“We know Mark worships his public image,” Nathaniel says. “We figured that’s the part you want torn out.”
Do I? I need to think.
It’s true: Mark is nothing without his public image. He eats and sleeps the narrative. But initially, I never thought I’d be able to recreate it in the afterlife. I always imagined it would just be me, him, and the intensity of the feelings I felt when he betrayed me, just thrown at him over and over again. I’d force him to experience what I experienced, until he’d realize how awful it was.
But I don’t want my men to get in trouble.
“Just for your information…” Nathaniel slides another sheet across the table and taps a headline. “Illinois, three years ago. Guy swings a detector, says he finds a burial mound in someone’s backyard. Turned out to be a collapsed storm pipe. Didn’t matter — neighborhood shut down for months. Lawsuits. Special reports. People still talk about it.”
I stare at the paper until the words blur.
It’s so absurd.
But it exists.
Nathaniel lays out a grainy clipping: Possible Native Burial Ground Halts Housing Development. I don’t need to read it to understand.
“It really seems to work, huh?” I mutter.
“Like clockwork,” Talon says.
A moment of silence stretches. All I can hear is my heart beating and the crows outside. Time thins, and before I know it my guys’ smiles slip into frowns; they look at me with worry in their eyes.
“Do you dislike it?” Nathaniel asks.
“We thought it might make you happy,” Cassian says. “Did we overestimate it?”
“Guys, I knew we should have gone for the Jessica operation instead.” Talon grimaces. “That way it would feel more poetic. From one wife to the other.”
I arch a brow. “Jessica operation?”
Talon blows out a breath. “We’d kidnap her, demand ransom, force him to admit his crimes on a live stream, and—eventually—kill him. Simple. Very public. Very satisfying.”
Yeah, right. As if that wouldn’t leave a digital footprint the size of a country.
I don’t want the three of them at risk.
I want revenge, but not at their cost.
“No, that’s…” I fold my knees to my chest and hug them. “That’s not better. I just…” My tongue feels thick. “I don’t want you guys to get in trouble because of me.”
It sounds ridiculous, I know. They’ve killed before and never been caught. But back at the Candy Maker case I felt them pushing the edges. They were reckless in ways that made my skin crawl. Now, with me tangled up in this, I’m afraid they'll do something stupid just to please me.
Talon said he’d burn the world for me.
But if he burns the world there will be nothing left for us. No plants, no water, no food, no future. We’d die right along with it.
“Well, that’s sweet,” Cassian says. “But as long as you get your revenge, doing this is worth whatever it may bring.”
“I agree,” Nathaniel echoes.
“Not me,” I say softly, and mean it. “I want you safe.”
“And if we are?” Talon asks. “Is this something you’d like?”
I look at them, really look, and answer from the hollow and the hunger inside me.
“Yes,” I say.
