Page 138 of Like Grim Death: Part One
He narrows his eyes, straightening from the doorframe.
I can’t stop talking as he remains silent. “You can touch and talk and sit withherall you like, but thesecondI find a friend of my own, you wanna come piss all over your territory?”
He curves a brow, the inverted cross rising up with the movement as he stalks forward. “Ifthat’show you want me to claim you, I will. Right now, if you’d like.”
I cross my arms, hunching my shoulders as my entire body starts to sweat. “You can do whatever you want, fuck anyone in front of me you want, but if I so much astalkto another guy, you have tohumiliateme in front of everyone, including your fuckingsisterwho you can’t take yourfuckingeyes off of—”
He reaches me then, spearing his fingers in my hair and jerking my head to the side as he curves his body over mine, staring down at me. “Shut up.”
I shove him, my palms pressed to his chest. He doesn’t move, because it’s like pushing a brick wall, but it makes me feel good all the same. “Let go of me.”
He tightens his grip in my hair, keeping his other hand by his side, not touching me, and somehow it feels more humiliating like this, like I’m a dog he has on a leash. “Say her name,” he whispers, his pale blue eyes gleaming.
My heart stutters inside my chest.“What?”
His lips curve into a smile as he tilts my head back, arching my throat by his grip in my hair. “I think you need a lesson in humiliation, because what I did back there wasnothing.”He leans down close, his lips over mine. “Say her fucking name.”
“Fuck you.”
He smiles, his voice a deadly whisper when he asks, “Why do you hate her so much, huh?”
It feels like the floor is tilting beneath me.
“I mean, that’s what you’re really worried about, isn’t it? That’s why you flirted with Atlas, snuck into Sevryn’s room. You were worried about me and my sister. That I spent time withher?”
Even though he’s bent down to my level, he seems to tower over me. Like I’m only living in his shadow, which is true, isn’t it?
Who are you, without him?
Nothing.
No one.
I don’t exist without him.
“You hate when I say her name and you can’t stand to say it yourself. Can you?” he taunts me.
I suck in air to keep from fainting, and I catch the scent of leather and cologne and marijuana, which he won’t smoke ifRainis here, or even Sid. Even the time she stopped by alone to pick up food I made for her.
Fuck her.
I don’t say a word. I press my lips together and think about the boy in the guestroom. The words he spoke to me, the first ones between us.“Your hair… it’s pretty.”
“Say it, Ella.” Maverick steps closer, pressing me to the counter.
I think of the time, in this very kitchen, he told me about his brother. The tattoo he has of Malachi’s name on his finger. Sid’s too. He holds so fiercely onto everyone who shows him the smallest scraps of love.
Family.
He wantsfamily.
But do I belong in that?
“Say her name, right now.” He presses his nose to mine. His eyes are the lightest shade of blue. It’s unfair, how they look like heaven.
But God didn’t make this boy. He didn’t have a hand in crafting any of the Unsaints. They all crawled out of hell.
“What is this about?” I whisper quietly. “Why are you being likethis?”
