Page 74 of Like Grim Death: Part One
I shake my head, confused. “Why aren’t you at Sanctum? You’re supposed to be…meeting the initiate.” It’s a small mercy I don’t stammer over the words. I want them to leave. I want to go upstairs and hide. But Atlas is at the foot of the stairs, and Cain is blocking the path to my front door.
“I think we’re supposed to be right here,” Cain drawls, and when I flick my gaze to his, I see he’s smiling.
Another step back, like I can disappear into the shadows. “But why?” I look from one to the other, and both of them are just staring at me.
I didn’t even know Cain knew about me and Atlas.When did he find out? Why?
“Don’t ask stupid questions, Ella,” Atlas says, and there’s the hint of a snarl in his words. But then his voice softens and he says, “We’re just looking after you. Trust me. Besides, we’re not meeting him tonight, baby.” His eyes search mine, and I know he uses the pet name to make me pliant.
For half a second, it almost works. The girl I was before I met Mavy would’ve fallen for it. I would’ve bent to his caressing voice and his single scrap of tender affection. His revelation tonight they didn’t actually meet the initiate. A trinket of information I might not otherwise know.
But I’ve been sleeping with a demon for far too long. I can see the horns beneath the pretty face.
He isn’t taking my questions seriously, and he just broke into my house. I feel like, with the secrets between us, I’ve earned a sliver of his loyalty.
Screw him. “No. Idon’ttrust you. At all. I want to know why you’re at my fucking house, why you’re spying on me, onhim.”I tighten my arms around my chest, shrugging my shoulders as I say the words.
Atlas smirks at me. Itenragesme. I feel as if I have no control here, no say. The agreement I entered into with him wasn’tthis.
“He should know this.” I keep talking, bouncing my gaze from Atlas to Cain, and it’s like I can’t stop speaking now that I’ve found some semblance of my voice. “Maybe I should tell him you both aren’t as loyal as he thinks. Maybe I should tell him what you two—”
Atlas takes a step toward me and my words die in my throat. “You do that, Ella. You tell him and see what happens to you. Maybe I’ll never see you again. Maybe you’ll end up in fuckingpieceson your own bathroom floor.”
“I’d tear them to fucking pieces.”Mavy’s threat echoes in my head.No,I think quietly,maybeyouwill, Atlas.
“Get out of my house.” I keep one arm crossed over my body but thrust the other to the door, glancing at Cain so he knows my directive includes him too. “Get the fuck out.”
Atlas reaches into his pants pocket and for one strange second, I think he’s going to pull out a gun. Or maybe the rosary. But I hear the pills bouncing around the bizarre black tinted prescription bottle the second before I see it. He shakes them, holding them up for me to see.
My face burns and I don’t look at Cain.
“Wherever you’re disappearing to, you’re hurting for it, aren’t you?” He takes another step closer and his eyes stay locked on mine. One more step, and I have to tilt my head up to hold his gaze. “Whatever they’re doing to you, you want to forget it, don’t you?”
“Atlas.” Cain’s voice cuts through the pause.
I stiffen, watching as a scowl pulls over Atlas’s lips, but I don’t dare look at Cain.
“Put that away.”So Cain must not know everything.“You don’t wanna cross that line with his girl.”
We all know who he means byhis.But it’s too late. Atlas has obliterated the line.
He doesn’t react for a second, then another, until finally, he winks at me, his back to Cain so he doesn’t see. “You’re right, man.” He shrugs, slipping the bottle into his pocket and I feel a sickening desire to lurch toward him, to grab the pills.
I’m not addicted. I only get them sporadically. They help me relax though, and when Maverick comes home, it’s going to be hard to pretend none of this happened.
But I know I’ll have to, because Atlas turns his back to me and walks toward the door. Cain stares at me a moment, then nods toward my shirt.Hisshirt. “Make sure you hide that, beautiful.”
I almost let them go. But I remember Maverick’s words. His confession to me.Samson.Is that why Atlas needed me Monday night?
“Wait,” I call out softly, my voice raw.
Atlas stills and Cain turns to glance at me over his shoulder.
I keep my eyes trained on Atlas. “Are you okay? About…Samson?” I force myself to ask it, even with everything he put me through tonight.
Atlas tenses. Curiously, Cain turns to stare at his brother too.
Then Atlas just says, “That’s none of your fucking business,” before the both of them leave.
