Page 54 of Edge of Control

Jace, I just wanted Jace. I just wanted things to be solved. I wanted my sister back. I wanted this circle offucking monsters annihilated. They were too evil for the law. None of these people even deserved a trial, much less a life behind bars. There, they’d be fed, watered, taken care of. Like walking house plants, confined to their steel and cement pots. They’d be alive. None of these bastards deserved that. Their crimes extended past the blackmail, even though that’s where the roots had taken hold. Growing into gnarly trees with twisted limbs and razor-sharp leaves.

Vicious, vicious humans. Of course I had to end them.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…

I couldn’t stay in bed for much longer. I got out, my bedroom walls feeling like they were starting to cave in on me. Luke gave me a look like “Seriously? This early?” before he got up, stretched, and jumped off the bed. He followed me into the kitchen. I poured myself a shot of tequila. The clock on the microwave read 5:45 a.m.

“Cheers,” I said to Luke and downed the shot. It was smooth. I was tempted to take another but decided to let this one work its magic before I started to get drunk.

A sound from outside my apartment door drew my attention. It was a stumbling. A rustling of bags.

Must have been Billie. He was my eccentric, rich, older neighbor. He slept through the day and went about his business at night. Maybe he had secrets that only came out in the dark like I had?

Or maybe it was the SWAT team getting ready to barrel down my door. Now, that would be an interesting start to the day.

But there was no way. Jace was just with me yesterday for lunch. We hooked up in the bathroom stall at Luna Mexico. He wouldn’t be so nonchalant with me if he even had a whiff of an idea that I was behind Nevermore.

Unless…

Was he setting a trap? That wasn’t too far out of the realm of possibility.

I shot a cautious glance at Luke, who was drinking water from his bowl without a single care in the world. What a life to live.

“Must be nice.”

The stumbling and rustling continued. I heard a loud bang. It rattled my door. I shook.

Then came the shout. “Ow! Shit!”

Definitely Billie. I recognized that voice from anywhere. Sounded like a clown who’d inhaled helium for a little too long.

I peeked through the peephole. He was struggling to get back to his feet, groceries all around the ground.

I opened the door. “Hold on, here, let me help.”

“Shit, sorry to wake you, kiddo.”

He loved to call me kiddo. It was nice. Reminded me of some classic movie, even though he really wasn’tallthat much older than me. He probably had twenty years over my thirty-two. Not nearly old enough to be calling me “kiddo.”

Still, it didn’t bother me.

“I was already awake,” I said, grabbing his wrinkled hand in mine and pulling him up. I noticed there werebruises on the inside of his wrist, like the kind made from IV needles being poked into the wrong place.

He went to go grab his groceries, but I stuck a hand out. I got down on my knees and grabbed the apples, onions, lettuce, meat, bread. A box of condoms.

Hah. Gramps still got it. Good for him.

I put them all back in the bag and handed them back to him. He smiled, but there was a weariness in his expression that hadn’t always been there.

“Everything okay?” I asked. I’d known him for the last two years, ever since I could afford to live in a place like this. We weren’t all that close, but he’d invited me over a couple of times for some wine and a few wild stories to pass the time. I felt like I had made a connection with him. One of the rare few in this world who I could say that about.

“I’m not doing all that hot, kiddo. Been going to the doctors a lot. They found some lump. Nothing to worry about, though. Should be all fine.”

“A lump? Cancer?”

“I didn’t say the C-word, and you shouldn’t, either. It’ll curse me. I had an ex-wife who cursed me once. Found chicken bones and a lamb heart outside of my door, and the next few days, I had the worst case of blue balls imaginable.”

That got a belly laugh out of me. He winced. “Drinking this early?”

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