Page 241 of Like Grim Death: Part One
But they’re passing the road.
They don’t even fucking hesitate.
Relief surges through me, warm in the wake of my cold fear. A smile curves my lips despite the fact we’re not out of the literal or metaphorical woods yet.
The cops keep going and I marvel over just how many of them there are and how we just fucking avoided them, at least for these minutes.
Fuck you, motherfuckers.
A nervous, shaky laugh leaves me, and after a few more minutes, when Sid and Atlas flick on their lights, I finally feel comfortable enough turning back around in my seat.
There’s nothing but dark woods ahead, on either side of the narrow road, but so far, I don’t see any dead end signs, so that’s gotta count for something. Lucifer’s face is white—a shade paler than his usual complexion—but he’s got a steady grip on the wheel and he’s glancing at the map on his center console, a furrow between his brow as he figures out how to get us to Pluvia another way.
I want to fucking hug him, maybe even kiss his pretty mouth, but I keep my feelings in check as we keep driving in silence, only the music filling the cabin of the car.
For a moment, on the same side for once, I almost forgot when we get to this hotel, we’re going to have a fucking reckoning.
On the topfloor of the parking garage outside of Pluvia, I stare at my brother.
We rarely visit this place. We rake in the money, house members of the mafia, set up liaisons with dealers and thieves alike, butthisis a place for emergencies. Jeremiah fucking Rain isn’t the only one with an interest in hotels. But I don’t think we’ve ever used it for something like this before. It’s only been a general idea, like a fire escape plan the family never practices.
Our cars are parked haphazardly on the empty top floor of the garage, the sun will start to rise in only a few hours, and we all need sleep. But with the adrenaline shooting through our bloodstream, no one is getting rest anytime soon.
There’s Lucifer’s BMW, Sid’s, and the G-wagon Atlas copped. We haven’t heard from the guards. I called Tomas and told him to come by. He won’t be allowed in without express permission from the guards of the empty hotel, and I’d rather have him here than on the outside, where he could be compromised.
Besides, after this little rendezvous, I’m going to need him.
No one is allowed entrance here until we leave.
The stars are barely visible over our head, Queen View being a bigger city than Alexandria and giving off more pollution. The sounds of traffic—horns, engines gunning, the screech of brakes—it all drifts from down below. That’s our safety net tonight, but the reason we’re up here is entirely different. Separate from Mikhail chasing after our asses.
I cross my arms, glancing toward Sid, in the circle of where I stand with her, Ella, Brooklin—who didn’t want to leave Rain—and Lucifer.
Rain is in his carseat in the M5, just behind Lucifer, his window rolled all the way down so Luce can sneak peeks at his sleeping son. He managed to nap through all of this shit.
Cain, Ezra, and Atlas are doing rounds in the hotel and discussing shit on a secure line with Elijah, and monitoring Sevryn who was not very happy he’d been bouncing around a trunk again.
I told my brothers I had some shit to handle, and my eyes lingered on Atlas when I left him in the conference room.
He’s got his coming too.
But for now…
“What the fuck is it you needed to say to me that you couldn’t say in the car?” Lucifer asks. He’s much calmer than he was before he made that turn, and he kissed the shit out of Sid when we all parked up here after I suggested it. But I don’t think he’s going to be kissing her when I divulge what Ella told me. His hands are in the pocket of his hoodie as he glares at me.
Sid is beside him, her head cocked as she levels a glare at Ella.
My girl has on a white hoodie, her red locks whipping around as the wind picks up. Her arms are crossed, but she glares right back at Sid.
Brooklin is in heels and jeans, a leather jacket over a black T-shirt. She rolls her eyes. “I need my fucking beauty rest and so does Rain.” She darts a glance at me from beside me; her, Ella, and myself facing off with the Malikovs. “Whatever the fuck this is about, spit it out.”
“Sid knows,” I respond, jerking my chin toward her. “Don’t you, Angel?”
Her gray eyes cut to mine.
Lucifer slowly turns to stare at her now.
Thankfully, she doesn’t deny shit, probably no doubt ready to be done with this long ass day already too. But what she snarls doesn’t make me feel any better than a denial would have. “It was Ella who ratted me out, so why don’t you let her explain it all?” She turns toward my girl, her dark hair scattered in her eyes. “Go ahead, Ella. You wanna fucking lead this shit show? You think you’ve got what it takes? Tell them, then. Tell them everything.”
