Page 96 of Shades of Ruin

She lashes out and slaps me across the face, her red nailsraking into my skin. “Talk to me like that again, and I’ll take it out onherinstead,” Aurélie warns, glaring down the table at Angélica.

I don’t like the way my girl’s golden skin has suddenly turned pale. She needs help soon, or there won’t be any saving for either of us. Subtly, she nods her head, as if agreeing with Aurélie. Shewantsme to goad my crazy ex into punishing her? Maybe she’s just ready to be put out of her misery. I don’t like the thought of her giving up so easily.

“Now, you’re going to eat this divine meal because I took the time to make it just for you.” Her fork and knife scrape against the plate with a jarringscreechthat leaves me cringing in my seat. She cuts a large piece of heart and swirls it through a rivulet of truffle and garlic jus before putting the fork up to my lips. “Medium rare just how you like it,” she says with a smile.

I can’t force myself to part my lips. I can’t willingly allow her to put a piece of one of my friends in my mouth. The fact that it smells delicious makes me want to throw up on the table.

“Come on, Grey. I know how much you love truffle oil. Have a little taste,” she coaxes, smearing the bite over my mouth until the red juice from the heart coats my lips.

“Burn in hell, Aurélie,” I bite out of clenched teeth.

A frown mars her pretty face. “You can still make it out of this, Grey. You don’t both have to die. I would take you back. I would love you like I always have.” Her expression turns calculated and cruel. “But I would need a little assurance from you that you wouldn’t turn on me. I’d need a true act of love in return.”

“And what the fuck would that be?”

“Nothing much,” she purrs. “You can start by eating your dinner.” Again, the damn fork prods my lips.

I have to play her game for a little while. I have to buy time so I can figure out how to save Angélica. At this point,I don’t give a fuck about saving myself. My soul is already a lost cause as it is. So I open my mouth and let her feed me a perfectly seared piece of heart. My stomach churns as I try to chew, even as my taste buds flare to life at the decadent flavor. It would be easier if it didn’t taste so good.

Aurélie smiles happily and takes a few bites from her own plate, dabbing at her red lips with her napkin after every time like she’s in some high-society restaurant where people would give a fuck what she looks like as she devours human hearts. I dread the moment she brings the fork to my lips again, but I open a second time and try to think of anything else as my teeth tear into the sinuous meat.

“So how did you manage to pull off the Pandemonium murder?” I ask after choking down what’s in my mouth. She tried to pin the blame for Collette on my girl, and I want to see if Aurélie will condemn herself in any way that could be taken to the police, just in case Angélica makes it out of this night alive and I don’t.

“Are you finally asking for my secrets, Gavin Greyson?” Aurélie says, thrilled that I’m finally taking an interest in her gruesome work. “I’ve been dying to tell you everything.” She forces another bite into my mouth, and I chew it dutifully.

“So your little kink club ended up being the easiest hit of them all,” she informs me, leaning over the table like she’s spilling the juiciest gossip. “I discovered one of your high ranking members had a torture porn obsession and liked to spend his time on the dark web looking at snuff films and other naughty mischief. I offered to make all his dreams come true, and he happily accepted.”

“A member of the club?” I repeat, unable to believe she found someone willing to help her murder an innocent woman. That goes way fucking far beyond the realm of kink. That’s pure, goddamn evil.

“Yes. Xander Cavenaugh?” Another bite of heart. “He mentioned you two had gotten into a few arguments in the past. I imagine taking down your little whore helped to sweeten the deal. The two of us lured Collette upstairs to Xander’s private room and fucked her before I got to work with my knife. She was dead long before I had Xander cut the lights to move her down to the main room.”

Fucking Xander. If I make it to tomorrow alive, killing him is at the top of my list.

“So it was you in the bathroom with Angélica?” I ask to keep her talking. “You wiped the blood on her hands?”

“Of course. I wasn’t supposed to interact with her, but I just couldn’t help myself. And it was so much fun watching all of you scramble to prove her innocence. It was well worth the risk.”

I don’t tell Aurélie that the cops picked up a print from the blood on Angélica’s hands. And she just confirmed it’s hers.

I look down to see both our plates are empty, the nauseating evidence that I’ve eaten an entire heart sitting heavy in my stomach. And I’m not sure I want to know what Aurélie has planned for the rest of the night.

“I think it’s time for dessert, don’t you?” Aurélie asks as she stacks our empty plates and pushes them across the table.

“What are we having? I suppose we’re keeping with the theme of the evening. Eyeball sorbet, maybe? Tongue tartlet?”

“Oh Grey,” she laughs. “You always did have a wicked sense of humor.” She picks up the large chef’s knife beside her and points the tip toward Angélica. “Now I want you to take this knife and plunge it into your angel’s heart until it stops beating.”

“No,” I snarl. Beneath the table, I’m working to loosen the rope around my legs. She didn’t tie it very well, and I can feel the grip slipping. If I can get my legs free, I can throw back the chair and hopefully break it enough to make a run for Angélica. I just wish my damn hands weren’t cuffed. I try to move my wrists, butthere’s no give at all. My fingers have gone cold, and there’s barely any feeling left in them.

“No?” Aurélie pushes back her chair and stands, glaring down at me. “But you didn’t even hear the other options.”

“Knowing you, they only get worse.”

“Naturally,” she agrees with a feline smile. She runs her finger down the edge of the blade, not even flinching when it slices her skin. “Stab this knife into her heart, or I’ll do it in front of you and force you to watch her bleed out. Then I’ll drag Tobias from his bed and carve him open too.”

The blood drains from my face. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, you know perfectly well I would,chéri.”

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