Page 167 of Property of Necro
Sleep,he signs.
So, I do.
Inhaling his clean, warm scent, I sleep.
Peacefully.
Heart full.
A smile on my face.
I’ve never felt happier in my entire life.
Chapter
Forty-Three
Day Three
Two days in a row,I’ve worn a new dress. It feels strange, brushing against my thighs as Rot and I stroll through downtown Kings Cursed in the daylight. It’s different. The eerie quiet. The stillness. Much like the first day I arrived with Dark.
Rot trails me toMal’s Malt Shop, where I peek through the fist-sized spot on the front window I wiped off last night. The inside is frozen in time. Aged from years of neglect, but the bones are here under a layer of cobwebs and dust. The old wooden counter still has charm, and there’s a perfect place for stools. You know, the ones with colorful padding that you can twirl around on. With a bit of imagination, I can see it. The sweet smell of chocolate, much like Kali’s shop. The titter of happiness as customers drink a milkshake with two straws like something out of the fifties.
Swoon.
“What’s that sigh for?” Rot asks, rubbing the middle of my back.
I peek at him over my shoulder. “I sighed?”
“Yeah. A few times.”
“Oh. I was thinking about what it must have been like when this shop was running, or what it could be like if it were restored. This town has so much potential.” Turning to face the street, I catch glimpses of what was and what could be, but what is, is a carcass, pecked away year after year. “I can’t imagine being gifted a literal town and letting it sit empty like this.”
“This is the home for our club, not outsiders, Red.” Rot wraps an arm around my waist, tucking me close to his side.
“But what if it could be both?” I ask, looking up at him to gauge his reaction.
“But it’s not.” Rot kisses the side of my head like he thinks I’m being cute, when I’m dead serious.
“Those houses over there.” I point to a side street, where the overgrown backyards of multiple single-story homes are located. “It would take some time and money, but they could be habitable again.”
“They’re habitable now. But we’re not expanding the chapter, Red, and we don’t allow outsiders in.”
I nudge him with my hip. “You let me in.”
“Yeah. We did. But that’s not the same.”
“It kind of is…What if you vetted women like Mama does the dancers?” I tilt my head back and bat my lashes, trying to soften him up to the idea. Rot has more club pull than he thinks he does.
He smirks at my silliness. “And what?”
“Let them move here. Oh. Wait. Wait.” I clap my hands excitedly. “What if the houses are for women like me? Survivors. The women, the Sacred Sinners, and other clubs save and need homes for. They don’t have anywhere else to go and need a place to start over. Why can’t they do that here? It wouldn’t bring in any men—just women. Women are badasses. They can do anything. They could turn this town around. I could help. Maybe one of them could reopen this shop,” I rattle off a million miles an hour.
“Red.” There’s a mix of adoration and humor in Rot’s voice.
“What?”
“That takes money, a fuckton of money, and we don’t want outsiders in our town using our shops, which the women in your head running these shops would need to stay afloat. This ain’t a tourist destination on the way to Chicago. You read the sign. We don’t want strangers here.”
