Page 116 of Rule the Night
“Maeve seem all right to you this morning?” Poe asked no one in particular.
“Didn’t see her,” I said. “But she seemed down to me last night.”
She hadn’t been downstairs when Bram and I had left that morning, although the kitchen had smelled amazing and the fridge and freezer had been stuffed with food prep so she’d obviously done a shit ton of cooking.
“Me too,” Poe said.
I wasn’t surprised Bram didn’t answer. He hardly spoke to Maeve at all. How would he know if she was okay?
We stomped up the stairs and I waited for the smell of Maeve’s cooking to hit my nose, but when we reached the second floor, the living area was empty, and that included the kitchen.
“She working tonight?” Poe asked.
I pulled up her schedule on my phone. “Not according to the schedule.”
“What the fuck?”
I looked up as Poe spoke and found him walking toward the dining room table.
And that was when I saw the note tucked under a familiar black velvet box.
My stomach churned.
I reached Poe in time to see him pushed aside the box and unfold the note.
I read over his shoulder.
I’m sorry, I can’t stay.
I’ve cooked enough to last you for the duration of our contract.
I hope that’s good enough.
“What the fuck?” I said.
Bram stepped closer. “What’s going on?”
Poe handed him the note.
Bram swore, but Poe just stared at him.
“What?” Bram asked.
I reached for the jewelry box and popped it open. The apple necklace we’d given Maeve for her birthday lay untouched in the velvet.
I raised my head and looked at Bram. “What the fuck did you do?”
76
ETHAN
Maeve Haver.
That was her name.
I repeated it in my mind as I hit mile five on the treadmill, part of an extensive fitness, nutritional, and longevity routine that included occasional visits to a Honduran network state to receive experimental stem-cell treatment to the tune of twenty-five thousand dollars a pop.
The girl’s name — old-fashioned, classy — had sounded familiar from the jump, and it had only taken me a minute of reading to find out why: she was the sister of that dumb bitch whose psycho boyfriend had murdered her last year.
