the corner of my bed, his profile cast in stark relief by the candle.
I don’t need much more than a desk and a bed, so that’s all there is this room. I’m fortunate enough to have an en-suite bathroom, but it’s nothing more than a toilet and a shower.
“She was with him tonight.”
There’s no question who he’s talking about.
Cass calls him Old Scratch, or Lucifer when he’s feeling snarky. Reuben never addresses him by name, except if he’s speaking to someone outside of our group. Then he uses the provost’s full honorifics.
Apollo’s terms of endearment are multitudinous. I think he commits several hours a week to thinking up new ones, in fact.
We’re all obsessed with the past. We all suffer the same sick compulsion—to exact our revenge. We all pretend we have some form of control over ourselves.
Over each other.
“He fucked her?”
Rube snorts. “Dinner. And then confession.”
“Confession?”
“He knows her parents. She said he’s all she’s got left.”
My bed creaks as Reuben rocks forward, then back. Forward, then back.
“He kept touching her.”
Shit.
That’s why he came busting in here when he knows better than to expose our relationship like this. What he saw must have seriously unhinged him.
“Tell me.”
Rube puts his head in his hands. “Holding her like she was his motherfucking child,” he whispers.
I slide my hands under the blankets. At night, when the temperature drops, the pain in my ankles worsens. I draw my legs into a cross-legged seat and rub at the tendons, willing away their wretched ache.
“And she let him, Zac.” Rube’s whisper gains strength. “She let him put his sick, filthy hands on her like it meant nothing.”
Christ, now my wrists are starting to ache too.
I need to cut this short. Rube’s intensity gets to me sometimes. Makes it hard to stay focused. And I need to stay focused. My brothers depend on my stability. If it weren’t for me, they’d still be scattered to the winds.
I brought us back together.
I forged their white-hot hatred into malleable steel.
I’ll be the one to lead the charge on that fateful day. The one Cassius accused me of wanting to postpone.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
But I know what life is like. It’s when you think you have everything under control that it all implodes.
For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
“We have to get rid of her,” Rube mutters sullenly. “Let’s do it tonight. Me and you. I know what room she’s in—I checked.”
Fuck. I surge forward, going onto my knees on the bed, and grab hold of Rube’s shoulder. “Listen to me.”
His muscles turn to stone under my hand.
“Reuben, listen to me.”
Eventually, he turns to face me. Slowly, reluctantly, but he turns.
“We can’t kill her.”
“Yes we can,” he states in a dead monotone. “It’ll be easy.”
“It’ll draw attention to us.”
“But she’ll be gone.”
“Rube. You’re not listening.”
“Better she’s gone than she’s with him.”
Jesus, I’m losing him.
I get up and go to stand in front of him. He tilts back his head. I’m casting deep shadows over his face. “We don’t know all the facts, Reuben. Remember the facts. They’re important. More important than feelings.” I press my hand to his chest. His flesh beneath his shirt is surprisingly warm, despite his cold heart.
“She doesn’t know what he’s going to do,” Rube says. “Better she’s gone, before she finds out.”
I let out a sigh, and sink down in front of him. “We’ll get rid of her, but without exposing ourselves. Without risking everything. Isn’t that better?”
Rube’s humph sounds doubtful. I need to call in reinforcements. We can’t risk Reuben going rogue.
“Let’s meet with the guys. We’ll figure this out together.”
When he doesn’t respond, I grab his wrists and start massaging them. A second later, he catches hold of me and does the same. I grimace in pain before I can control my features. His hands are strong, and he knows exactly where it hurts.
“What’s to figure out?” Rube says. “If we can’t kill her, then we’ll make her life unbearable. She won’t have a choice. She’ll have to leave.”
His black eyes catch the light as he finally makes eyes contact with me again. If anyone saw him right now, they’d be convinced he was possessed by the Devil.
They’d piss themselves if they knew how right they were.
“No one comes to Saint Amos out of choice, Rube.”
He studies me for a moment before his lips turn up into a cold smile.