“Enough!” Luke roars. His fist hits the stone countertop with such force that the glasses clink. Liv flinches, clearly uncomfortable. Instinctively, I move closer to Garett who takes the opportunity to wrap his arms around me, pulling my back to his front. “What the fuck do you want?”
There’s a long pause. It’s unsettling to sit in the discomforting silence, just waiting for the ball to drop. It feels as though my entire body is thrumming with electric unease.
“You thought I wouldn’t notice that she was gone?” Will’s voice is suddenly colder, more serious. “You took my toy.”
My gaze flits to Liv who’s gone ghostly pale. She seems to shake in fear just from his voice. My heart breaks watching her reaction. It’s a visceral type of response that I recognize all too well. No woman deserves that type of instinctual insecurity—we’re too strong, too powerful, too smart for that type of conditioned fear.
“What do you want, Will?” Luke repeats.
“I’m not pleased with recent events,brother.” The way he says the last word makes my skin crawl. I snuggle deeper intoGarett’s comforting embrace. “First, my toy is stolen, my other plaything is disposed of…” We all stare at one another with the reference to Erika, wondering just exactly what Will knows. “Now, a different woman is pronounced dead and my…associateis arrested for said murder.” Will sounds downright villainous as he speaks. This is the monster I’ve been warned about; the one who strikes fear in those that have truly seen what he becomes in the darkness. “What kind of game are you playing? Why try to steal from me when you know that I’ll punish you for taking what belongs to me?”
“She was never yours to—” Luke’s retort is cut short when a curvy figure strolls into the room and grabs the phone off the stone countertop.
“Listen up, asshole,” Celeste snaps into the phone. “She’s not your toy. She’s not a pawn in whatever fucked up game you think you’re playing. She’s a beautiful, strong, kick-ass woman. She believed in me and fought for me when no one else would.” She leans over the counter, her T-shirt riding up and exposing a sliver of pale skin above her jeans. Her dark hair falls in loose waves down her face, but it’s her eyes that are so striking—the hazel irises are filled with fiery gold flecks that seem to glow with intensity. “You want her back? Come and get her.”
Will’s cold laughter comes through the receiver, but Celeste doesn’t falter. She continues as if completely unaware of his response. “But you’ll have to go through me to get to her, and I’m not giving up my girl without a motherfucking fight.”
I follow Celeste’s gaze toward Liv. She’s standing taller, more confidently, with her shoulders thrown back. She smiles at her girlfriend as Luke comes to stand beside her, linking her fingers with his own.
“You know where to find us,” Luke states into the phone, getting the final word, before hitting the end call button.
We all sit in silence for a moment, contemplating what justhappened and what’s to come. Eventually, I turn my head to the side to stare up at Garett. He smiles down at me but I have a feeling that this is the beginning of the end, a goodbye lingers between us.
“Will he come?” I ask eventually.
“He will.” Garett nods.
“So, what do we do?” I question as fear unfurls in my core.
“We get ready,” Celeste says from across the room. My head snaps toward her. She stands up, determination on her face. “And I know where we start.”
THIRTY-THREE
Allison
My breaths are stale and stifled beneath the plastic. It’s hot and mildly claustrophobic, but it’s what we all decided—what we agreed upon. A united front facing the final hurdle to our freedom. My nerves make me shift anxiously on my feet. I want this to be over and done with. I’m ready for my new life.
The opportunity of the complete unknown should be strangling me with anxiety. I’m the type of person that always has everything planned out and organized. I have four fuckingplanners for Christ’s sake. This empty void of possibilities for my future should make me ache with anxiety, and yet…I feel excited.
Allison Clarke died. She was beaten, her throat slit, and then she was dumped on the side of the road.
I am no longer Allison Clarke.
So, the question is—who am I?
I’ve always known exactly who I thought I wanted to become, but I never stopped to ask who I was underneath. I just kept playing the part and hoped no one would notice the chips in the facade of my perfect life. Untilhim.
I turn to the man standing next to me—my Devil. If he’s the Devil, then what does that make me? The Persephone to this particular version of Hell?
We all chose to wear masks tonight. Garett slipped on the glowing red demon mask, and immediately, my demon stood in front of me again. But he’s no longer the monster that I fear. Luke wears a matching one but his glows gold. Celeste immediately chose a white glowing LED mask with X’s for eyes and a sewn on mouth. Garett said her choice of white was so fitting and she scoffed at him before sending him a murderous glare. Liv picked a mask to match Celeste’s but hers is hot pink. With her cut-off shorts, combat boots, and hot pink pigtails, she looks like some type of anti-hero come to life.
And then there’s me. Everyone else so easily picked a persona, but I stumbled, unable to even figure out something simple like a color which best represents me. Who am I now that Allison Clarke is dead?
Eventually, I picked a glowing purple mask from the weird as fuck mask collection Luke keeps in his office. Seriously, who the fuck keeps a collection of masks and weapons in their office? Maybe he’s not as normal as he seems.
The overly wide smile and rounded eyes of the mask I chose look almost child-like yet sinister. Something about it spoke tome in a way I can’t quite grasp. Plus, it’s purple, and purple looks really cute on me.
“You ready, my Beauty?” Garett asks from beside me, slipping his hand in mine and giving it a squeeze.
