Page 33 of These Monstrous Ties
“Forget it,” I mumble, letting him off the hook.
He sighs. “Thanks. He’s with Brooklin right now, going to a goddamn drive-in movie like civilized people.”
“A drive-in at midnight?” I ask, shaking my head, surprised at both the time and the activity. But I remember what Nicolas had said. That Jeremiah loves Brooklin. Or something like it.
Trey nods. “He only took Kristof—probably to keep him off you—and the rest of us get off. Lucky assholes, huh?” He rolls his eyes.
My stomach growls again. I had planned to grab some cooked tofu from the fridge; I know Chasity always keeps some down here for me. But now I plan to grab something else.
Trey and I are quiet a moment as people work around us, sizzling and frying and washing dishes. It amazes me my brother funds all of this. He hadn’t been born into money, but he’d found it anyhow. I shouldn’t be surprised. I don’t know if he’d really killed his foster family, but I know he’d somehow fell into some money he didn’t really deserve and used it to get into the Unsaints. Although now he’s grown more of it. That, I guess, he does deserve.
“You heard about my big job?” I ask Trey, trying to keep my voice even, indifferent.
He blows out a breath. “Yep. How you feelin’ about it?” I don’t know what he knows about Lucifer and me, but the way he asks, he must know something. And I know he knows of the Unsaints.
I shrug. “I’ve seen a lot of dead bodies.” That much is true. I’m more terrified of the prospect of one day giving birth and—God forbid—raising a child, than I am about taking a life. Especially Lucifer’s.
Thinking of paying him back is exciting somehow.
“You know where he is?” I ask. It’s a direct question, and if Trey had thought the better of it, he wouldn’t have answered me. But he didn’t. Not until it’s too late.
He laughs, shakes his head, rubs a hand over his jaw. “Yep,” he says, nodding. “Motherfucker is making himself an easy target. He’s not at his fucking mansion, though. Knows we’ve got too many eyes there.”
I wait, my nerves on edge.
“Know a lot about Raven Park?” he continues, and I feel his gaze slide to mine. But I don’t look at him. I don’t want him to know how much this information means to me.
Instead, I only nod. “Everyone knows Raven Park.”And I know everything about it.
“There’s a weird ass house on the other side of it. Only one. I don’t even know if the place has indoor plumbing. He’s staying there.”
I can barely breathe.
“It’s not, like, his actual house. Nah, dude has a family. But he’s there for now. Him and the fucking Unsaints went back there after he burned down Brooklin’s house. We followed him. Hisgangis there too.”
Finally, I meet Trey’s gaze.
And he seems to see what I’m thinking as I hop off the mini fridge. He reaches out, yanking my arm and spinning me around.
“Fuck, I shouldn’t have told you that.” He stands, towering over me, still gripping my arm. “Look, Sid, you can’t go after him. Not yet. You’ll get your chance. But if something were to happen to you…Jeremiah would kill me. And you.”
I shrug my arm out of his grip. He lets go.
“Don’t tell Jeremiah we had this conversation.”
I smile at him, then leave, threading my way out of the kitchen without bothering to look for the tofu.
Chapter Twelve
Present
I don’t wantto go to Raven Park. Jeremiah takes me there to torture me often enough, and I wonder if Lucifer has seen me. I wonder if he’s waiting for me there. The thought scares me more than it should.
But I need to do this, for me. To get his beautiful, midnight blue eyes out of my fucking head.
Leaving the hotel is relatively easy, with a few hassles. I plan to have Nicolas vouch for me, after I threaten to tell my brother about the ‘Yes/No’ game we played earlier that day, in which he’d told me all about Jeremiah’s feelings for Brooklin and all about Lucifer’s baby.
He hadn’t, of course, but it was true enough I could fuck him.
