Page 254 of Like Grim Death: Part One
I think of the words he scrawled in silver marker on my skin. Latin forI tried.I haven’t been able to ask him what the fuck that was about, and part of me doesn’t want to know.
He drugged me, and I didn’t tell Maverick it was against my will. He’s already wanting to kill him for my consent over the pills. I wanted us to get pastthis,being forced here to Pluvia, before any of those confrontations began.
“What do you get from him, huh?” I jerk my chin to the priest. “What do you get from Adam, being his little toy to order around?”
Tomas’s dark eyes spark bright. His gaze drops over my body.“You,”he says simply. “I was given an order, I obey, andyoufall into my lap. Every time I’m finished with you, I go home and get off, thinking of the sounds you made.”
Nausea works its way up my gut.
“The same with Maverick,” he whispers. “It’s always been that way, since he was a boy. He used to bruise so much easier then, butyoustill do.”
I want to scream at the top of my fucking lungs. I am shaking all over.
“Now come here, Ella, and let’s have our final session.” He smiles at me, placing his hands behind his back, waiting for me to obey.
I laugh. It sounds wicked and unnerving, even to my own ears. “No,” I whisper, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “No. You’re stuck here, you can’t tell my secrets to anyone, so Rain will be safe. I’m going to tell Maverickeverything,and—”
“You will sentence that child to death.” His cold tone cuts me off. “It doesn’t matter if Maverick kills me in this very room. They will know you could not stay loyal, and they will punish Rain for it.”
I don’t believe him. Not fully, anyhow. Do I think there will be consequences? Of course. It’s why I’ve kept the secrets all this time. That, and the fact Lucifer told me to do this. To follow every order Adam Medici gave me. ItrustedLucifer. But I don’t think even he knows exactly what Adam has sentenced me to.
The desire to snap this man’s neck grows, but I know, no matter my training, his size could potentially overcome me. I won’t be stupid. Not like everyone thinks I am. I reach for the handle of the door at my back, smiling at him.
“Fuck you.”
But before I turn, he’s moving.
I have to flick the lock on the door, and as I pull it open, his palm comes crashing over my head, sealing the door shut.
His fingers curl in my hair, jerking my neck back, one hand coming to my throat and jamming into the very front of it, knocking the breath from my lungs.
“One more time, Ella. Maybe this time, I’ll cum on your flayed spine. Maverick can’t save you now. I made sure of it.”
City lights piercethe darkness of my bedroom and for a moment, my one good eye heavy with sleep, I can’t remember where I am.
Then the sound that must have woken me starts up again.
A mewling, sniffling sound.Rain?
Slowly, every muscle aching as my head feels like it’s split in two, I struggle to sit up, not glancing down at the bandages along my abdomen or the bruises that I know are burning hot and tender on my thighs.
My back aches, like my spine is exposed, but as the soft sound continues, I turn my head toward Ella’s side of our temporary bed. She came in here, right? At some point? My memory is fuzzy, hazed with edibles and the sleep my body needs to heal but…She came in here, didn’t she?
The bed is empty though.
I glance at the clock on her nightstand. It’s 6:06—in the morning obviously—judging by the purpling sky of Queen View I see from the drapes being thrown open in this room.
And ifEllacame in here, she would’ve closed them. She knows how I like to sleep, and she’s always said she likes what I like.
I lick my dry, cracked lips, dread curdling in my gut.
Where are you, pretty girl?
Just as I fling the covers off, the soft crying sound drops low. Guttural. A fully adult human made that noise, or an animal, but it is nothing Rain could do.
No.
I stand, blinding pain coursing through every muscle in my body, every vein. The edges of my vision turn to black as I throw out a hand and grasp the headboard, breathing hard, my knees weak.
