Page 119 of My Revenant
BANG BANG BANG
“Stay here, baby. I’ll go answer it.”
“Who is it?” I could see the storm of panic in him, rising to the surface again stronger than when I’d told him I was leaving this morning, because this time he didn’t have his rage to shield himself behind. “What if… what if they know… what if they know what I did? What if they’re here to take me?”
“No one is going to take you,” I promised. “Just stay here, and I’ll handle it.”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sound of a fist against wood reverberated as I crept down the stairs, approaching the door with my heart in my throat. Because what I feared being on the other side wasn’t the police. What I feared was my mother.
With a shaking hand on the doorknob, I disengaged the lock, seeking any strength I could muster. It was different now. I could face her. Because I had my rabbit to protect.
I opened the door.
Pastel pink hair. Golden skin dusted with freckles. Bright green eyes. My heart almost soared with relief, because it wasn’t her. She wasn’t here. She wouldn’t hurt me.
But this was a new problem.
“Oh shweet. You’re not dead. You’re not answering your phone,” Matteo’s soft voice said, a wide grin spreading over his features, displaying perfect white teeth with a small gap between the front two.
“I’m busy. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Mmhmm, but like I said, you weren’t answering your phone. People were worried. So it was either Rae or me coming to check you hadn’t been arrested, because apparently no one else knows where you live? Anyway—”
Matteo tried to push past me into the house, but I blocked him, because there was a lot to unpack there. Of course Raven sent Matteo, knowing I had Jonah here. I’d have to deal with her about that. It wasn’t what caught my attention, though. “Why would I have been arrested?”
He rolled his eyes. “Youreallypicked a bad time to turn your phone off, Dexy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, I’ll tell you inside.”
“No, you’ll tell me right here.”
Matteo rolled his eyes again. “Deltran Police are swarming Archer’s apartment.”
An anvil dropped in my gut. “Why?”
“Because he murdered three people, duh. I thought you were like, the one who knew everything.”
“Who?” I snapped, even though I already knew what names he was about to say.
“Hmmm, Mason Bates, Mikhail Petrov, and Sergei Kozlov.”
“Who’s that?” Jonah asked from behind me. Christ.
“Hi!” Matteo waved as he pushed past me and came inside. “You’re Dexy’s boyfriend, right? I’ve heard about you!” Matteo held his left hand out to Jonah for a handshake. His left, because I noticed now that his right was in a cast.
“Who the fuck are you?” Jonah scowled, his hand reaching for me instead of Matteo’s as he grabbed the back of my shirt.
“I’m Matteo, but you can call me Matty.” He grinned, and I wasn’t sure if he hadn’t noticed Jonah’s hostility or he just didn’t care. “Oh! Or Cupid.”
Well, fuck.
forty-three
Jonah - Present
