Page 64 of The Sins That Bleed
Nico moves strategically so that my boss is now turned away from me and walking towards the office floor. I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart and forcing my white-knuckled fists to remain locked at my sides.
“Yeah, going to head up there with Suzy and make a weekend of it. she’s got a new pie recipe she wants to try out and I want to get the last catch of the season before it starts to freeze over.”
The further he moves away from me, the more I can relax, the elevator doors start to close and I shoot out my arm to catch the doors, moving to stand in between them to stop it from going anywhere. I’m tempted to get in and let it take me down, leaving Nico here to distract him, but I’m not that harsh.
“That sounds wonderful, boss, we hope you have a good time, and say hello to Suzy from us, won’t you? I hope the pie turns out well and you get a good catch. see you next week.”
Nico’s near me and elbows me in the ribs. I cough and force out a, “Yeah, have a great one, boss.”
The words are sour on my tongue and I want to wash my mouth out with bleach. The lying, cheating scumbag grins atus with a little wave and walks away. Nico all but drags me backward into the elevator and punches the button for the garage and the one to close the doors.
We don’t speak the whole way down; there’s a camera in here with sound and neither of us are stupid enough to talk about it. We step out when it reaches the bottom floor, walking in silence to his car. we don’t say anything until we’ve driven halfway across town toward Valeska’s. Tailed by her security team.
“What the fuck was that, Rai? Since when did you want to murder our boss in broad daylight?” He’s mad, and I can’t say I blame him since he doesn’t know what I do.
I don’t want to tell him. How do you explain walking in on your boss licking and sucking at the leg of a vampire, of the woman you are so entwined with that nothing makes sense anymore? She’s not mine but I want her to be, I don’t want anyone putting their fucking hands on her.
“Fucking tell me, Rai! I know you have a good reason, but if you keep this from me I’m going to explode.” He gestures at me wildly with his hands.
“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you, but please pay attention to the road.” He listens to me and goes back to watching the road instead of trying to look at me. “You’ll probably think I’m overreacting.”
His grip tightens on the wheel and I take that as a sign to spill. “I caught him with Valeska in her office.”
“Okay, Rai, that could have been for any number of reasons, they could have been talking about a business idea for all we know.”
I turn toward him as much as the seatbelt allows.
“He was on his fucking knees, Nico! I saw him kissing, licking, and sucking at her fucking legs! Worshipping her like she was a saint made only for him when she’smine!” I’m breathing heavily, hands braced on the seat and dashboardlike it’s my lifeline, reliving the moment in my mind that has tormented me since I caught them—and everything that happened after it.
I’m thrown forward when Nico slams on the breaks at a red light. We weren’t going fast but the harshness of it throws me, luckily my seatbelt locks and holds me in place but it’s going to leave a bruise.
“Ow, that hurt.” I rub at my chest, but Nico is staring at me.
I study his face. I know this information is shocking but he’d never normally react like this. He looks terrified. We continue to stare at each other without saying anything and it’s only when the car behind us honks obnoxiously at us to indicate the green light that we move again.
He rolls forward and we continue on our way to Latrotoxin tower. After a moment he finally speaks to me. “I saw it happen, Rai, I thought it was a weird dream but I saw it. I’ve seen it all, everything that has happened up until this point and…other things.”
“What? Why didn’t you say anything?” I’m hurt that he didn’t tell me, but I quickly let it go. I’ve not exactly been the most approachable recently and I’ve kept secrets of my own.
“I’ve been seeing this stuff for eleven years, Rai. I did the maths the other day. They started the same day your sister went missing.”
CHAPTER 28
A Weary Reunion
VALESKA
The days that have passed since I’ve last seen anyone blur into a hazy blip of time that I’ve spent destroying every wicked man I could find.
No matter how many I kill, there are always more out there, hurting and ruining the people they meet. Like a parasite that infects its host until they’re a walking corpse.
Just like me.
I sit in my car staring out over the harbour. My obnoxious red sports car sticks out like a sore thumb in this part of town. I’ve been sat here for hours letting the world go by. I don’t want to go home and risk seeing anyone.
I’ve been careful, sneaking around my own building to avoid them, sleeping on the concrete floor of my underworld. I’ve only talked with staff to ensure things are running smoothly, and since Sunny has taken the time off to figure out what she wants to do, it’s been easy to avoid them.
I found a note on her desk, blunt and to the point that she’s taking leave. No sign-off or doodles like she normally would, no texts or calls either so I leave her alone, give her the space she clearly needs.
