Page 39 of Marked
Ruin pulls the Mercedes up in front of my apartment building and embarrassment fills me. His new sports car is the nicest vehicle for miles. The old piss-yellow paint on the building is peeling from heat and years of neglect.
Hell, even in the dark the whole place looks like it should be condemned.
I climb out of the car before I can change my mind. “I’m on the second floor.”
Ruin rises out behind me, gaze fixed up at the building, one hand on the roof of his car. “This is you?”
“Yeah.” My toe scuffs the cracked and dilapidated pavement. “You coming?”
His brows knit together, but he closes the door and follows me to the back steps.
We walk in silence up the old stairs and to the cement landing. I try not to notice Ruin’s quiet, assessing attitude. Or how he stays close enough that his body heat ghosts over my bare arm.
At my door, he motions me back behind him.
With a small wrench, he breaks the lock on the knob and steps in before me.
My hands fly to my mouth as I trail in after.
The whole place is trashed. All my dishes broke, my old couch shredded. I pick my way through a ruined stack of second hand paperbacks and try not to cry at all the pages thrown like confetti around the room.
“Lilah...”
I glance up to find Ruin watching me. There is something on his face, something like guilt. Or regret. I wipe at my nose.
“Just let me grab ...” I trail off, trying to find anything left whole from my old life. My breath catches.
There is nothing.
Strong arms flow around me, and I find myself nose to sternum with a rock-hard chest. Ruin holds me tight. His big body seems to fold over mine, shielding me from everything. “I’m sorry, Lilah. I shouldn’t have mentioned this.”
I sniffle. “Should’ve known,” I mutter against his body. “Vic never liked me having my own stuff. Not after—”
I shut myself off abruptly after memories of my little closet space at Carnage roars through me.
No. Never again.
It was bricked up for a reason. No one can ever know what happened there. No one.
I step away fast. “Sorry,” I say, scrubbing at my face and eyes. Thankfully, I don’t wear makeup. “There’s nothing here. We can go.”
Ruin’s dark eyes are heavy over me. “Okay.”
I walk out of the main room and back into the hall. Ruin closes the door behind us, and I try not to shudder at the finality of the panel in its frame. If I didn’t have to start over before, I do now.
My arms wind tight around me, and I wish they were the odd comfort of Ruin’s. Instead, I settle for the small hope that Underground is as great as Raina said. I glance back at my old building as we step out of the dim corridor.
Because there isn’t anything left here for me anymore.
Chapter 19
Ruin
Lilah stares around at the club interior, eyes wide and childlike next to me. Her cheeks are still flushed, and her eyes red-rimmed. But after the apartment fiasco, I’m just grateful she isn’t crying anymore.
And that is not something I ever want to see again. Lilah crying.
Goddess, her tears were like knives in my gut, burning and wrenching. A notion made worse because I suggested it. My gut squirms and I shift in place.
