.”
Rio changed his tune from the guy who didn’t want in on this game.
“They have to know this is a simple, pain-free transaction or they might do something stupid,” said Royal. “Raveners are afraid to go into the OB. Her aunt and uncle will think it’s a trap or something. Plus, they’d stand out.” He shook his head. “It makes sense for them to drop it in their park and I’ll bring it out.”
“They can just as easily set a trap for you,” Rio argued.
“Not if I make it clear I’m watching them and any hint of the cops will get her killed.” Royal’s touch was gentle on my goose-pimpled skin. “Her little brother was just beaten for ignoring a blackmailer. By now they know people aren’t messing around.”
He grunted. “I’d be just as pleased to have the full amount. If we’re taking this route, why wouldn’t I charge Frank and Lenora Bancroft to transfer that money into my offshore account.”
