“And what’s more important than a unified front?”
“Getting Merri back,” Malice deadpanned.
“What do you think the unified front is for, Sherlock?” Sin shot back. “He can’t even make it to book club on time.”
The children were fighting. It was time for me to make an appearance.
Pushing through the partially open door, I held my head high and put my mask of confidence firmly in place.
“Ah, look, it’s the king of the assholes, finally gracing us with his presence.” Sin’s face was always punchable, but right now, he’d never been more so.
“Why did you call this meeting, Mal?” I asked, ignoring Sin simply because we didn’t have time to fuck around, and as satisfying as breaking his nose would be, that would delay us longer.
“Merri came to me,” Malice said.
“Wow, man, way to bury the lede.”
All three of us glared at Sin.
“What did she say?” Chaos asked.
“Why you?” I said on his heels.
“Firstly, fuck you,” Malice said, eyes narrowed as they met mine. “Secondly, it’s not good news.”
“Oh, so you’re delusional now too?” Sin asked. “Merri is always good news.”
“She told me where she is.”
“See? Good news.”
Malice shot Sin a withering glare. “If you’d let me finish...”
Sin mimed locking his lips.
“She’s with him.”
Sin mimed plucking a key out of the air and quickly unlocking his lips. He gasped dramatically. “Him who?”
“Well, that was too good to last,” Chaos muttered.
Rage burned through me as I growled, “Lucifer.”
“Okay, but you found her. We can go get her.” Sin’s words were filled with a hope I couldn’t feel.
“Yes. She’s tried to escape but has been unable due to Lucifer’s magic. She hasn’t been feeding?—”
“Whose fault is that?” I snapped.
The others all looked at me with varying degrees of incredulity.
“It’s yours, dumbass,” Sin sniped.
“She would have been taken care of if she hadn’t run off.”
“She wouldn’t have run off if you weren’t such a festering turd.”
Malice cleared his throat. “We’re getting off topic. I took care of her last night.”
