Page 80 of Grave Curse

“Olive wasmurdered—shot in the head while she begged for her life, the book she’d been reading still clutched in her hands. She was always reading. It was her escape from the reality around her. I knew her only a few months, but in that time she became the most important family I’ve ever had. She was timid and scared of everything, but she was funny, too. She had the greatest laugh, if you could find some way to coax it out of her. When she was sent on the mission to cross your path, she nearly had a nervous breakdown over it because shelikedyou. Can you believe it? She fucking liked you. She told me she wanted to become your friend. And now she’s fucking dead because of you.”

“No,” I whispered, not in denial of his words, but in rejection of the pain hammering my heart.Olive, sweet girl, I’m so sorry…

His sneer got worse. “Oh yes, princess. That shit stain of a cousin of mine unleashed a rabid dog on us and you never let out so much as a peep of warning, so yeah. She’s dead because of you.”

“Your grief has fucked you up and you’re looking for someone to blame, so let me help you with that.” It took every ounce of will I had to keep my voice even, while inside I wanted to scream out my pain. Olive. Poor, sweet girl. I’d sensed from the beginning that she’d needed a hero, but I’d never gotten back to her. Now I never would.Oh God, Olive… “Olive is dead because Hades and his crew enjoy breaking people until they’re nothing but savage animals. You want to blame someone, blame the ones who abused a young woman so badly she lookedaround at the world she lived in and became its purest, most nightmarish reflection. Blame Hades for not getting that girl the psychological help she needed, or dealing with her the old-fashioned way—putting her down like the rabid dog she’d been forced to become.”

“Forced to become? What the fuck are you even talking about? You don’t know jack-shit about this.”

Aha. Got him. “Either I don’t know about the massacre because it’s club business, or Ididknow about it, but didn’t warn you and Olive about what was going to happen? Pick a lane, Red.”

He blinked, then scowled. “Shut up.”

“Or maybe you should just wake the hell up,” I went on, ignoring him. “Wake up to the fact that your grief and rage have been twisted by Hades to bring you to where you are right now, this moment. I mean, is this honestly your usual way of doing business? Kidnapping someone’s ol’ lady rather than going straight for the enemy? Because that kind of weak-ass, spineless energy feels a lot like Hades, not you.”

“I said, shut the fuck up. I don’t have time to listen to any more of your shit,” he added, closing in to grab my arm with his free hand to march me toward the door on the other side of the room, his other hand still pointing the gun my way. “In another couple minutes Tyr will know you’re missing because you haven’t checked in with him. I want to be long gone by the time he sounds the alarm.”

If I allowed myself to be taken from this property, I’d never be seen or heard from again.

Tyr…

I couldn’t let the Colgrave curse take me away from him. I knew with everything in me that it would kill him.

“So you’re following in your dear Daddy’s footsteps after all.” Feverishly my mind raced, not out of fear for myself, but for Tyr,and that gave me all the strength I needed to keep my voice from disappearing. “Like father, like son, aiming formeinstead of Tyr because you’re too yellow to take him on yourself. Yeah, you’re probably just like Daddy Hades, aren’t you? Taking sick pleasure in hurting women, getting hard over making them scream and bleed and beg for mercy, am I right? Yeah, I’ll bet I’m right. I’ll bet you’re just as terrified of Tyr as your old man is. That would explain why you’re hiding behind a gun when you’re dealing with me, a mere civilian.” As slowly as I could I reached for the straight razor hidden in my belt. “Spineless, dickless, spawn of a weak-ass mouse of a—”

“Shut up, bitch!” In the gloom, I saw his hand ball into a fist and rear back.

*

Tyr

Six minutes.

My attention bounced from the clock on the wall to scan the crowd once more. Six minutes, and Ginger hadn’t yet checked in with me.

Where was she?

Over and over I scanned the crowd. Usually a six-foot-tall redhead was easy to pick out, but this was one helluva costume party, complete with a Lady Godiva and a man who looked like a My Pretty Pony, a Hulk that seemed close to actual size, and a couple of those huge T-Rex costumes that had air pumped into them to make them appear bigger. It was all a chaotic swirl with just enough going on to obscure my line of sight.

Seven minutes.

She should be checking in with me any minute now. Any minute…

Eight minutes.

Fuck it.

I got my phone out, heading for Roxie and Carlo over at the selfie wall, punching the Track My Phone app on my screen while telling myself to calm the fuck down.

“Hey, Rox.” I yelled above the music to make myself heard. “Where’s Ginger?”

She blinked spectacularly made-up eyes. “I thought she was with you.”

“I haven’t seen her.”

“But…” Confusion pulled her brows together. “I saw her heading for the front door with you right after I did my turn on the pole. I could’ve sworn it was you, Tyr. The guy was huge like you, and he had on your cloak.”

Without another word I wheeled and blasted my way toward the front door, my eyes glued to the Track My Phone app.Fuck, fuck, fuck…

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