Page 24 of Like Grim Death: Part One
Some priest.
“Answer the fucking question.” I drop my eyes to Mini Malikov, asleep in the stroller. So peaceful; startlingly unlike his father last night, who didn’t hold back his demons when he went in on whoever the new initiate is. None of us have any clear answers on everything that happened after, and I had to convince Lucifer to shake it off and set him at ease with me watching Rain a few hours this afternoon so he and my sister could get a head start on sleep tonight. Sid was anxious about it and even though it hurts that she doesn’t trust me fully with him, I understand it after what she went through. Besides, she looked like a corpse walking, exhaustion in her eyes.
I’m tired too after myinvestigation,but I don’t have a baby to feed most nights.
And truthfully, Rain distracts me from all of that and more.
Including nightmares of my parents, and the way it feels like we’re all fucking falling apart. Cain’s fights are more brutal—and fucking weird, since he’s getting hit by girls, Ezra is getting fucked up more often, Atlas suddenly seems to have a lot of problems we don’t know about, and Lucifer… he’s fucking paranoid and since he doesn’t have any coke,alwaysangry. It’s a new kind of rage though, quieter and deadlier than his usual.
The only thing that seems to bind us—besides cult shit and bullshit—is my nephew. We might hate each other some days, but we all agree Rain will never have a childhood like we did.We’d wreck the entire worldand each otherto make sure he grows up safe and loved.Because it might be one of us. It’s arrogance to assume we won’t become exactly the people we wish we could run from.
I wonder if it’s in our genes to become our bastard fathers.
“Your uncles own it,” Tomas finally whispers. “Acid City property. Huge. Ridiculous security. Spiky fence around it to keep everyone out—”
“How huge?” I interrupt, then I circle my fingers around the stroller’s handle, switch my phone to my other ear.
“A thousand acres, give or take.”
A thousand fucking acres.
“I don’t know why you’re asking me this. You’vebeenthere.”
I ignore his statement. “Has anything ever been filmed there?” I ask instead.
He’s quiet a minute as I keep pushing Rain, my eyes scanning the darkness again. Nothing but forests surround our homes.
“Yeah, a few movies here and there; studio executives pay your uncles a pretty penny for it,” Tomas finally answers my question, a prick of unease threaded in his words.
A Death at Shadow Villa.I stumbled upon it in my search last night and I’m watching it with my girl tomorrow, but I’ve mentioned none of my suspicions to her. I don’t want to involve her anymore than I have to, in order to keep her safe. Ignorance, in my world, is protection.
“Seems careless, the 6 putting themselves in the spotlight like that,” I say, keeping my tone casual.
“Hollywood has a way of keeping everything on the low.”
Of course they do. Just look at all the theme parks in the world catering to kids but servicing adults.
“Why are you digging into this, Mav?” The way Tomas asks sends a chill of the unknown down my neck.
I pause for a moment on Corpus Ave, doing a three-sixty spin to ensure I’m alone. There’s nothing but Halloween decorations for company. “Thanks for your help.” Without waiting for his response, I end the call and pocket my phone, coming up the Malikov driveway.
Last night when I couldn’t sleep and Ella was safely in bed, I did a little digging online aboutRival’s Claw.There wasalmostnothing, but a dozen pages of search results back, Shadow Villa was listed as a mythical stomping ground for the “old academic society,” as RC was referred to on some now-defunct blog. Lucky me there was a link listed in a lone comment which led me straight to the movie,A Death at Shadow Villa.It’s not widely available but I got it.
Now, saving what Tomas said for me to examine later, I enter the code on the keypad of the double garage door to Luce and Sid’s house; no Satanic numbers painted over it which is slightly surprising since Lucifer is, well,Lucifer.Still,1313,they should really get a better fucking code.
After the garage creaks open, I put my weight on the handle of the stroller, popping up the front tire to get it over the hump from the driveway. I push Rain between the two backed-in BMWs—Luce parked Sid’s for her but she doesn’t like to talk about that—and over to the stairs which lead inside the house. It delivers me into the basement, because Lucifer is weird and sneaky, and the interior structure of his house doesn’t make much sense.
His architectural quirks aside, at least he’s not a cokehead anymore.For now.I think me and my brothers know more than most circumstances can change in the span of a second.
We’re never settled. Happy endings don’t exist here. Samson’s corpse and RC’s arrival is proof of that. But sometimes… I just like to be naïve and believe they can.They will.
Just this fucking once.I can’t handle Luce as an addict anymore. I can’t watch him rip my family apart again. And Sid and Rain are just that.Fucking family.
I mean, there are some familial lines I shouldn’t have crossed with Sid, but… too late to fix that now. And as I look at Rain’s full cheeks, his long lashes giving Sid’s a run for her money, I wonder what it would’ve been like… if he had beenours.It could’ve happened. I could’ve fucked us both up for life because I’m impulsive and careless and stupid.
Don’t think that way.
Don’t think that way.
