Page 74 of This Ravenous Fate
Jamie slid one last foul look at Layla, then he crumpled the crossword in his fists and dropped it onto the floor. “I’m leaving. I’ll be gone for a while since I have work. Don’t touch anything. And don’t forget to feed Hen.”
Hen, or Hendricks, Jamie’s hateful gray cat, was even less tolerable than Jamie. Layla wasn’t sure how it was possible. Such a feat probably should have been applauded, but she was almost positive that Hendricks would try to claw her eyes out if she went near him—even to praise him.
“How am I supposed to feed Hendricks if I can’t touch anything?” Layla asked.
Jamie waved her off while he walked out the door. “Figure it out, or he will eat you.”
Layla sighed. The gray cat perched in a patch of sunlight on the kitchen floor. He looked at the door after his owner, green eyes wide with longing.
“He’s coming back,” Layla said quietly.
No matter how gently she spoke to the cat, he still seemed to sense that she raised hell.
Hendricks whipped his head in her direction and hissed, his teeth bared. Layla covered her mouth. “Do I look that ridiculous?” Her own fangs prodded against her lower lip, and she lifted her brow in curiosity.
Stretching across the sofa to the side table, she flipped the phonograph on and gently lowered the needle onto the record that Jamie had left on. It sputtered to life, saxophone and a melancholy voice belting a gentle blues song. She settled against the couch in silent solidarity with the feline that was most likely plotting her murder.
The door opened just a few minutes later. Layla didn’t look up. “Back so soon?”
“Don’t be rude.” The familiar voice spiked Layla’s heart rate. The music stopped with a rough screech of the needle. Layla set the newspaper down. Mei was dressed in all black, hair done up in a tight chignon against the back of her head. Under her coat her pale legs were long and graceful, skin bravely bared in the fast-approaching autumn weather. Next to her stood Jamie, his expression weary. Mei scowled and took her hand off the phonograph.
Jamie rubbed his head, and some of his blond hair fell into his eyes. “So, she showed up. She also threatened me, which I will be holding againstyou, Layla, since I’m not even sure how she knew where I lived. So now she’s your problem. Goodbye.” He slammed the door on his way out.
The room seemed to close in, darkening with each stride Mei took toward Layla. “So here’s where you’ve been hiding all this time,” she said. Her eyes roamed over the sitting room and kitchen as she sat beside Layla on the couch. “I thought you would have found solace with the Saints.”
“I told you, my loyalty is to the Harlem reapers.” Venom dripped from her words.
Mei did not flinch. She brushed one of her wispy bangs out of her eyes and spoke calmly, “Is that why you came home reeking of that Saint girl? She trusted you enough to let you at her throat.”
“So I’ve gotten her to drop her guards. But mine are still well intact,” Layla mumbled. She wasn’t sure it was something she wanted to boast about. Getting so close to Elise over the past few weeks had made her feel something besides despair and dread for the first time in a long time. She couldn’t force the gently blooming hope away. So Layla had done what she could to force the Saint heiress away instead.
“Very well.” Those two words were more than confirmation from Mei. They were an admission. “Valeriya needs you back. The Saints and Stephen Wayne have made requests for a summit between them and our clan. Valeriya needs assurance they are not going to set us up.”
Layla almost laughed. “For once, me working with the Saint girl is not a dirty thing? I am to be used for this reassurance, then discarded, correct?” Layla spat.
“Nonsense,” Mei said. She sighed, her shoulders loosening and her expression softening; it was a gesture that Layla recognized as honesty. “You know how hard it is to find trust in people once you’ve turned, Layla. It’s easier to push everyone away than it is to let them in. I couldn’t help myself when I saw you with her. No one could. We are all asking ourselves how the girl who lost her life and her family at the hands of Saints has returned to the Saints.”
It felt as if a spear had gone through Layla’s heart. She looked away, willing herself to not crack under the pressure Mei was applying.
“It’s all out of necessity.” Layla lifted her gaze back to Mei’s. “I will speak with the Saint heiress and make sure it’s not a setup.”
“Do I have your word?” Mei asked. Layla held her hand out and Mei shook it. A small smile formed on her glossy red lips and she stood up. “Once we have confirmation, you will be allowed back home.”
Layla almost mentioned not wanting to go back, but Mei was already on her way out. So she just nodded her agreement and absorbed the silence that followed Mei’s departure.
Part of her tried to be happy she’d been invited to come back home. But Layla wondered if she could truly call a place home if there were conditions for belonging there.
She took a can of tuna from the cabinet and plopped a serving ofthe fish into a saucer. The raw, putrid stench stung the inside of her nose even when she covered it. “Hendricks, this is my last straw.” The small gray cat trotted into the room and appeared to be in a much better mood now; he didn’t hiss at her when she approached him with the food. His tail even swished against the linoleum while he watched her with patient green eyes.
“Wow.” Layla set the saucer down in front of him. “Good boy—”
His claws swiped across her hand. Layla snatched herself away, cradling her hand as the cat calmly bent to eat his food.
“No.Thatwas my last straw.” Layla shook her hand out, hissing as the burning pain faded. She reached for the empty tuna can and dropped it into the kitchen trash bin. “Because of that, you don’t get to lick the can. There go your tuna juices.” Layla crept cautiously around the feeding cat and found her place back on the couch. But not before she picked up the crossword puzzle Jamie had crumpled up earlier. As she leaned back into the cushions, she smoothed out the paper, already eyeing some obvious answers on the page. A smile crept across her face at the thought of Jamie scratching his head over the puzzle.How could such a notoriously vicious gangster be so slow at these things?Layla laughed, but it was soft with affection.
In just a few minutes, Layla finished the crossword.
She purposefully did not answer the last few words correctly, filling the blocks in instead with her own message to Jamie:
