jaw clenched and anger sizzled beneath my flesh. “Fine by me.”
I turned my back on him, striding inside with a furious scowl on my face.
"Hey, princess, what's up?" Monroe had arrived while we were gone, sitting on the couch in football shorts and a t-shirt ready for teaching P.E. today. My heart lifted at the sight of him and some of the rage I felt over Saint's words ebbed away.
"The rules are back on, so I'm bunking with you tonight," I told him airily and he beamed, making the rest of my anger fall away.
"Really?" he asked hopefully.
"Really," Saint said from behind me and I jumped. He moved as silently as a ghost sometimes. He took his seat at the dining table, looking at me expectantly and my anger returned just as Monroe schooled his expression, apparently not having noticed him slipping in either.
I started making breakfast and felt Monroe's eyes following me.
My own gaze was drawn to him again and again and electricity coursed up my spine as he followed my movements. I was glad we were returning to Saint's routine, the rules allowing me time with him at last. And today of all days when I felt like the dark sea of grief in me was churning and roiling, begging to drag me down into it, I needed my rock more than ever.
***
Saint, Blake and Kyan all walked me to Monroe's house in the evening, the three of them surrounding me like bodyguards. I'd thrown myself into my school work all day to try and distract myself from the bittersweet memories of my previous birthdays and the sharp reminders that I would never spend another one with Dad or Jess again.
I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, just wanting this day to pass by without dwelling on it. What made this day worse than ever was that I'd been called by the police to ask whether I wanted Dad’s body cremated or buried and they had offered me the choice of a virtual fucking funeral. With the Hades Virus peaking in the country, I wasn't allowed to travel anywhere to hold an official service for him. So I had to make that choice over a phone call. And now his cremated remains were going to be mailed to me in some neatly packaged box and apparently it could take several weeks for it to arrive because the virus was making processing slow. It made me want to scream. And not just because I couldn’t have a funeral for my own father, but because this was exactly what Mortez had wanted. For Dad’s death to be packaged up with a tidy little bow and the whole world to believe he was guilty.
The fact that Dad had taken the fall for releasing the Hades Virus meant whoever was truly responsible for unleashing the virus was walking free somewhere. It had to have something do with Royaume D’élite. Those psychos were clearly linked to Mortez and it was obvious they had the power and the resources to pull it off. It didn’t matter who they were though, I would come for them, find their weaknesses, expose them for what they were to the whole world. I couldn't picture my enemy in my mind's eye, they were just a faceless monster lurking in the shadows, but one day I would have a face and a name to pass to the authorities. And maybe if I was lucky, that face and name would belong to a dead body by then. My plan relied on Saint hunting down whatever he could about them and finding leads for us to follow. So far, he was finding it difficult. But I had faith in him in this single thing. If there was a man on earth obsessive enough over details to find a thread to pull on when it came to these illusive people, it was Saint.
"Mr Monroe!" Blake crowed, chuckling loudly as he hammered his fist on the back door.
Monroe yanked the door open looking furious. "Shut your mouth," he hissed. "Do you want the whole faculty to hear you?"
"Chill out, man," Blake said. "No one can hear us out here."
"Sound carries in these woods," Monroe growled. "I know it's not your reputation you're risking, but-"
"Monroe's right," Saint cut in, smacking Blake around the back of his head. "Don't be a fucking idiot."
Blake looked like he was about to punch him back then his eyes fell to the cast on his friend’s arm and he just