Page 43 of Like Grim Death: Part One
“I could have hurther,you know.” Mikhail whispers the words, but when he says it, I flinch like he screamed. His fingers crawl higher up my thigh, close to my dick. “Those men from the ceremony? They are more powerful than your father’s friends could ever be, and they are very upset with you and your brothers. They want me to take revenge, toteachthe next generation, and I could have directed Father Tomas here to whipherpretty little back and they would have delighted in it. She is so pale, the wounds would be beautiful.”
Fear comes first. It constricts my lungs. I usually reach for the anger. It’s easier. But thinking of him knowing about Ella’s appearance and imagining the fucking blood from being whipped… I feel dizzy in the darkness. And the fact Mikhailknowswhat Tomas has done to me, it stuns me into silence.
Father Tomas shuffles in the distance, his feet sliding across the concrete floor.
My body tenses, but Mikhail’s touch is gentle as he kneads my thigh. I almost hate it more because of it as he stares at me, unblinking.
I want to kick him. But I don’t, because I’m scared that if I retaliate, he’ll go to Ella.
No.
He rises only enough to lean in toward me, pressing his temple softly to mine, the blue of his eyes frightening.
“Maverick,” he says carefully, like I’m a wild animal and he’s trying his damndest to tame me. “I think you have astonishing potential with the 6. But if you or your brothers disobey again, the violence we extract as payment will not come from one of the boys.We will start with your pretty, red-haired girl.”He drops his hand but doesn’t lean away from me, his breath over my mouth. “So while I am here, I expect you to stay my nephew’s hand, unless you would like for me to slit the throat ofyours,”I know he doesn’t mean my hand, he meansRain,“after I finish dismantling your girlfriend.” He turns his head, his lips pressing to my cheek.
My skin crawls, pain lighting up along every tense muscle.
“I know you have your own secret duties.” He speaks against my skin. “This should mesh well with them, yes?” Then he pulls back and pats my cheek hard, a breath away from a slap. He turns his back to me and nods at Tomas as he straightens his blazer. “Keep all of this between us,Mavy,”he says without looking back. “The more keepers of secrets, the more bodies to bury.”
I lookover my shoulder in the darkness, but Cain’s Camaro is harmless in the driveway, and Cain himself must not have heard me creep out. A bunch of bullshit about him knowing if I left, I guess.
Am I leaving him with someone else in there?
I shake my head. I was paranoid.No one was there.I probably imagined the ringtone, right? I had taken Benadryl and too many pain meds and my mind was a mess. Besides, I’ll just ask Atlas. He’d know if someone was… hiding inside my closet.
I shiver, even as the warm, late-summer air causes the hair at the base of my neck to stick to my skin. I shove my hands into the pocket of my jacket anyway, feeling more comfortable with one on, especially as I approach the end of the long, winding driveway to Atlas’s house.
It’s at the furthest end of the street, and I take a breath as I tilt my head up, glancing at the sliver of moonlight in the dark sky, thinking of where my boyfriend is.
Two houses from mine, it seemed like every light was off in the Malikov fortress, so I don’t think he’s there.
But where the fuck are you?
A light wind rattles through the trees surrounding the street, lining the back of Atlas’s property.
And the front.
I dip my chin, noting the way the black sliver of his drive disappears into thick woods, obscuring any vision of his house. In the sunlight, you can see the dark shingles of his roof half a mile back, but tonight, I can’t even catch a glimpse of his place.
Atlas has secrets.
I know that, because now,I’m one of them.
Balling my hands into fists inside the pockets of my jacket, I start down the shadowy drive, trying not to look too hard into the thick forests surrounding it.
The echoes of insects and snaps of branches within the woods cause my pulse to skitter a few times as I walk, but I keep my eyes straight ahead, focused. If I have to, I’ll start running. But it’s not like anything will get me out here. North Carolina woods could be littered with wolves or coyotes, I guess, but despite the forest, thisisa domesticated street.
My thoughts flicker to each of the Unsaints.
Maybedomesticatedisn’t the right word.
Still, I keep walking, my spine straight, my phone in the side pocket of my long shorts. If I take it out, the light will only draw more attention to me if someone is out here but…no one is here.
They’re just not.
Atlas might know I’m coming because I didn’t respond to his command telling me I shouldn’t. But otherwise, no one is going to get me. And besides, it’s not like Atlas would kill me.
For a brief moment, I remember Rain’s birthday party. I don’t think about how ridiculous it was, to celebrate thirty days of life, or about Maverick’s eyes on Sid as he drank, his tattooed fingers curled around the neck of his beer, her name inked across the top of his hand.
