Page 74 of Bound
Chapter 26
Gage
Underground thumps with music and the guards at the doors give a small nod as I near. I slip past them into the entryway of the colony’s club and make for VIP without slowing.
The team is at the usual table in the dark, glasses of the highest proof liquor before everyone save Horan.
The angel never drinks. Or, if he does, it's never where any of us can see.
Tanner slides over in the booth and I perch at the edge of the leather bench. The waitress catches my eye. I nod.
When I turn back around, Ruin’s dark eyes blend with the dimness as he peers at me. “What’s up, Gage?”
“Earlier was jacked, true?” I say.
The others go still.
“My hold … No. It didn’t slip. I let the fucking leash go. I didn’t care. Didn’t want to care. I just wanted everything to burn.” I lift my head and meet their gazes one at a time. “I fucked up. You all took the heat for it. For me. Just like fucking always. And that was a shitty way to repay you.”
Tanner, as the closest, claps me on the shoulder. “You were pissed. We could all see that. Feel it. You’ve been tracking that way for a while. Weeks even.”
The waitress slides a large mug of coffee before me. Black and steaming. I grip the warm side. “The shit with Lilah was the start.” The quiet through the booth grows. I glance around.
T is silent, his silver eyes darkened to a more human gray. Horan appears resolved. Though, the angel lives the emotion on the daily. But Caine and Ruin carry the most pain in their eyes. The hollowness.
“It was my lead that took us from the manor that night. If I had verified—”
Ruin raises a hand. “And if I had stayed behind, or if Caine hadn’t allowed them to watch one more movie. Or if Horan wasn’t such a pompous dick.” The angel says nothing in his defense, “All those things arewhat ifs, man. For whatever fucking reason, it happened. Lilah is alive, the world turns, end of story.”
He leans over the table, meeting my gaze head on. “But if you fucks were not there, if you didn’t feed me so I could turn her, I wouldn’t fucking have her now.” He shudders, but his expression remains calm as Caine nods once beside him. “She would be in a pine box in Orange Grove. I’ve had her in my bed, in my arms, for nearly three months. And I never expected to even get that much in this lifetime. Didn’t think I deserved it …” His dark eyes glitter with words left unsaid.
I stare at him, the coffee’s heat seeping into my skin.
“And I wouldn’t have Nisha,” Tanner mumbles. I glance sidelong at him. “We would have never gone back to Silver Rock, track? We would have never met.”
“So what are you saying?” I ask them both. “That it was fate?”
They both pull faces.
“Nah,” Ruin says. “That’s some fairytale shit, true? But every decision we’ve made … It’s always had consequences. And it always will.”
“And despite the fucked up choices we’ve had to make, some good shit has come from it.” Tanner nudges me as he speaks. “And that makes the rest fucking worth it.”
Silence descends again, then Caine dips his head. “I’ll fucking drink to that.” He holds out his glass.
For once, no one argues with the demon.
So we raise our glasses and drink.
I walk down the sidewalk, keys to one of the colony SUVs in hand. There is a weightless feel to my fucking chest that has been missing for days. Maybe weeks.
Shit is far from okay, but the grind toward it is shorter. Less uphill and more easy careen.
A distant fork of lightning lances across the pewter sky. The brief flash illuminates the skyscrapers and bank towers surrounding me. I count in my head, and the distant rumble of thunder rolls through the night. I tilt my head back and inhale the crispness of impending rain.
It will be here soon.
I slip around the corner on Pilmont. The apothecary grows visible near the alley and I make for it as another bone-rattling rumble rends the night.
