Page 5 of Rot

I turned my chin up to the sky, taking in the way the sun danced across the bottom of the few clouds in the sky, turning them pink in its descent. A pretty color. A beautiful night sky. Didn’t get many of those back home.

I heard the front door open and shut behind me, and I figured it must be Elias, so I shook myself out of my stupor and headed for my mother’s car. I didn’t pay Elias a glance as I went to the backseat, tossed open the door, and started grabbing my bags. I wasn’t even sure of what I’d packed; a few bags were in the trunk as well. I’d packed whatever I could in the short time we’d had.

Slinging one bag over my shoulder, I pulled out another bag, this one a backpack full of clothes. Elias stood behind me, a frown on his face, and I finally turned to look at him, about to tell him that I didn’t need his help.

Because I didn’t. I didn’t need anyone’s help.

But when I turned, I found myself staring at his chest. I had to crane my head back to look at his face, at the glower on it.

Huh. He was pretty damn tall. Definitely over six feet. I wasn’t an expert on dating or anything like that—for obvious reasons, my grandparents had never let me try, nor was anyone back home ever interested in me like that, because of who my father was—but I imagined someone like Elias could have his pick. Whoever he wanted. Girls, boys, both. He had a face and a body that could get him just about anyone, I’d bet.

I was about to tell him that he didn’t have to help me, but before I could say a word, Elias lifted an arm and set a hand on the car. Boxing me in between the car’s body and its open door. He towered over me easily, and just from the look on his face, I knew what he was going to say. He wasn’t happy I was here.

“Look,” he said, “I don’t give a shit about why you’re here. I don’t give a shit about how long you’ll be here.” He glanced up, probably at the house, to make sure neither of our mothers were watching from the window. I assumed they weren’t, because he leaned down a bit, all menacing and dark as he whispered, “Stay out of my way and keep out of my room, and we won’t have any problems,cousin.”

Ooh, yeah. He definitely wasn’t happy with me and my mere existence. The animosity flowed off him in waves, but I wouldn’t cower. I didn’t care.

I forced out a smile, holding his stare as I told him, “The longer you stand here, posturing, acting like an alpha wolf trying to mark his territory, the more chance there is of either one of our mothers wondering what’s taking so long and looking out the window. Tell me, when they see us like this, what do you think they’ll have to say when we go back inside, cousin?”

Elias’s mouth thinned, and he said not a word as he pushed away from me, no longer boxing me in against the car and the open door. His expression hardened, his frown deepening. I’d bet anything he wasn’t used to someone standing up to him. He probably got his way constantly.

I was used to dealing with entitled pricks and assholes. The benefit of growing up surrounded by money and inheritances that you could drown in. Elias might think he was all that and more, but he wasn’t. He really wasn’t.

I tossed a glance over my shoulder at the window, and I swear, it was like magic. Aunt Maggie had come to peer out of the nearest window, and I waved at her, earning myself a wave back. I whipped my head around to Elias, whose glower had lessened in the face of his mother, and I offered him both bags I’d gotten out of the car.

He didn’t take them right away, so I said, “Your mom’s watching. Wouldn’t want her to think you’re being an asshole, would you?”

Elias just barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He took the bags from me with a jerk, a little too rough, but that was definitely on purpose. I just grinned at him and went to fetch more bags from the back. He was a big, strong guy, after all. He could carry more than that in one trip.

I loaded him up with every single bag of mine, only taking the smallest bag myself. Elias said not a word to me, but I could tell he was fuming on the inside, angry at me for standing up to him. He led us back inside the house, and we went straight upstairs. It sounded like my mother and my aunt were deep in conversation. Neither one was paying any more attention to us… which Elias certainly noticed.

I didn’t care. I didn’t need either of our mothers watching to handle myself. Fear wasn’t in my blood, just the rot.

Elias took me to what would become my room, dropping my bags on the bed. It was a pretty boring room. Nothing hanging on the walls, no personality whatsoever. Just a plain bed with plain sheets and a single wooden dresser near the closet. No desk like Elias had in his. The room was a little smaller than his, but the bed was larger. A full, possibly a queen. I got the guest bedroom, I guess.

I went to the window, setting my small bag on the floor. I peered out, staring at the backyard. An old swing set sat about fifty feet away from the house, probably untouched for years.

The sound of the door closing told me I was alone, but the reflection that appeared in the window above mine a few seconds later proved to me I wasn’t. I was slow to turn around, even slower in meeting his stare.

“I don’t know you,” Elias said, inching forward. “I don’t really care to. But let’s get this one thing straight.” He stopped encroaching on me when I stood with my backside leaning against the windowsill; I’d let him take the space, mostly because I wanted to see what he was going to do, what he’d say. “We’re not friends. We’re not fucking family. And I sure as shit ain’t gonna let you tell me what to do in my own fucking house.”

Elias’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. I didn’t drop my gaze to those hands, but my peripherals saw it. He was angry. Angry at me. Angry at his mother. Angry at the world.

His voice came out in a deadly whisper, “Watch yourself, Sloane. Your money doesn’t mean shit here. It won’t protect you. My mom works all hours of the day half the time, so she won’t always be around, and your mom sounds like an insane drunk.”

Ah, so Aunt Maggie had told Elias a little about us. How nice of her.

“You’re only here because you have nowhere else to go, but if I want you gone, you can bet your ass my mom will throw you both out.” Marking his territory, trying to instill fear in me, that he’s the boss, that everything he said went, he was God here.

“Sounds like you already want us gone, and it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours,” I said.

He smirked, a flicker of amusement crossing his face—although it was gone in moments. “This is me being nice. You don’t want to see me being mean.” His dark gaze fell from my face as he studied the rest of me. He leaned his top half down, his shoulders blocking out the rest of the room, his posture meant to intimidate. “You’re a small girl, Sloane. You’d be so easy to break, I wouldn’t even have to try.”

My chest felt a little weird at that. My heart did something funny. It beat just a hair faster than it had before, and as I watched Elias straighten himself out and step away from me, as I watched him turn and leave the room, I felt a smile growing on my face.

A real one, not a forced one, the first smile of mine that had come on its own in a very long time.

Maybe this wouldn’t be boring after all. Maybe it’d be fun. I got on Elias’s nerves simply by existing here; it wouldn’t be too difficult to rile him up more.

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