Page 128 of Ashes

“Don’t reward her shitty manners,” I said, shooting her a look of disdain. “She’ll keep doing it.”

“I’m not a pretty, little princess,” she said around a mouthful of ham and cheese as she sat on the couch in our living room. “I’m the fire who’ll burn your house down.”

I rolled my eyes at her, but I knew she wasn’t lying. Sirena’s sister was a crazy bitch and probably would torch us if given the chance and the mood struck her. She kept her cool now simply because Sirena was on the line.

In all honesty, I worried about what would happen if we couldn’t free specter and Stitches.

Specter was Asylum’s though.

For now.

I’d told myself a hundred times that Asylum would bring her back to us. I felt it deep within me that maybe he wasn’t playing us the way I originally thought he was.

I had no proof either way and could only fucking hope.

If he failed to bring her back, I’d chop his ass up and sell him to my old man. Seth was pretty. He might fetch good money at the market. Father wanted me in the family business and all. If pushed too far, I’d start killing indiscriminately, starting with Seth Cain.

Many forest animals had lost their lives in my pursuit for some semblance of peace lately.

Stringing up and gutting Seth might help soothe my wounded soul if I found he was just fucking with me for the fun of it.

“So. Plan?” Cadence swallowed and raised her brows at me.

Sin hadn’t said a word from his seat on the end of the sectional. He was quiet. Too quiet. He was worrying me lately, but he was also pissing me off. I hadn’t seen him this bad off since Bells.

“You need to understand my father to understand how this needs to go down,” I said with a sigh. The last thing I wanted to do was kick those skeletons out of my closet, especially to her, but Sirena and Stitches’s safety were on the line. “My father is a monster. He runs the underground and plays all sides of the field. I suppose you could say he’s neutral in the sense that he doesn’t get involved in warring syndicates and such. He’s just the guy you go to if you need to procure delicate things.”

“What things? People? Jewelry? Uranium?” Cadence bit into the sandwich again and chewed.

I nodded. “Yeah. All of that and more. Say you’re a sick fuck who’s looking for a pretty, little, red-haired girl with pigtails and sparkling eyes. You give him your shopping list, and he sends out his shoppers to get what you want. You pay for it. Blood. Money. Tears. Whatever. My father is good with a lot of currency. He doesn’t care what you do with your product once you’ve gotten it and paid. Fuck it. Kill it. Eat it. Nothing is off the table.”

“Wait. Cannibalism?” Cadence dropped her sandwich on the coffee table, looking queasy.

“Of course. Anything goes. He trades in flesh as well. You have someone you want to trade him for, and he’ll do that as well as long as he comes out ahead with the trade. It’s an ugly business and an ugly world. Sirena is in danger of becoming part of it.” I paused, watching as Cadence balled her hands into tight fists, her nostrils flaring. “He owns a lot of places you wouldn’t even consider as his property. The Family Fun Center in the Sault? He owns it. It’s the perfect place to shop for delicacies.”

“Fucking disgusting,” she whispered.

“It is,” I said softly. “It’s the world I was raised in. He wants me back. He knows he can use Sirena to get me. He knows he can use Stitches. He’s the man behind the curtain in many places, Chapel Crest included. He funds a lot of what happens at this place. When I say to you that you need to fucking relax and play the long game, I mean it. Going off the rails, as much as I fucking wish we could, can’t happen. When I tell you to back down, you back the fuck down. Understand?”

She visibly swallowed. “I want to save my sister.”

“And we will. Safely. There is a way. We just need to figure it out.”

“What about this Asylum thing?She belongs to him.How is that going to factor in?”

I looked to my hands as I leaned forward in my chair. “We’re putting a little faith in his brand of insanity and hoping we don’t have to kill him for it.”

“So blind trust?” she asked sourly.

“For now.”

We were all quiet for a moment. I took the opportunity to survey Sin, who simply stared at his feet. He hadn’t spoken much lately. In fact, I was surprised he was here at all. He liked to be alone even more these days.

Ashes got up, a frown on his face.

“What?” I asked, watching as he went to the front door.

“I-I could have sworn I just saw Malachi—”

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