Page 74 of Graveyards & Greed

Ezra groaned, almost like he was in pain, and I grabbed his hand. “We didn’t plan to kill him, but hebraggedabout it.”

Slowly, he got up and poured us both a glass of water, then he sat and patted my hand. “I would’ve done the same.”

“There’s more,” I confessed. Then I told him about sending the time-lapse video to the OutKast members. “Drakos wasn’t happy, but he has some ideas about how to keep me safe.”

“You sent them avideo?” He palmed his forehead. “Why would you do that?”

“It started with Carver bragging about the gang rape, and we needed to send a strong message.”

Ezra stood and walked into the kitchen. He returned a minute later with a bottle of whiskey and antacid tablets. “What do you need advice for?”

“Drakos proposed. Sort of.”

He stared at me, then poured a shot of whiskey into both our coffee cups and took a drink. “I’m not sure if that’s something you can ‘sort of’ do.”

I grabbed another cookie and started breaking it apart. “He says it’ll give us marital immunity if we were subpoenaed to testify, and a marriage between us would give me The Firm’s protection. Just like Luna.”

“Hmm. Both of those things are true. But in my opinion, a man like him doesn’t throw the idea of marriage out just for protection or immunity. I also think it’s working well for Luna and Roman.”

“It never did for my mother,” I countered, taking a sip of my own whiskey.

He gazed at me. “You aren’t your mother, and sometimes marriagedoeswork out. What your grandmother and I had comes maybe once in a lifetime, and perhaps not even then. If there’s a chance you and Drakos could have something like that, it's worth considering.”

“I came here thinking you’d tell me it’s a horrible idea.”

He shrugged. “Maybe it is. But what if it isn’t?”

For a brief moment, I allowed myself to imagine building a life with Drakos, and being married to him. It didn’t look like a prison sentence. But then my father’s face swam in my mind, and the image shattered.

I sighed, looking down at the destroyed cookie. "Thanks, Grandpa. You always know how to make things more complicated.”

“It comes with age,” Ezra smiled softly. “Just promise me you'll think about it with your heart, not just your head. I loved your mother with every breath in my body, but you are not her. Promise me you won’t close yourself off to a chance at real love.”

I couldn’t promise him that, so I squeezed his hand back and smiled. “I love you, Grandpa.”

He patted my cheek and kissed my forehead. I walked out a few minutes later, the ghosts of my past whispering at me.

Chapter 28

Sylvie

It must have been my preoccupation with Drakos’s strange proposal that made me so careless.

He studied me when I walked into the loft. “You didn’t run.”

I stared at him, wondering why I hadn’t even thought of it. “No, I… didn’t.”

He nodded. “I can work with that.” My head tilted, and I wanted to ask him what he meant, but in the end, I let it be. We both needed time to think.

A few days later, he spelled Milo off and picked me up from the mortuary after a morning funeral service. Neither of us had brought up his “proposal” again. On the way home, we grabbed street tacos from our favorite food truck and sat out on his rooftop patio to eat. A cool breeze nipped at my skin, but the scent of rosemary wafted from his herb garden. I glanced around at the small haven he’d created here. The area had become one of my favorite spots, and I felt some of my tension ease away.

He leaned back and crossed his arms as I bit into a taco. “Do you want a small wedding somewhere like the Wild West Chapel, or a big one at a hotel on the Strip?”

I choked on my taco as my shoulders tensed and my heart rate kicked up. So much for relaxing. But before I could retort, my phone buzzed, the screen lighting up with Alexa's name. I put my half-eaten taco down, wiped cabbage off my shirt, and flicked my thumb across the screen, silently thanking her for the interruption. “What's up?”

“I found something. We need to talk.” Alexa didn’t trust cell phones, texting, or emails. We discussed most things in person unless it was something benign like what to eat for dinner or which show to binge-watch. Her paranoia made sense, considering she could hack her way into almost anyone’s phone or computer. The tone of her voice told me I wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

“About?” I asked, sitting up straighter.

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