I suppose he wasn’t that bad to look at if I did ever consider making a move. Steven was dead now, and Everett had made it clear that I was just a debt to be collected. Even if he didn’t make that clear, it wouldn’t have been rational of me to get involved in something like that, so maybe now, for the first time in my life, I could just have some fun. Besides, if I could prove to myself that I could reach the kind of end I had with Everett with someone else, maybe I could really just focus on ‘paying the debt’ rather than getting my next fix.
I glanced down at Lucy who was watching me with her ears perked only to fold them back and huff.
I rolled my eyes and headed for the door. “I don’t need that right now, okay? So judgmental. Where do you even get it from?”
She looked back at me and barked.
I shot a glare at her, but kept my mouth shut. She was too smart for her own good, I swear.
I headed up the stairs and unlocked the door only to pause and look down on the threshold at the matt under my feet.
I stepped off it and crouched down, picking it up and finding that envelope just where Wade had said it would be.
I stood and glanced back down the street. He was almost to his house now. A list of names and numbers just in case I needed something.
You would never find anything like that in the city.
With a sigh, I turned back to my door. The movers would be here in less than an hour, so for now, I’d take my time to explore the place before—
I stopped when I opened the door, finding the place fully furnished.
Fullyfurnished. Couch, chairs, coffee table, carpets, kitchen appliances,everything. Even plants.
I loved plants.
I let the door fall open, my heart thudding anxiously. Max said it didn’t come with anything. Maybe he just got it mixed up with another house. Maybe I was forgetting something. I was always forgetting things.
Even so…
I unclipped Lucy’s leash. “Search.”
She ran through the house, nose to the ground.
I walked into the living room slowly, inhaling deeply. It smelled like a new house. Or what I assumed a new house would smell like. Clean and fresh, unlived in.
I just got it wrong, that was all. Max was so chaotic, I just forgot. I always forget about the most important things, I knew that. This was just one of them, I was sure.
But just as my shoulders finally relaxed an inch, something on the coffee table caught my eye. A letter with a rose sitting just above it. A deep red rose. Beautiful and full.
I walked over to it and snatched it up.
Hello little writer,
Sneaky of you to think you could use emails and talk under your breath to keep me from finding out what you were doing. You can’t escape me or your debt. You’re not smart enough. Nobody is.
I took the liberty of furnishing your new place. Azrael helped, as did Evelyn, and, surprise surprise, so did my father. You’ve already met him. Malachi Kingsmen. He loves your taste in art, he was admiring it the other day when I told him that we would be helping move your things.
See you soon
The rage boiling under my skin felt like a cyclone of molten lava. I crumbled up the paper and snarled, throwing it across the room only to freeze when the words truly registered.
Malachi Kingsmen?
That’s who I had been meeting with? That’s who…
I tore out my phone and called my mom, my breathing labored, my hands shaking in rage.
She answered on the second ring. “How dare you ignore me,” she said in way of greeting. “I am your mother. I could be dying, in the hospital, bitten by a rat. It could have been an emergency and what? You were just so busy writing your books that you…”
