Page 64 of Grave Curse

“She figured it out, but never mind that now.” My voice was barely a whisper—stupid fear response—as I dragged him closer to the TV. I turned up the volume on the off-chance that Roxie, or anyone else, might be listening in. “Local news just reportedthat there was some kind of shootout near Rooster Juice. Was that… you?”

“Snap, when we left your place and went our separate ways this morning, I went straight to Casa La Fonda. I wanted to surprise you with some of your favorite tacos.”

I breathed easier. “So it wasn’t you.”

“No. What that is,” he added, tilting his head toward the TV, “is a chicken finally coming home to roost.”

“What?”

“You know better than anyone that Hades and his crew break people for fun, and they never think there’s going to be any consequences. All I did was remind those cocksuckers how dangerous consequences can be.”

He said it with such dark pleasure I shivered. “What did you do?”

“Me? Nothing. I was with you all night. Then, early this morning when we kissed each other goodbye in front of your security cameras, I decided to spend an insane amount of time getting my woman breakfast tacos. I stood in line along with what seemed like half of my fellow Chicagoans, jonesing for some spicy breakfast taco goodness. My personal favorite’s the chorizo and egg, so it was worth the wait.”

“Tyr—”

“I gave Hades back the very spy he sent our way, that’s all. Unfortunately for the Chicago Gravediggers, this particular spy was already so damn broken all she could think about was killing everything that moved. Come to think of it, she kind of reminded me of you.”

“Excuse me?” When had I ever pulled off a mass murder spree?

He grinned down at me. “Do you remember when you were a kid, and you looked around and decided emulating gods was the only way to survive being around us? I suspect this little psycholooked around her world through her broken lens of abuse, and decided emulating killers was the only way that she could survive. Killing became her one and only reason for living.”

Oh, that poor girl. “You have no idea how completely I understand that.”

“I do know, Snap. But you survived in a way she didn’t. Whatever good there was in her got murdered a long time ago. I just gave back to Hades whatever it was that remained.”

A chill moved through me as I glanced at the TV screen, now filled with a sea of flashing lights. “How did giving her back to Hades turn into a bloodbath?”

“I made sure she had incentive to do what she desperately wanted to do, which was to kill everyone who hurt her.”

I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to know… “How do you give someone incentive to kill?”

Damn it.

“Hades wanted her dead, Snap. That’s why he sent her our way. Sending her back home after she’d failed to kill us was going to get her executed. All I wanted to do was give her a fighting chance.”

“Tyr—”

“The incentive I gave her was a note.”

“A note? Wouldn’t she just throw something like that away?”

“Hard to throw away a note that’s tattooed on your forehead.”

My breath caught.

“Once the tattoo was done, I had her dropped off on the Chicago Gravediggers’ doorstep with three things—a fully-loaded, untraceable Desert Eagle 50AE with a shit-ton of extra clips, the same knife that took Marvel out, and a mirror.”

“A mirror?”

“I wanted her to read the note so that she understood she was now in a game of kill or be killed—a game they taught her howto play. But even more than that, I needed her to understand those bastards had sent her to my door to be executed, when that wasn’t my fucking job. It was theirs… unless she found a way to execute them first. Like I said, I wanted to give that poor crazy bitch a fighting chance. What she became wasn’t her fault. Hades and his crew did that to her, so it was up to them to reap that fucked-up harvest.”

I swallowed hard. “What did the note say?”

He sighed. “I should tell you that it’s club business, and none of yours.”

“I could have been her, Tyr. I could have been her.”

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