Page 62 of Loyalties & Longings

My next call is for an Uber, and I opt to go check on Dad and make sure he hasn’t fallen asleep with a lit cigar at his side. I leave a voicemail message for Blaze, letting him know my plan. The Uber driver is close by, and I only have to wait five minutes for them to arrive. I flick off the lights in the bar and turn the alarm on before exiting to the alley and jumping in the car.

When the Uber driver pulls up to Dad’s house, I notice a faint light coming from the inside. So, he’s either awake or has left a light on in case I come home, I guess.

As the Uber pulls out of the driveway, I pause at the front door, checking my phone again for anything from either Blaze or Dad. Still nothing.

It’s now been a bit over an hour since Blaze left me at The Siren’s Speakeasy.

My hand hesitates over the door handle, and my stomach rolls. I shake my head. What is wrong with me?

I twist the door handle, and it opens. It was unlocked. Mystomach, no longer rolling, drops. There’s no way Dad left the front door unlocked.

“Dad?” I call from the open front door, my heart racing.

Hesitantly stepping over the threshold, I search for someone or something out of place. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Taking another step, moving deeper into the house, my whole body is hyperaware. I peek through the kitchen window to the backyard. Lucifer is out there, chewing on a huge marrow bone.

I didn’t know Dad was fond enough of the hellhound to buy him treats.

“Dad, you awake?”

I hear a muffled groan from down the hallway and quietly tiptoe back through the kitchen toward the hallway.

There’s a light coming from the crack beneath the door of the downstairs bathroom. Creeping as slowly and quietly as I can down the narrow passage, willing my feet to move one in front of the other, I draw nearer to the bathroom.

Someone groans again, but I know who it is now. It’s the same sound he makes when he is well and truly hungover, and I’m making him coffee and breakfast. My heart is still pounding away in my chest. I roll my eyes. This is just what I need to be dealing with after a long day.

“Dad,” I growl as I jerk open the bathroom door and freeze in place.

“Dad!” I gasp, feeling my face drain of blood.

My body goes weak at the sight of him. Like in those nightmares when you’re trying to run from something, but your legs won’t cooperate because they feel weighed down.

He’s propped up in the corner of the bathroom, bound, gagged, and covered in blood. I fall to the bloodied tiles beside him. My hands trembling, I bring them to his shoulder but don’t touch him.

He is bleeding freely from an open wound between his chestand shoulder. A gunshot wound.

“Dad, what happened?” My voice is shaky, and I squeeze my eyes closed tight, willing this to be a bad dream. I open my eyes to the sound of another pained groan from Dad, his eyes are wide, and his head thrashes side to side.

When I bring my hands up to remove the gag from his mouth, I feel a sharp sting in my neck. The sudden realization dawns on me that someone has been here with us this whole time.

And they’ve just injected me with something.

“Hi, Siren,” a familiar voice—one I know all too well—coos in my ear.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Lake

My body gives out beneath me within seconds.

Far off in the distance, I hear something clatter to the floor, but only as my body falls and my head hits the tiles do I see it. A syringe right in front of my face. What the hell is going on? I try to bring my arms up to defend myself.

Nothing.

I try to turn my body, willing my legs to move, trying to bring them out from under me to kick.

Nothing.

My body isn’t working.

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