Page 53 of The Masks She Wore

?“He told all of us,” she answered, glancing towards Rae’s door. She was quiet a moment before turning back to me. “Why did you claim a target? Do you understand the trouble this could bring to us?”

?I grabbed a pen off the table, scrawled a few words on a sticky note and took the bottle and the note back into her bedroom, setting the two on her nightstand before leaving again.

?I gestured to the front door. I would check for cameras later, for now, I wanted to leave before I did something stupid like fuck heragain.

?She needed it.

?I needed it.

?But I had pushed her tonight, something she clearly wasn’t used to. She would be soon, just not yet. Her body needed to recover.

?I shut and locked the door behind us, heading for the elevator at the end of the hall. Azrael and Poppy already gone. “I don’t care,” I finally answered her. “We all agreed to the same law, Zo. Do not sit here and act like I don’t live by them every single day, like I wouldn’t die before breaking one.”

?“You’re breaking one right now, J. Just because you put another law on top of it, doesn’t mean you aren’t shattering the last one. A target is a target. She needs to die.”

?Malachi had already hesitantly lifted the kill order anyway, so the lines had already been blurred, but even so, it didn’t matter. “She’smine,” I bit, slamming the elevator button down. “If Malachi wants to kill her, then I’ll have no choice but to kill him too.”

?She sighed, rolling her eyes as if she thought I was being dramatic, but I wasn’t. I was serious. If it came down to it, I’d pick her, whatever that said about me, I would pick her. “He’s worried because you’re the first. The first to make this decision and you did it with someone you’re supposed to kill. Men don’t understand the true connection a person can have with another. There’s a reason we haven’t claimed anyone. We can’t trust them to live for us.”

?“I’ll fucking make her,” I growled. “Whatever it takes, I’ll make her, and then I’ll watch as the light drains from her eyes and bury her where we bury everyone else.” My heart tightened at those words, and I knew they weren’t true.

?This Claim was meant to keep her alive, yet here Zo was, telling me she would have to die anyway. Fuck that. If they tried to kill her, I’d kill them first.

?“You’re going to make that woman live her life, dedicate herself to you in every sense of the word, and then you’re going to shatter her heart before you kill her?”

?“Yes,” I lied.

?She released a breath as we stepped onto the elevator, her eyes darkening. “I didn’t realize Azrael had rubbed off on you so much, Jack. I’m sorry, I never should have left you alone for so long. Especially during that last mission.”

?I worked my jaw, hitting the ground floor button. “It was an assignment like every other, it affected me none.”

?I wouldn’t let it.

?Malachi wanted my brother dead, so I killed him. Put a bullet right between his eyes. It was needed with the trouble he had caused, and I was better for it anyway.

?“Yeah, it shows.”

13

Rae

November 2nd, 2019

Ihadn’t heard from him since the night of the masquerade.

?It wasn’t like I truly expected to. A strange, masked man fucks you twice in two nights, leaving you exhausted and used up, you don’t really expect there to be any callback, especially if you don’t know his name.

?But here I was, sitting at my dining room table, staring at the untouched bottle of water he had left on my nightstand, questioning every decision I had ever made in my entire life. Had he poisoned it?

?Not only was I questioning my sanity andwhether or not those two nights were a fever dream, but I was also wondering about what was happening down at Lowell Bay. That Russian man had said it was happening tonight. All I wanted to do was go and see what was going on. Not to get involved or anything, just to watch. Everyone was right. True Crime Documentaries were mostly fictional. Maybe the Detectives and police they interviewed retained some truth, but mostly it was just fiction presented in a way that made it feel real.

?I wanted real.

?That man’s father promised my death, but the man in the mask had plenty of opportunities to kill me over the last month, did he not? Was my time not already ticking away?

?I chewed on the inside of my lip, staring out the sliding glass doors of my balcony while an obscure indie horror film played on my television.

?I knew that a lot of them were shitty, but there were some diamonds in the rough, and anyway, having them play was entertaining, even if they were shitty, I was never truly paying attention. Sometimes I got a good jump scare out of them.

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