Page 1 of Double Down
1
Phoenix
I’m standing here staringat a dead body, and all I can think is…I know her.
No, I knew her.Past tense.
Sarah, the same woman that I watched try and please Con what feels like forever ago, is now past tense.
Her naked body is flat on its back. When we first walked into the suite, she was lying on her side with her back to the door and her arm draped over her hip—like she was a sexy tableau waiting for someone to arrive and see her.
I guess in a way she was.
As we step closer, Maverick reaches for her shoulder, and her body just…shifts…to the side. Boneless, her arm flopping over the edge of the table.
A hot, shuddery feeling crawls over me, that sensation that comes right before you puke. I don’t realize my hands are shaking until Storm’s fingers interlace with mine, but my eyes still don’t leave Sarah.
I can’t see anything but her corpse.
My pulse slows to a crawl. Too slow.
I don’t like Sarah.
I’ve always thought she was a snake with perfect C-cups and a talent for ingratiating herself with anyone in power. She’s had her eyes on the Titans, my Titans, since she started working here.
My brain stutters, rewinds.
Didn’t.I didn’t like her. Past tense.
She touched what didn’t belong to her, and she tried to take what I know belongs to me. Even if I fight that knowing every step of the way.
But that doesn’t mean she deserved to die.
Did she deserve to be fired from the resort? Maybe. She was annoying, incompetent, even. All she ever did was stand around and run her mouth. At the very least they should have moved her out of housekeeping, where she had constant access to the Titans and a steady stream of gossip, to something like…the front desk. Or laundry service.
Yeah…laundry service would’ve suited her perfectly.
But this…no one deserves to have their life and future snuffed out before their time.
A hand brushes my arm. “Phoenix,” Storm says from close behind me, his voice low, almost soothing.
I don’t answer. I don’t have the ability to form words as I stand and stare at her body. Everything in my brain is just…blank, except for her.
Storm steps in front of me, his hand cupping my chin as he forces me to look into his crystalline blue eyes. He says my name again, and this time something unclenches in my core. My breath catches, and the room clicks into place—the hiss of the air conditioning registering, the warmth of his hand on my chin, the salt on my lips where tears have tracked down my face.
Shock loosens its teeth, and I can think again.
“I’m okay.” Taking a quick, short inhale, I step around him.
My arms fold tight across my chest, and I tap my thumb against my fingers.One-two-three. One-two-three.A self-soothing tic I thought I’d broken myself of using.
“She’s the message,” I say, trying and failing to avert my gaze from Sarah. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a body, but hers is the one that’s going to play on repeat in my memory forever.
Something about the way my skin knew before my brain did when I stepped in the room, the hair on my arms rising in warning.
The others, like the homeless man who died in the alley, vomit soaking his face and shirt, and the men who attacked me, covered in blood and violence as the Titans disposed of their bodies…they were different.
Even my dad, who thought eating a bullet was preferable to living…even his death was different than the one I’m currently staring at.
