Page 28 of Like Grim Death: Part One
“It’s a lot.” She whispers those words, and I know she doesn’t expect a response. She’s not asking for reassurance. We’d never do that with one another, depleting each other’s energies for encouragement we don’t feel.
I swallow hard anyway, with those words.
It’s a lot.
My entire life has been a lot. I’m newly twenty-five, but I feel decades older. Luxuries and money and connections… it should free up some space in my head. Lighten the burden on my body.
It doesn’t.
When you’re at the top, you’re constantly looking down at the people trying to knock you off your fucking pedestal and break your spine while they’re at it.
But it’s not always the people below us intending to do harm.
Our fucking family.They’re above us, but there’s no trust there, either.
“But at least he’s better.” Sid adds to her statement, and I know she’s talking about Luce. I can hear her smile as she says the words, but there’s something dark lurking beneath her tone. I don’t press her. If she wanted to share, she would. The thing about Sid though, is she lets her demons play beneath her skin, inside her own mind, never bringing them into the real world. I know what that’s like. I want to tell her they might just devour her whole if she doesn’t talk about things, but who am I to give her fucking advice aboutcommunication?
I don’t open my eyes, but I shift slightly to the side, then wrap my arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
She has her arms crossed, but she still lets me move her so we’re touching more fully. There’s no stiffness or tension in her body. She trusts me right now.
I’m not so sure she should, but I don’t say anything.
“And we’ll get through it all.” She keeps talking, turning her head to my chest. Or just under it since she doesn’t quite come up that high. I wonder if she’s trying to convince me, or herself. “Liber.” She repeats my earlier offer, changing the subject. “Let’s do it. Let me know when.”
I lower my head, resting my chin on her temple. I inhale her scent. Lavender. She used to make Lucifer’s car smell like that, but I don’t really ride in his car much anymore. Not since Rain. Not since Sid gave birth to him just down the hall, in their bathroom.
We were all here.
Lucifer wouldn’t let us in the room until Rain was actually born, but we listened to her with the midwives and her husband, and my eyes had locked with Ella’s. But Ella… she seemed uncomfortable. The attention wasn’t on her. Worse, it was onSid.
Her jealousy will poison her.
But I don’t know what to do about it. I want to mention it to Sid, but I’m sure it wouldn’t go over well, so I say nothing as I press my lips to her hair.
“Liber,” I whisper against her.Free.“I’ll text you a date, Angel.” I start to unthread my arm from around her, but she pivots, enveloping me in a hug.
It’s such an expected gesture from her, I’m momentarily shocked into stillness.
But I hug her back, squeezing her tight.
Then we pull away without a word and I start to leave.
Except… I stop at the top of the stairs.
She’s still staring at me as my pulse thunders in my ears.
Her tank top had pulled up from our hug, the rips in it adjusting over a different part of her body.
A part I can see right now, covered with a dark bruise, the size of a fucking fist.
I grab the railing at the top of the staircase and squeeze hard. I can’t discern the colors on her skin in the dim light, but I imagine there’s bleeding beneath the top layer, splotches from how deep the wound is.
She frowns, confused, until her eyes track mine, then she freezes, her hands clenched into fists. Quickly, she adjusts her shirt, and the bruise vanishes from view.
My heart slams hard against my ribcage. I know what’s there, on her hip, beneath that brutal mark.
The fucking J.I saw it before Lucifer ever did.
