Page 12 of Like Grim Death: Part One
I pull again from the cigarette, then drop it and grind it out with my shoe, shoving my hands into my hoodie pocket. Taking a deep breath, I catch the scent of something rotting. Pungent and meaty.
Probably a dead animal. We’re beside a forest in North Carolina after all, and it’s almost hunting season.
I shrug my shoulders against the cold and the stench, my breath coming out in little clouds I can see by the interior glow of Ezra’s car.
“Said he had to talk to his dad a second.” Cain answers Mav’s question, but his dark eyes are still glued to his phone. The only one of us not in a hoodie, he’s got on a tailored wool coat. From the light of his screen, I see blue and purple swollen beneath one eye from his latest fight down at Nox, the gym we own in the heart of downtown Alexandria.
Ezra turns, ducking down through the rolled-down window of his Audi and pulling something from the car. When he spins back around, he’s got a silver flask with a skull on it in hand.
I glance up at him, and his hazel eyes meet mine as he takes a pull, no remorse on his face. It’s the kind of thing money can buy. A lack of shame, where our vices are concerned.
When he’s done with the flask, he pushes it into the zip-up pocket of the bomber vest over his black hoodie. He jerks his chin to me. “You got anything to say,Dominus?”If he only knew how apt the title was. But Elijah entrusted the information regarding Ortus solely to me. I can’t even tell my wife, or I risk losing the ascension.
I arch a brow, tilting my head. I know Ezra’s not referring to his alcoholism. I couldn’t give less of a fuck about that. Although I think briefly of how he’s usually with Brooklin—the sister Maverickdidn’tfuck—and her confession she’s off Adderall now after admitting to a problem with it from her time with Jeremiah, and how hanging out with an alcoholic all the time is a sure fire way to pick back up an addiction. She’s once again in Alexandria, her escapade to the coast a failure. I trust her to watch Rain for minutes at a time here and there for Sid to shower or run when I’m not home. I don’t bring her up now though. It’s not the time. Instead, I say to Ezra, “It’syourdad calling the shots. You tellmewho the fuck that was.”
“Which one? The Russian fucker who gave you an order you didn’t follow, or the young kid you probably just murdered?” There’s an edge to Ezra’s words, and I wonder about his mom, Edith. The kidnapping we never solved, as far as I know. I wonder what kind of secrets he’s keeping, and if he’s sharing any of them with Brooklin.
Mav laughs, a boyish sound, and I catch the scent of marijuana at the exact same time I turn and see him pulling from a hand-rolled joint, tucking the lighter back into the pocket of his black joggers. He swallows the smoke into his lungs, tips up his chin, and exhales from his nose with a smirk on his face.
“You know,” he says, pinching the end of the joint as he lowers his hand by his side and scuffs a black boot in the dirt. His eyes lift to mine beneath heavy lashes, pinning me with his gaze. He brings up his free hand, the one with my fucking wife’s name on it, and circles his index finger around his eyes. “He had Malikov eyes.”
My blood runs cold as the tickling of a memory drifts forward from the back of my mind.
A rope. Darkness. I was spinning. My head felt so…strange.
I rememberthat.It’s everything else I can’t hold onto.
A bitter taste is on my tongue, and I shake my head once, trying to clear the cobwebs of my mind. There’s somethingthere,but it’s so far beyond my reach, I can’t quite grab it.
Mav spits on the ground before he inhales once more from his joint. When he blows out smoke again, through his nose, he mutters, “Fucking stinks out here.”
I sniff on reflex and regret it, tensing at the scent of something dead. If it is a goddamn deer, that’s a problem because hunters shouldn’t be anywherenearhere.
“He’s from Rival’s Claw.” Cain’s indifferent words cut into my thoughts, confusing me for a second.
Mav and I both turn to stare at Cain as he pushes his phone into the pocket of his coat, his dark gaze on mine. I sense Ezra watching too.
The name is vaguely familiar but it’s like looking into the eyes of the Russian man at Sanctum. I can’trememberclearly.
“The overseers of the 6,” Cain keeps going, filling in the gaps of my mind from the history of our brotherhood I’ve forgotten, parts of my childhood blank in spots, like a second-hand puzzle with missing pieces. “Governor of most cults on the East Coast, high-ranking gangs. Italian Mafia, Bratva, some cartels. They all report to RC. Moscow headquarters with a frequent liaison in WilmingtonandVirginia.” Cain clears his throat, a slow smile spreading on his face, causing the purple and black bruise to crease. “And Mikhail Malikov,Boaz,is your father’s brother.”
Silence rings out, but I feel nothing with his words. No sense of fear or respect or desire to know my family. I feel nothing except a vast pit of emptiness. I knew my dad had a sibling. I must have met him before. But none of us are close to any extended family. Still, Dad went to Moscow all the time. Brought back prostitutes and sent them to me, whether I wanted them or not. To make me aman,I was to use them. I didn’t, most of the time, but sometimes…well, sometimes I fucking did.
Thus,Mikhailmust have come by too, like the girls Dad flew in. But I can’t think of any time I’ve met him. I can’t recall any memory connected to him at all. Just a vague…knowing.
“All right, Mr. Encyclopedia, how the fuck do you know all this about Luce’s fucked-up family tree? And what the fuck isBoaz?”Mav demands, unease threaded through his words as he glances at me, and back to Cain. As if his family tree isn’t just as fucked.
Cain shrugs one massive shoulder. “I was with Alivia at Nox last night.”Alivia.The name snags in my brain. A childhood friend of his, he never talks about her, much like I don’t speak of Ophelia. The fact he mentioned her surprises me, but his tone doesn’t change with his words. “Mikhail came by the gym with some chick to talk to Dad. Dad filled me in after your uncle left. RC is here to look into Edith’s abduction.” He glances at Ezra, whose jaw tightens, then snaps his gaze back to me. “Sid’s former stalker. Not you, by the way.” Cain doesn’t smile but I know it’s supposed to be a joke. I stay perfectly still, remembering the photos left on Elijah’s dead guard’s lap. I assumed Jeremiah had something to do with it. Some sort of distraction. I guess the 6 don’t think so. “And the fuckery happening with all of us. I tried to tell you, but you didn’t reply to my text last night, Lucy boy.” His dark eyes flash when he uses the name Mav sometimes calls me.
Yeah, I didn’t reply to his text because I was rocking Rain to sleep. He didn’t have a good night last night. I can feel that exhaustion weighing on my shoulders even now.
“Boaz is a nickname. Every member of RC takes one. Andyouruncle is the leader—”
“Don’t call him that.” I snap the words out. “He’s no fucking family of mine. But go back a second. Mikhail, what do you mean he was with somechick?”
Cain shrugs. “Bad as fuck, latched onto his arm like candy.”
I narrow my eyes. “Who was she? And why are you takingAliviato Nox?” That gym isn’t open to the public.
