Page 172 of Like Grim Death: Part One
It’s facedown, and I didn’t see it while Mav and I were having sex. He must not have either, or maybe he just doesn’t care anymore.
I lean over, swiping up the phone as I sit on the windowsill and flip the screen over.
It’s Atlas.
He texted me three times.
I cling to it, to his words, in this moment, as a distraction.
I unlock my phone and read all three in quick succession.
Him: I’m in the driveway.
Him: I see you in the fucking window, just come down here.
Then, twenty minutes later, the last message.
Him: Fuck it. Have fun being a fuck doll.
Ezra is holdingRain in the moonlight, my son’s head curled up against Ezra’s chest. When Lucifer and I step into the bedroom, Ezra looks up.
“He’s okay,” Lucifer says, confirming out loud what we can see. But it’s as if my husband needed to hear it, even from his own mouth, to believe it.
Ezra nods once, kissing Rain’s head before his eyes shift from Lucifer, to me, and back again. “Sevryn was in here, standing guard at your bedroom door.” He jerks his chin just past us.
My muscles tense, my nails digging into my palms.
“He was saying the same shit he whispered in the car,” Ezra continues, eyes on Lucifer. “Cave adsum.” He bites his bottom lip, glancing down at Rain before lifting his gaze again. “It means—”
“Beware. I am here,” Lucifer finishes for him.
“We’re taking him to Liber.”
I look up at the sound of Lucifer’s voice, Rain clutched in my arms as I sit on a couch in our sitting room. My mind feels numb. I don’t remember the last time I slept more than an hour at a time. Earlier, after everything went down, I thought I saw Atlas walking the street in the middle of the night—or early morning—coming from Maverick’s house, but my dream states and reality are blurring. I’m not sure it’s what I saw at all. With Sevryn here, I moved Rain’s bassinet back to our room. I just can’t trust anything anymore. But last night, he was apparently standing guard even though he’s not exactly bonded with Rain, because we won’t let him.
I don’t know what to make of it, but I’m not so easily swayed to trust him.
I don’t care if we allegedly share blood.
I don’t care about anything except my son. It’s starting to consume me.
And only hours ago, when I heard the commotion on the street and took a gun to sneak outside while Rain slept, and I saw Nikita holding a weapon to my husband’s head, it wasn’t even a thought of killing him. It was just something I had to do.
I dip my head, inhaling Rain’s baby scent, my nose over his soft, fuzzy hair. “No.” I whisper it over Rain, letting my eyes close as I sink further against the leather of the emerald-green couch. Lucifer told me we had to leave in the morning, which is here, although the sun hasn’t risen yet. His car was getting repaired, but he said Nikita and his men were sent here because Lucifer didn’t complete a job. Now, we’ve got to leave becauseBoazwill want to repay us for the loss of life and Lucifer’s disobedience. He didn’t tell me what the job was, even when I asked.
Even after what I did for him.
We did have sex though, after we came back inside and thanked Ezra for looking after Rain. We fucked right in the foyer, and Lucifer couldn’t stop telling me he loved me.
Now though, there’s silence.
It’s heavy in the air and every muscle in my body is tense, knowing Lucifer will argue with me.
“I didn’t ask, baby girl.” His voice is wicked.
Rain makes a cooing sound and my heart swells as I shift on the couch, resting my head on the armrest, stretching out with Rain cuddled close.
“Yeah, but I’mtellingyou. If Boaz comes, I can kill him too.”
