Page 87 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
Slowly though, I unfurl my fingers from his taut muscles, then I retract my hand.
“Maude insists we stay for her dinner.” Sullen speaks in his beautiful croaky voice but his tone throws me. Incredibly even and steady and…mildly pleasant.
His pupils are wide, edging out the brown and amber of his irises, and the red lights cast a demonic sheen along the sharp curve of his cheekbones but otherwise… he looks strangely happy.
“Oh?” I manage to choke out. When I run my tongue over my bottom lip because my mouth is so very dry, Sullen traces the movement with his gaze but then he’s looking back at my eyes. “Does she?” I try to hide the confusion and irritation—about his reference to Maude—from my voice, but I fail miserably.
He seems to notice, the way he tilts his head, and his smile widens, almost revealing his teeth. “She does,” he says carefully. Then he turns to face Cosmo, and nothing in his expression changes as he adds, “I’ll meet you two back at the table?” He glances at me once more. “And I brought our bag down to the bottom of the stairs. Just in case one of us needs to leave in a hurry.” The way he says it, I feel as if he means…me.
Then he walks away without once looking back, taking his seat beside Maude once more.
“Fuck this. Fuck all of this,” I say, the confusion threaded through my tone, forcing sporadic words out. I turn back to Cosmo, who is watching me with the same skepticism in his gaze. “I don’t care if he wants to stay. I’m leaving.” I don’t mean it. I won’t leave without Sullen. But… I expected him to react so differently. And I am crushingly disappointed he didn’t. Am I justagirl to him? He said himself he’s never been with anyone. Perhaps since I was the first girl he was close to, he unintentionally made me feel special when all I really am is something new. Now he’s chatting with Maude and the pink-haired girl. He has options. And perhaps I’m no longer one. As long as he doesn’t have to be found, maybe he doesn’t care who he gets lost with.
“No.” Cosmo shakes his head once and I glance at the blood still slowly streaking down his finger. “You’re not. You’re going to sit your ass down at that table, you’re going to drink with me, and you’re going to tell me right now if he did that, to your eye. If he hurt you, in any way. Because he doesn’t seem to care I just tried to kiss you so I’m wondering what else he doesn’t care about with you.” He steps close, looking down at me. “You know, like your safety.”
“You’re so fucking concerned about me, so angry, and yet here you are playing tea party. Tell me now, why the fuck are you even here, huh?” I deflect from everything else he said about Sullen not caring for me. I don’t want to think of all the things I let happen to me with him and yet I still ran away by his side.
Fucking. Stupid.
“The entire hotel was searched. We found Stein Rule. Then, they sent me home.” Cosmo glares at me. “Your parents and Mads Bentzen. Obviously I still looked for you. I found your phone—it’s dead, by the way—and searched our usual places. Coffee shop, that little luxury store you like with all the fucking ribbons and bows, the theater. Obviously, you weren’t there. I stopped by here for word on you, not really expecting I’d find it. But I know this is one of the only places in the city you could hide in plain sight.”
I furrow my brow. “How doyouknow of this place? Who even are these people?”
“The girl with pink hair?” He jerks his chin toward the table. “That’s Alivia. She has the same job as I do. She—”
“Performance artist. Yes. I know what you do, Cosmo. And Fleet? And the other guy?Maude?”
Cosmo smiles cruelly. He can sense my jealousy. “This is my life apart from you. You have Writhe, I have my work. They all have helped in some of my acts here and there. Fleet is a wildcard. His parents are rich as fuck, both lawyers, and he’s caught somewhere in between. Elliot is set to head to Harvard next fall but he’s rebelling a little in his gap years until that happens.”
“You know all of these people and I’ve never even heard of them.” The feeling of being tricked is back, slithering down my spine like the snake did across my torso. I just don’t understand who is deceiving me.
“When’s the last time you came to watch me perform?” he shoots back.
It’s been years. Most of his performances are around NYC, but if I really wanted to go, I could.
“Exactly,” he says in a low tone. “While you were fucking around with Von in a past life and going to all this Writhe shit you don’t even like, I’ve come here.”
“But… They don’t know about Writhe, do they?”
Cosmo shakes his head. Behind me, I hear Maude laugh and there’s a sinking feeling in my stomach. “Nor you. Writhe is against everything Maude stands for. She’s an artist, through and through. I imagine you’ve been staying in the Attic. It’s for people in trouble. Anyone, no questions asked.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here when allegedly, you’ve been worried about me. You said it yourself. You didn’t expect to find me here.”
He steps closer, his nostrils flaring. I see red punch just under his black shirt, along his shoulder and I know it’s growing sticky on his skin, but I don’t say a word, definitely not to apologize.
“I get the best of both worlds in some ways,” he says quietly, watching me. “I hear what you want to whisper about Writhe, and I hear everything everyone else wants to whisperaroundthem. Maude may not know them by name, but everyone understands it’s the corrupt who own this city.” Cosmo tilts his head. “And it’s Stein Rule who owns Hotel Number Seven, hiding his name behind a corporation. But there was another Number Seven, before the one you hit me at, did you know that? Theoriginalhotel, before the company built multiples, maybe to deflect from their sordid little history?”
No. I didn’t know that.
He leans even closer, his mouth going to my ear. “Word is the worst sorts of people flocked to that one for dinners not too different from these. A think tank of serial killers, rapists, murderers, thieves. It wasMaudewho told me about the original, years ago. Of course, she has no idea Stein Rule is the owner, or that I know him. And she has no ideaScullyis his abominable son. I came here to see if you had found the city’s safe place, or if Maude knew what exactly happened to that sick little club that used to meet at the original Number Seven before we were ever born, thinking maybe Sullen took you there for some kind of torture fest. She hadn’t gotten around to telling me any details whenyoushowed up, and I think it must be divine fucking timing. You’re going to sit down at this dinner, and you’re going to listen. And when it’s over, you’ll see Sullen Rule is just as fucked up as his father and the rest of the family that came before them. And I promise you, I won’t break his neck for drugging me or you, not yet, not now, because I think the worst thing would be for you to see how bad he is yourself.” His lips graze my ear and my spine crawls, but I don’t move. “Then you canthank mefor saving your life.”
I jerk back from him, narrowing my gaze. I curl my hand into a fist and have the vicious urge to launch it into his face. “So all you’ve really been doing is looking for more dirt on Sullen? That’s extremely helpful in finding me, Cosmo. What a fantastic friend. Excellent search party, asshole.”
“Youhit mewith a flashlight, Karia.”
I step forward, getting in his face as I stand on my tiptoes. “And I would do it again,” I snarl. “Why did you bother with this? Why do you even care at all, after that shit you just said about me, huh?”
His eyes flick over my body, and I’m very aware my nipples are two tight points from the chill of the cold room. A salacious, cruel smile curves his lips. “That’s why.”
