Page 195 of Like Grim Death: Part One
I hear a girl shriek from the shallow end. I have no idea who all is here, but I know my son is safe, on the fourth floor with Brooklin, and I can swipe up my phone from the pool chair closest to me and check in on him and her anytime I want.
But the alcohol helped me relax, just like Lucifer wanted it to.
Except he’s not here right now. He had a call, he said. Something he had to do. Then he promised he’d check in on Rain again. This is my first time drinking anything since he was born, and my mind keeps flickering to him even as I try to forget everything for just this one night. Tomorrow, I’ll confront Lucifer about Liar’s Island. Ask him how Sevryn would know any of this. Tomorrow, tomorrow,tomorrow.
Mav grabs me from under my arms, sliding me down into the heated water, my elbows slipping from the ledge.
Panic seizes me as I claw at his arms, feeling the flex of hard muscle beneath his tight skin. I’m a good swimmer but I’m buzzing, and my limbs feel sluggish. “Hey, don’t let me—”
“Chill,” he says, his baby blue eyes connecting with mine as he holds me in the water, my legs slipped from around his waist.
Maybe that’s why he moved us. Maybe we were making a spectacle of ourselves.
“I’ve got you, all right, Angel?” He sinks down in the water, holding me with one arm around my shoulders, swimming us to the middle of the pool, where my toes graze the bottom.
Ezra slips into the water, ducking his head as he swims like an athlete to where we are. I’m on my feet, but Mav’s hand is still on my waist, and soon, Ezra’s arm touches mine, the three of us forming some kind of drunken circle in the water.
“Why did you say that to Ella?” I hiccup after I ask, covering my mouth with the back of my hand. Everything around me kind of blurs. The dim purple lights, the pulsing bass of music coming from hidden speakers. The people talking and laughing and drinking. I have a weird pang of missing Lucifer. Of feeling unsteady without him.
Maverick turns his head. I see his jaw clench and his fingertips dig deep into my waist. “We’re not talking about her, Sid.”
I think of her upstairs. How willing she was to help me. But I wonder if it was all born from guilt of some kind. I can’t help feeling as if something is going on with her and Lucifer, maybe some secret they’re sharing, the way he avoids her eyes when we’re together. But she was nice to me up there. I should return the favor. Even still, my mouth disagrees and I kind of loathe myself even as I ask, “Why don’t you just break up with her? If you’re going to talk to her like that?”
“Did you not hear what I said? Why don’t you just shut the fuck up?” Maverick glares at me. “Or do you not recall what I did for her last night?”
“But you’re here right now, with me instead. You embarrassed her. Sometimes I wonder if you even love her.”
Maverick doesn’t say anything to that. He just stares at me like he wants to murder me.
Ezra groans at my side, then he slips his arm around my shoulders. We’re all pressed together, slippery and wet and too close in the water. “Why you gotta do that, Sid?”
I turn to look up at him, and I’m thinking about his mom and the kidnapping and all that shit and all I can blurt out is, “What happened to your mom? Did RC find out?”
It’s Maverick’s turn to groan. “You’re too drunk,” he says. “Not fun drunk. Meddling, annoying as shit drunk.”
I smile despite the look that crosses Ezra’s face. He glances above me a moment, then he just shakes his head and says, “Don’t worry about it.”
I blink, leaning into him. “Fine.”
“Fine,” he mimics me, his full lips curving up into a smile. He’s fucking hot, and with the stark muscles around his chest visible, his clavicle, the strong column of his throat, and those long, black lashes, I kinda wanna reach up and touch his face but— “Don’t give me that look, Lilith.” He calls me by Lucifer’s nickname for me and it makes me suck in air, holding it tight in my chest, the same feeling I had when Cain did it. “You’re one girl Icannotfuck with.” He scrubs his hand over his face, his arm still around me, and Maverick slides his palm up my side, until his arm is over me too, and we really are a small circle, alone here in the water.
“No,” Mav says quietly. “You can’t. You’ve already got one of my sisters.”
My pulse quickens as I turn my head to look up at him. Always there. Always watching over me.My angel, just as much as I’m his.His eyes are red, a little unfocused, and I know we’re all fucked up, but I kind of don’t care. His gaze dips to my mouth, and Ezra grabs my face, gently, but he steers me to look at him all the same.
“Yeah, and don’t make me make it two. She’s off limits for you.”
Maverick scoffs. “I don’t want her like that. That’s all for Luce, anyway.”
I think of Lucifer. Demon blue eyes. Hands and teeth all over me.My husband.I clear my throat as Ezra’s thumb comes over my bottom lip, tugging it down a little. I’m overshadowed by both of them, tiny in the wake of them, but I feel strong, and safe. And yet, I also ache for Lucifer.
These men are his brothers.
Maybe he was okay with sharing me before, at Ignis, but again? I don’t think so.
“Where is Sevryn?” I ask, trying to divert my own focus from the warmth in my low belly. He disappeared after he gave me the papers.
Ezra doesn’t drop his hand or move his finger from my bottom lip. His eyes stay on my mouth when he speaks. “If he’s smart, he’s hiding upstairs. Maybe Atlas showed him where he’d be safe.”
