Page 74 of The Hate We Breathe
I wait, giving her the time she needs to gather her thoughts. Finally, she breathes out a long breath. “I just don’t want to go back into that house.”
The confession isn’t a shock, but it still slams into me like a blade. She hates this place and we just let her walk away—go back to him. It took me far too long to realize what she wasdoing, sacrificing herself for us. I turn my dark glare on the mansion that looms larger as we approach.
I pull us up to the front, killing the engine, and step out. Juliet follows, popping the passenger side door and meeting me at the front of the vehicle. I take her hand and she tightens her hold on me as we approach the front doors and knock. Footsteps echo and then the double heavy wooden door opens on one side, a tall, skinny man peering at us down his sharp nose. The man the others had mentioned, I guess. Stuart Rodgers.
“What do you want?” He bites out the words, obviously annoyed and glaring at Juliet.
I grit my teeth and step in front of her. The smile I offer him is sharkish and he blinks, stepping back on instinct. “Hello there, we’re just stopping by to pick up some things that belong to my girlfriend,” I say.
The man narrows his eyes on me and then glances at Juliet. “We have nothing of yours here,” he snaps before he turns away.
My foot shoots out fast, stopping his abrupt attempt to close the door in our faces. “I’m afraid that’s not true,” I tell him when Stuart blusters in shock and outrage, seemingly recovered from his first initial bout of fear. “We’d like you to allow us to retrieve some of her clothes and personal items. Unless… you’d like for us to get the police involved?”
The words are a bluff, but I suspect in the reality of this man’s boss being dead, he’s likely been stealing from the property or living here rent-free without any consideration for the actual inheritor of the property while things are still in probate. I’m no lawyer like Abel, but I have been listening to his advice recently and know that delivering the right threat at just the right time is more helpful than any actual action. I wait, smiling patiently as a whole host of emotions crosses the man’s face.
With a hard sniff and a jerk of his chin, the man steps back. “Fine,” he gripes. “You have twenty minutes.”
I snort. “We have however long we fucking need,” I inform him. “If you have a problem, take it up with the Silverwood police.”
His upper lip curls back from his teeth and he turns on his heel, stomping down the open foyer towards the staircase. “This way,” he says over his shoulder.
“I know the way, Stuart,” Juliet finally speaks, her voice cool as we move into the doorway. “We don’t require an escort. Certainly not now that Morpheus isn’t here to pay you to spy on me.”
Stuart stops at the bottom of the staircase and turns back to glare at us as the front door closes. He looks like he’d rather shoot the two of us than let us intrude into a dead man’s house. With one hand on the post at the end of the staircase, he sniffs delicately.
“I always thought you were a little snake,” he states. “I’m not surprised you’re here to ransack the place now that he’s gone. I tried telling him you were nothing more than a leech.” Stuart shakes his head. “He should’ve listened to me.”
“Yeah?” Juliet tilts her head and leaves my side, her hand sliding out of mine as she marches towards him. “At least I wasn’t in love with my boss and imagining him fucking me in the ass even as I helped him to kidnap young women and keep them locked in his house.”
“He gave youeverything,” Stuart spits at her. “Do you know how many girls would’ve killed to have such devotion?” I want nothing more than to grab him by the throat and slam my fist into his face for speaking to her so disrespectfully. Instead, I hang back. My eyes locked on my girl as she goes right up to him, unashamed and unafraid, her gaze dangerous.
“He gave me a cage and you were the guard dog,” she bites out, standing toe to toe with the other man. He’s not tall by anystandards, only standing a mere two or three inches above her. Yet, still, she seems the stronger of the two, the more volatile.
I wait, watching, crossing my arms over my chest and staring the other man down as Juliet digs into him.
“I bet you knew exactly what he did with girls like me,” she continues, her eyes never leaving his face. “I bet you helped him.” She reaches for the man’s collar, gripping it in her fist. Stuart’s eyes widen and he tries to step back, but she holds him fast. “All along, you wished it was you, didn’t you, Stuart? You wished he would turn his attention to you. Did you ever dream of it? Of him pressing you down and fucking you? Did you think all of the girls he took advantage of were whores? I doubt it. Or did you want to believe that because you were jealous? Because instead of having you, he was willing to rape other girls to get what he wanted.” I shake my head. “You’re just as bad as him.”
Stuart rips himself free of her grasp so quickly that it pops the first button of his crisp white button-down shirt. With wide, unblinking eyes, he stares at her. “You’re w-wrong,” he stutters. “Mr. Calloway was a pillar of the community. He would n-never?—”
“Fucking spare me the act, Stuart.” Juliet shoves past him and I move, trailing her as my arms drop to my sides. “You know as well as I do that Morpheus was just like any other man that was addicted to his own power.”
It takes all of my self-control to pass the little weasel without throttling him, but I manage it as Juliet hits the first landing and turns back, scowling down at him.
“Don’t worry, we won’t be long,” she tells him. “I don’t want any reminders of you or him once we get what we came for.”
With that, she heads the rest of the way up. I pause and turn to face the man staring up with his jaw partially open and his expression one of stunned disgust. Whether he knew the truthor not, the fact is, he did help Morpheus cage my girl. He helped hide the truth of her torture and for that, he deserves only pain.
As Juliet’s footsteps fade, I move back towards him. The closer I draw, the sharper my rage. For the first time since that night, I wish that Morpheus were still alive. I wish he were here in front of me instead of this man. I wish I could have killed him myself. Watched the life drain from his eyes and know that I avenged the woman who owns my fucking soul.
Stuart yelps when I reach him and grab him by the front of his shirt. His hands snap to my wrist. “This will be your one and only warning.” I keep my voice low, nearly vibrating with how much I’m holding back my desire to snap his neck. “If you ever talk to her like that again, I’ll break your fucking spine.” I pause and reconsider that. “Actually, no.” My smile this time is barely repressed violence. “Don’t even consider talking to her again. You don’t look at her, you don’t even think about her. If you do, I’ll make you regret your pathetic little pissant life, understood?”
With a flushed face, Stuart jerks his head up and down.
“Good.” I drop him and relish how he crumples to the floor, scooting back from me on his ass and hands, eyes wide.
It’s unfortunate that murder is such a heavy crime because there are just some people in this world that don’t deserve to live. Those that approve of or protect rapists and monsters like Morpheus are some of those people.
I turn and head up the stairs, jogging to catch up with the woman who owns every part of me.
