Livvie frowns at me. “Why’s she all limp and zombified?”
“Mackenzie got her with a tranquilizer,” Eli says. “She can’t speak.”
“I prefer her like this.” Livvie pats my head affectionately. “And you’re welcome, Claws. Always a pleasure to save your ass.”
“Itisa damn fine ass,” Gabriel quips.
“I have only one request – when you’re feeling better, the first thing you need to do is pull out that damn succulent garden.” Livvie winces as she pulls an evil-looking spine from her palm. “When you didn’t show up at the docks, I figured you were in trouble. So I pulled everyone back, not a moment too soon, by the way, just as Nero’s men showed up. They got the two cylinders you sent, but none of us were there. Then they got a call and packed off to come here, obviously.”
Eli gazes at her with awe. “But Nero has the house surrounded. How did you fight your way through—”
Another figure steps out of the garden. Cali. Blood plasters her long hair to her back, and an array of knives on her belt jingle as she strides over to us. Her bloody hands grip a small crate. “Sorry I was late to the docks.” She drops the crate at my feet. “I wanted to get you a present.”
She kicks the lid off the crate. I peer down at a human head, its mouth open in a silent scream.
Gabriel’s father, the Duke of Blackwich.
“Bloody hell.” Gabe staggers back. Noah has to grab him before he joins Nero in the swimming pool.
“This fool showed up demanding to see me, wanting to make a deal on Grey Death that would cut you and Nero out.” Cali makes a face at the decapitated duke. “I would’ve killed the girl too, but she’s pregnant. I figure we could hold her until she pops, and then we can have our fun with her.”
I open my mouth again, trying to push the words in my brain past my unyielding lips, but Cali glares at me. “Save your strength,” she says, nodding toward the house, where I’m sure Mackenzie is waiting. “Et in morte fidelitas.We’re not done with the slaughter yet.”
49
Claudia
Gabriel carries me back into the house. We move as a group, clearing each room as we go. A trail of dead bodies paint Cali’s path to us, their throats slit, bleeding Rorschach patterns across my marble floors.
We move through the dining room, past the kitchen and the billiards room. Noah turns toward the front of the house – probably to secure the wide-open gates – but I mumble something and he stops in his tracks.
“Offfff…” Damn, why can’t my stupid mouth work?
“Claws, what are you saying?” Noah’s fingers dig into my shoulders, his dark eyes boring into mine as if he can read my thoughts through my retinas.
Eli frowns. “I think she means Howard Malloy’s office.”
His eyes meet Noah’s in one of their silent conversations. They know the treasure is there. And the treasure is what Mackenzie wanted all along.
Noah steps over a decapitated body and heads down the hall, placing his feet carefully on the carpet so as not to make any sound. Eli and Livvie follow him. Gabriel hangs back, and I don’t have any choice but to do what he does. George holds on to Gabriel’s sleeve, rubbing her neck, which is covered in bruises from Nero’s gross hands.
“Come with me,” Cali waves her gun at us. “We’ll head around the other side.”
We sneak back along the hall and pass through the ballroom again. Malloy Manor is silent – the kind of silence I always tried to fill with Gabriel’s music, with my dreams, with my pain. The kind of silence that’s been absent for so many months thanks to my family. It feels as though the house itself is trying to restore equilibrium.
Fuck you, house. You belong to me. It’s time to rid you of your ghosts, once and for all.
We step out of the French doors and move around the back of the house. Howard’s office also contains French doors that open out onto a smaller patio area. The blinds on them are drawn, but I usually keep one of the windows cracked open to let in fresh air. As we near the doors, I hear low voices inside.
Cali gives us a signal to spread out and hide. Gabriel bends down behind a planter, while Livvie takes cover behind a hideous Cupid statue. Cali drops down beside us. The sunlight glitters off her array of knives. I admire a beautiful curved blade as I strain my ears to listen to what’s going on inside.
I hear Noah’s voice, and then Mackenzie’s. She’s exactly where I thought she’d be, in Howard’s office. I can’t hear what they’re saying.
The door thumps open and my sister backs outside. A backpack slung over her shoulder clanks with cylinders. Noah and Eli crowd through the door after her, their weapons raised. For some reason, they don’t fire.
What are you waiting for? Kill her.
As one, we stand up and surround her, but she doesn’t seem to care. Mackenzie calmly swirls around to face me, holding out her fisted hand.
