Page 47 of A Dance With Devils
My lips quirk, eyes even managing to smile a little. “You talk a lot.”
“You, it appears, do not. Try it.”
Picking my coffee up, I consider the possibility of it. Never have done. Not with anyone, my bitch of a wife included. She didn’t even ask when I did it last time. She laughed, as I kept tossing more pills into my mouth. And then she danced for me, making sure that image would be the last thing on my mind as I left this fucking planet. I don’t remember much after that, but I do remember it being Gray that was over me when I came back. He said it was lucky he was here, even luckier that my body coped with the carnage I’d created for it. Nothing felt lucky. Lucky would have been not coming back at all. I didn’t see her for a week after that.
And then our marriage carried on without us even discussing it.
“I’ll need more for those types of conversations,” labours out of me.
“More coffee? Or more skin?” she asks, smiling for some reason.
“Skin.”
A few minutes goes by, as she keeps staring at me, scooping eggs benedict into her mouth, and drinking her coffee. It's long enough that she eventually puts the coffee down and starts refilling the cup. “Alright, Malachi. We’ll bargain for it. You get a bit, I get a bit. Tit for tat. I’m sure fucking you won’t be too much of a hardship. But honesty, yes?”
My smile, the one that’s crept ever closer since this curious conversation started, widens. “That could be the most unwise condition you’ve ever set in your life.”
She nods and sits back again, rolling her shoulders around as if she’s considered every connotation of sex that might happen with this sort of bargain in place. A low chuckle falls from me, my own frame relaxing, as I stare over my coffee. Tit for tat.
“First things first, though. I need to call home,” she says.
I take a sip of coffee at that, considering her feelings. Siblings are presumably important to those that have some. And maybe I should thank Gray because it looks like I’ve got a new game to play. It won’t work. Nothing ever does. I’ll still be me, and she’ll still not really understand who that is. I’m not even sure I want her to. But it’s a new thing to discover - a new bargain to strike. Interesting at least.
Novel, regardless of useless.
The thought makes me consider little red pills rather than the fun she’s after, more of them, lots of them, and then I get my phone out of my pocket anyway. What does it matter for a while longer? If calling home is what she needs to keep me entertained until I’m done again, phoning home is what she can have.
Chapter 19
Ally
I’m listening to Brandon talk on loudspeaker, and yet still looking at Malachi so I can think about whatever bargain I’ve just struck. I’m an idiot. I don’t even know why I did it, but I could feel the sadness ebbing away the more I kept rambling. Whether that was ebbing out of me, or him, or both of us, I’m still unclear about, but this smile he’s now got on his face, the one that tells me I’ve probably just made the stupidest mistake of my life, is still better than the gloom that was here.
“And you’ve got food in?” I ask Brandon. Malachi laughs. I don’t know why. It’s a serious question where my brothers are concerned.
“For fuck’s sake, Ally. Yes. We’re not kids.” They are to me. I pout and take a sip of the coffee, still eyeing Mr tormented and delicious over it in case he makes a move suddenly. “We’re fine. Has that dick touched you?”
“Yes, he has,” Malachi says.
My eyes roll. Fucking stupid.
“No, he hasn’t, Brandon.” Not really anyway. Or not that I can remember clearly. Whatever. “And even if he had, I’m a grown ass woman. I’ll make my own choices.”
“You should come back.”
“What, and miss all this? I’m in a castle in-“ Malachi’s finger goes up sharply, wiggling it back and forth as if I’m not allowed to say where I am. “Anyway, it’s lovely.” Kind of. Not actually, but I can hardly explain that rationally. “And I’m relaxing. You’re both okay, though? Nothing for me to worry about?”
“We’re at Whit’s mostly. Stayed there most nights.” Nights? How long have I been here? My hand rubs my foot, unsure why there’s black stuff all over the bottom of it. “And he’s keeping us busy. Got a car off Redin and sixth last night and-“
“La, la, la, la,” I cut across him. I don’t want to know about anything Whit gets up to unless it’s protecting us from shit we’re still running from.
He chuckles a little. “We’re fine, Ally.”
“Make sure Brett goes to school.”
“Yeah. Will do.”
“Okay.”
