The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy, Malone, Nana [inspiring books for teens txt] 📗

they discovered other underage girls willing to testify. And while Bram Van Linsted wasn't officially on the books for the human trafficking ring with his father and the other members of the Elite, they’ll testify that he does have a long track record of benefiting. Underage sex parties, that sort of thing."

My stomach churned. "Jesus."

"Yeah, Jesus."

I felt compelled to tell her it wasn't her fault. "Amelia, you were following a lead. One that could have gotten you what you wanted."

She shook her head, looking ill. "It was the wrong hunch. I feel sick for the girl Chantal was. I feel sick for the pain she suffers now. I feel sick that I would have been a willing participant in furthering her pain if I'd found a way to reduce his sentence or made things easier for him in any way. It just sucks that I was so blinded by my ambition. And I'm just… I don't know. It doesn't sit well."

"Amelia, of course, it's not going to sit well. But we make judgment calls every day. Some of them are good ones, some not so good. I would have been more concerned if, after everything you knew, you still continued. That would have been the real shame. But you didn't know.”

She shrugged. "Maybe, but I’m not sure that’ll help me sleep at night."

"Do you know the number of times I have tenaciously gone after something only to end up hurting someone else? Countless times. Hell, you know better than I do. You often have to witness the aftermath of hurricane Nyla. We've all been there. At least, count your lucky stars that you stopped that train before it got too far, right?"

She sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. I just… God, I hate it."

"I know. Believe me, I hate it too. But it is what it is. Now she's going to get justice. Now she gets to live her life. And the fact is, you didn't give up on her. You didn't say, 'oh, well, not my problem,' then walk away. You continued to chase it down and you sent it off to the right people. You did the right thing, Amelia. Sometimes it's the best we can do. And we just vow to do better next time, trust different people, and depend on our mates to tell us when we've gone too far."

She gave me a sheepish smile. "Yeah, thanks for that."

"Any time."

"You know, you're starting to look like yourself again. A little less pale."

"I don't exactly feel like myself, but I know what it looks like when someone's beating themselves up. So…" I shrugged.

She gave me a wan smile. "It's going to get better, Ny. I promise."

"I know." And because I could feel myself dangerously close to tears, I cleared my throat and blinked rapidly. "Now, what do you say we get back to work?"

Chapter Twenty East

"So, we're doing this?"

Ben threw me a glance then looked to Bridge and Drew. "Yeah, looks that way.”

Over the years, we had survived a lot together. We could survive this too. Because, thanks to Nyla, we knew the truth. I was fully aware that we wouldn't be where we were without her.

Ben rolled his shoulders as we were all getting dressed. Our black robes billowed around us. Our black robes were for normal ceremonies. The red robes were for special honors. White was for discipline.

Ben winked at me. "Relax. No security worries in here. We’re locked in a vault with a man who might have committed murder. No big deal."

"Right. We just don't need any fucking surprises. You know what I mean?"

He nodded. "I know. But look," he glanced around at all three of us, “you lot, you're my family. And I'm happy with my family. I'd fuck up anybody else who has anything to say about it. We have a plan, and we stick to the plan, but if we have to, we will burn this place to the ground."

We all nodded.

He was right. To change this place, to make it what we'd all hoped it would be, we would have to dismantle it. Start from the ground up. And if it couldn't be changed, couldn't be reformed, we would burn it to the ground. But one way or another, the Elite would never be the same.

One of the ushers came down the stairs. He was masked, and he waited until we all took our masks from our lockers and then fixed them to our faces. All of our masks were the same, covering three quarters of our faces, making us indistinguishable. Only Ben's mask was different. As Director Prime, it only covered half his face. The other half was the same pretty mug I’d been staring at for years.

I clapped him on the shoulder. "Mate, are you sure?"

He grinned back. "We got this."

I released him and took my place in the line. Our normal formation went in the order of initiation. Drew, then Bridge, then Ben. Toby would have been between Ben and me. My heart pinched when I thought about him. We'd been working so hard for months to try and bring him justice. And now that it was so close, I just wanted it all over with.

We headed up on the elevator then followed the path to the voting room.

We'd always hated this place. It had been the Van Linsted mansion back when Marcus Van Linsted was the Director Prime. We hadn't known at the time that the mansion really belonged to whoever was Director Prime. Currently, that was Ben. Not that he wanted the stupid house. We still used it as the Elite’s headquarters though. Ben said there was no way that he was going to live here, which was already a break with tradition that the members didn't like. But they could kick rocks, because we were going to do things our own way. It was time to shake things up.

Order was called by the Five. Since I knew who the Five were,