Page 24 of Vipers and Vendettas
‘This place is a shithole,’ he mutters.
I grin. ‘It’s not that bad. Watch the sixth and tenth steps when you go back down. They’re rotted through.’
Stephan lets out a disgusted sound. ‘My offer still stands. I can front you the cash if you want.’
I put the key in the lock. ‘No, thanks. I’m not a charity case.’
He takes a step back as I open the door. ‘Let me know if you change your mind, okay?’
‘I appreciate it,’ I say with a nod. ‘Really.’
He lets out an unhappy rumble but turns away and slowly goes back down the stairs.
‘Get inside and lock the damn door,’ he calls over his shoulder, and I smile, shaking my head as I go inside.
I make sure the door is locked, and then I drop my bag and my coat on the floor in front of it. I run to the bathroom and do my customary vomiting, and then I go back to the living room and throw on a sweater. Sinking to the couch, I draw my knees up under the blanket. I rest my head on the arm, closing my eyes for a second, and just breathing.
‘What a shitshow,’ I whisper.
I sit up and count my tips—over eight hundred. At least I have enough for rent and crackers this month.
I put the money inside the book I hollowed out and, place it back on the shelf. Then, I go into the kitchen and boil the kettle.
The smell of the tea Tabitha always used to bring me calms my nerves. Whether that’s because it’s the tea I drank at the place I still think of as home or because it’s Maddox’s favorite, I don’t know, and I try not to delve too deeply into it.
I take it back to the couch and put on the TV, sitting with my drink in my hands and dipping my crackers into it.
I know it’s gross, but the pregnancy book I’m reading says a mom-to-be’s food tastes can get weird, so I’m just going with it for now. I’ll see it as a problem if I start craving the taste of soap, which is also, weirdly, a thing.
I finish my tea and lay back down, knowing that I should go to bed, or I’ll risk sleeping on the couch again tonight and have an even stiffer neck tomorrow morning than I did today.
But I don’t move. I don’t like sleeping in the bed. It feels huge and cold. On the couch, I can pretend I fell asleep between Jayce and Axel or Krase and Iron. I’d even take Daemon and Maddox. I can picture us watching a movie together and imagine me drifting off, one of them putting a blanket over me.
I sigh deeply, letting the mirage take over, letting it calm me and take me away. Somewhere inside, I know it’s not real, but the truth is, this is the only way I can sleep for more than a few minutes these days.
ChapterFive
Daemon
She falls asleep on the dingy couch in front of the TV. I stare at her from the corner of the room, the conjure I stole off Krase making me invisible to her human eyes.
I walk around her slowly and silently, taking in her pale face. I peruse this place she lives in. It reminds me of my first apartment outside the clan, and that puts me on edge. It’s not safe here. She stole all that money, so why is she living in this one-bedroom apartment on the worst street in the city?
I couldn’t believe it when I got the message from my guy. We’d just heard she hadn’t been caught in the trap we’d set. Maddox had been outwardly seething when the supe detective told him that she hadn’t been caught with the other three, and he knew that at least one of them had escaped justice.
Then I got a text telling me my PI had found her working at some human strip club. At first, I’d doubted it, but I’d portalled to a coffee shop I knew nearby and met him on the corner across the street from a club called Spice.
They wouldn’t let him in, but they didn’t know my face. I sat in a corner and waited, and sure enough, I saw her flitting around in a little black skirt and practically a see-through blouse.
It took everything in me not to stand up right then and there, grab her, portal her straight to my office at the club, and exercise my rights.
Instead, I watched her. I saw her bringing drinks and flirting for tips. She didn’t dance on the stage. I still don’t know if I’m disappointed or glad.
I left when it was still busy and waited close by for her to come out. Around three in the morning, she left with some kind of shifter. I trailed them, keeping an eye on the asshole’s every move, but all he did was walk her home and leave her at her door with an order to lock herself in.
She did, but not before I slipped past her.
She makes noises in her sleep as I watch her, but she doesn’t wake. I snatch her phone off the table, using her sleeping face to unlock it.
