Oh, and I’d also found out I’d been fired from Lushberry.
I couldn’t really blame them. I’d been scheduled to work the busy post-Christmas sales and I hadn’t even called in sick. They’d given me a chance to offer an explanation — I’d been there over a year and had never been anything but responsible — but what could I say?Sorry, I was drugged and kidnapped by asex trafficker and there was no service in the dungeon where he kept me prisonerdidn’t sound like a believable explanation.
I’d never been fired before, but I was surprised to realize I was okay with it. Lushberry had started to feel like part of a different life, part of my before-Hunt life.
I hadn’t known it at the time, but entering the tunnels for the first Hunt had been the beginning of the end of my old life. The Butchers had exploded into it like a trio of wrecking balls, smashing everything to bits, and no one was more surprised than me to discover that once the dust settled, I wasn’t left with wreckage but with a fresh start.
Okay, right now there was some wreckage — we still had to find Ethan Todd, make him pay for what he’d done to June — but the fresh start was there too. I could just make it out under the mess, the way I could envision the final product in a recipe even though there were still dirty dishes in the sink and ingredients scattered all over the counters.
It was messy right now, but I had the faintest of feelings that it might be good later.
Finally,June said.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Just glad to hear you thinking about your future instead of my past.
I’ll never stop thinking about you, June.
There was a beat of silence, one of those silences that always made me wonder if I’d driven her away.
I know that, M. You never have to worry that I don’t know that.
I swallowed the lump that rose in my throat and took a deep breath, returning my thoughts to my newly unemployed status. Not getting a paycheck would suck, but I had a little money saved, and I had almost no expenses other than mycar insurance (the Butchers had added me to their phone plan without missing a beat).
Now I was free to really hunt Ethan Todd.
No more working around my shifts at Lushberry, worrying about my schedule or driving to the mall. It had worked for a while, had been a good, mindless distraction, but it was time to leave distractions behind and put Ethan Todd out of my life — out of everyone’s lives — for good.
What he’d done to me in Romania only made me more determined to make him pay.
It was a weird start to New Year’s Eve, and I finally got out of Poe’s bed and made my way downstairs with Ray at my heels. He hadn’t left me alone for a second since I’d been back — he even waited for me outside the bathroom — and I couldn’t help but feel like he was every bit as worried about me as the Butchers.
The sun had set over Blackwell Falls and the living room was dark, the Christmas tree — virtually the only thing in the room that hadn’t been ruined or damaged by Bram’s rampage when he realized I’d been taken — casting a soft glow over the empty room.
I probably should have seen Bram’s rage as a red flag, but maybe it would have been weirder if someone said they cared about you and didn’t go nuts when you disappeared, if they wouldn’t travel halfway around the world to find you the way all three of the Butchers had for me.
Our feelings for each other hadn’t been verbalized, but I knew I loved them, and they’d gone almost literally to the ends of the earth for me.
What else was there?
Poe and Remy appeared in the hall.
“You’re up,” Poe said at the same time Remy said, “You’re supposed to be in bed.”
It still hurt my face to smile, but I tried. “I’m bored out of my mind.”
“We could bring you some books or something,” Remy said.
“Or we can come watch a movie with you,” Poe said.
They looked like worried parents.
“I’m fine. I promise.”
Bram passed them in the hall and pulled me carefully into his arms. He’d been doing that a lot since I’d been back, touching and kissing me at random moments like he was trying to convince himself I wasn’t a hallucination.
“She said she’s fine.” He looked down at me. “But are you really?”
