Page 110 of Raine
I try to smile at him, but I know it doesn’t reach my eyes. “Avernus killed my parents.”
“How could you know that?”
“They were trying to escape, Gabe. They were packing their bags and waiting for me to return home with my grandmother so we could run away, but Avernus ruined their plans.”
He raises his eyebrows and looks at the diary, then back to me. “She said that?”
“Mama was getting my blanket and dolly so we could leave, but she heard some crashing and quickly scrawled down the last bit in the diary. Here, look,” I demand, reaching for the diary and opening it up to the last page.
“Look at her handwriting. If I’ve learned anything about my mother, she took her time when entering into this secret little world of hers. See how messy the writing becomes toward the last few lines.”
Gabe gazes down and nods his head. “What now?”
“I need to go to Justyce’s and show him. Acheron is already there because they were discussing some upcoming shipments. Ach messaged me earlier today to inform me.”
I move to unsaddle him, but his fingers dig into my hips to keep me in place. “Do you need me to come with you?”
“I’ll be fine. I need to do this on my own, and Acheron isn’t your biggest fan right now,” I jest, and he rolls his eyes.
“He’ll come around; he has to because I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.”
“Come on sweet cheeks, I’ll walk you outside.”
Gabe follows me outside, his hand in mine, as we walk down the stairs and toward the gate. I laugh at something Gabe says, but my body clams up when I see a white sheet of what looks like expensive paper billowing in the breeze.
My body breaks out in goosebumps, and I look outside the gate and down to the ocean waves crashing along the shore. I can feel eyes on me. I don’t know how I know, but I do.
With tentative steps, I move toward the mailbox, Gabe’s voice behind me fading out with the blood hissing in my ears the closer I get to the piece of paper.
Drawing my lip into my mouth, I reach for it with my hands shaking harder than they ever have before. When I turn the sheet over, I whimper when I see the handwriting.
I knew it was too good to be true — all this peace and quiet, all this sanity. With my name scrawled across the paper in bold letters, I feel a tear trickle down my face because I know its’s Avernus’s handwriting.
I glance up again, squinting to try and find the eyes I know are on me, but come up empty. When I unfold the piece of paper, I cry out upon seeing a picture of one of the only people I care about.
Starr is tied to a St. Andrews cross, bloody bruises marring her flesh, and to the side holding her head up with a cat-o-nine tails is Avernus with a smirk on his face. Tears line her pretty but swollen eyes and I hear the shattering of my heart when I look at her split lips.
“No, no, no,” I murmur over and over.
My knees start to buckle, and I know they’re about to fold underneath me, but as my knees knock and I’m about to collapse, warm arms snake around me and hold me up.
I can hear Gabe’s voice, but I can’t make any sense of it, along with the paper and picture blurring before me. I wipe the tears from my eyes and focus on the writing.
To my darling daughter,
While you were playing house, I found something of yours — something you may have wanted to keep but will never see again. You see, you played with fire, and I know that fuckwit Gabe knows more about me than I’d care to admit, but the thing is, the itty bitty little thing that you all fail to see is that I have nothing left. Do you know what happens to a man when he has nothing to live for, nothing to call his own? Dangerous.
I’m awfully close to figuring out what you’re all up to, and when I do, it won’t only be pretty little Starr here paying the price in flesh; it’ll be you, your brother, Justyce and Arrow. Your days are numbered.
- Avernus
I collapse, breaking apart in my lover’s arms as I read over the letter again. Avernus has Starr, the only other person out of my little circle here that I’ve ever dared to call my friend.
Avernus may think he’s dangerous, but he’s never met a woman who has everything to live for. With renewed strength, I stand up and move out of Gabe’s arms, crumple the paper in my hand, and circle around, flipping the bird to Avernus because I know he’s watching me. He’s a psychopath hankering for his trophy, he just doesn’t realize I’m no one’s trophy, let alone his. And after Justyce, Acheron and Arrow find out what else he’s playing at, he won’t even have a body to walk around in.
He’s a threat, not only to me but to my family, which entails everyone in my circle, and after Justyce lost Kenzi once, he won’t allow it to happen again. A crazy smile begins to form on my face, and I know I’d look insane to anyone looking in on me right now, but I don’t have it in me to give a shit.
I take one last look around, feeling Gabe’s hand at my waist, and let the smile take over completely. I feel unhinged, manic, and that’s something Avernus better be scared of. Because I’m Raine Alla Voroniva, princess of the Tartarus Mafia, and if you fuck with me, you fuck with all the men in my life.
Game on, mother fucker, we’re coming for you.
