Page 84 of Like Grim Death: Part One
Flecks of water from the fountain graze my face, and I inhale the fresh water scent under the night sky.
“Sanctum tomorrow night.” I whisper the words, like someone else might hear me. I could’ve gone to his house, but I don’t want to leave my family. Anxiety screams at me when I’m too far away.
Even now, I turn to glance up at the second floor of my estate. Gray stone, high windows, I know Sid is safe in there with my son.
I intend to keep them both that way, no matter what it fucking takes or who I stab in the back to do it. Briefly, I think of Nikita.Or the front.
“If we don’t actually meet this fucker instead of dancing around him, I’m not going in again.” I hear Mav exhale, and I know he’s getting high.
I don’t say a word, but I drop my gaze to the burner phone in my hand. Flipping it open, I stare at the still shot of the fifteen second video. Atlas in a backward hat, Cain dressed well as usual. Both of them walking up Mav’s drive when I know he wasn’t home.
Because last night, he was with me at Sanctum.
I rub my thumb over the screen, the image crisp despite the dark night on the video.
“Is that all you want?” Mav, impatience in his words. He seems edgy with me, like he’s dying to slit my throat more than usual lately. I know he doesn’t know about what’s in my hand, or he’d really do it.
“Where was Atlas last night?” I ask him quietly, keeping my gaze on the burner. We didn’t discuss it after we left Sanctum, where we went over some cult shit, like a primer before we mingle with the initiate who I assume is still healing. I had to stay after to discuss other matters with Elijah, then I got in my car and went straight home, a little disappointed but kind of relieved to find Sid already asleep. Lying to her is becoming harder, the more tangled we grow. The more she wants to be involved. The more I want tolet her,because she’s far smarter than I am.
Mav is quiet a beat, then he says, “Why are you asking me that?” I hear him switch the phone over to his other ear. I have so many of his tics memorized. In my mind, he’s sitting in a chair outside, his elbows on his knees, back curved as he glares at the night.
I snap the burner phone closed and hurl it into the fountain where it drops in the dark water with a splash. It had Nikita’s number in it and I don’t want that shit anymore, nor do I want the knowledge of what I saw to unexpectedly fall into Mav’s hands. Things have a way of coming back to life around us when they should stay buried, but the water will kill the footage.
I dive my hand into my pocket and pull out a lighter, flicking it over and over. “Why not?” I counter softly.
Another moment of silence. “You know where Natalie is,Dominus?”he goads me.
I grit my teeth, still sparking up the lighter as I stare at the dim shadow of the ruined phone in the bottom of my fountain, bubbles drifting to the surface. I’ll have to extract it and bury it before I go inside. “Do you?” I counter.
“You gonna keep answering all my questions with fucking questions?”
“And if I am?” I smile a little, even though I don’t feel it.
“You’re a dickhead and I hate you.” He coughs. “By the way, did you take Sid to the doctor to have a look at that bite mark?” There’s no amusement in his words.
I stiffen, pressing my thumb to the warm, metal tip of the lighter. He shouldn’t be seeing Sid without a fucking shirt on. And when would he have seen it? She was fully dressed on our walk, which is the last time they were together as far as I know, and I better know all of it.“Excuse me?”
“You heard what I fucking said.”
Maybe it’s because she has holes in her favorite shirts.And she’s been wearing the same one all week because she’s so busy with Rain and any remaining energy she has she uses to scrape up scraps of sleep. Today, I criticized her for not washing her hair because jealousy and fear and nerves are looped in a knot under every inch of my skin, squeezing my bones. It was fucked up and besides, she’s hot as fuck with that dirty, sexy look. I am nevernotattracted to her.
I close my eyes tight and remember her taunting me as I squeezed the bite mark between my fingers earlier this week. I think of today, when Nikita put his filthy fucking hands on her. It’s different when someone else does it. He’s lucky he’s still alive,ifhe is.
“Hey, do me a favor, Mav.” I whisper the words, crushing the phone in my hand as my fingers circle tighter around it.
“You wanna suck my dick again?”
“Mind your fucking business when it comes to my wife.” I think of Cain and Atlas walking into his house with only Ella home. “Pay attention to your plaything.” Then I end the call without giving him a chance to respond. I stare into the dark water of the fountain, gripping the lighter and phone tight in each hand.
But after a moment of regretting ending the call that way, I push my lighter into my pocket and stare at the bright screen of my phone. I unlock it, then open up an email account I only use for this one thing.
There’s a file I sent to myself from the burner phone. A video clip.
Poor lighting, no audio.
I watch grainy footage of Ella on the side of Mav’s house. Her body stiffens suddenly, when moments ago she was peering around the wall toward Maverick.
Then she turns, but even in this shitty quality, I can see the whites of her eyes the moment before she spins around, tipping her chin up like she’s staring up at someone.
