Things started to go sour, I realized,after the visit with my parents. They had asked the same things Tully had today,and I hadn’t been able to tell them anything more than her first name. She saw that, yet I still never bothered to try to get to know her.
I gave up after a while and switched gears. I fell asleep with the promise on my lips to Tully that I would burn his place to the ground.
Dante and Tully woke me up hours later when they came to untie me. Tully grew impatient with Dante’s work and eventually pulled out a knife, cutting me free.
I sat up and stretched and then smiled at them. They shared a confused look but offered to take me downstairs and see me out.
As we went down, I told them what I had come to realize while bound to that bed about Scout and me. Dante looked at me with skepticism in his eyes.
“I agree with most of that, but she definitely ran because of what you did at the poker table, not because you don’t know if she likes Dali or Van Gogh.”
I flinched. I didn’t want to think about that. That wasn’t me. Her Desi. That was Wrath.
“Do you need anything before you take off?” We had reached the ground level and were standing in front of the door that led to the underground poker tables.
“You guys heading down already?” I ignored the original question.
“Yeah, I mean, we have nothing going on. Why? You want to play a bit before you go?” The look on Tully’s face was confusion and surprise.
I shrugged. “I’ve had some time to calm down. A few rounds of blood, and I’ll be good to go. She sent me a text a few hours ago.” I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out my phone. “She just needed a few hours to calm down. I’m meeting her at a hotel around midnight,” I lied. Both Envy and Lust relaxed and then smiled.
“Hell yeah, good. Let’s play some before you head out then.” Tully patted me on the back, and together, we went downstairs.
I had to force a few glasses of blood down and play two full games of poker before I excused myself.
“I’m gonna go grab my bags and be off.” I went around the table and gave a quick side hug to both Dante and Tully. “It’s been real,” I muttered.
“I left a raincoat for you by the door. Grab it on the way out,” Dante said.
“Good luck. It was nice seeing you,” Tully said.
“Was it?” I asked and quickly fled the room before another argument could start.
I sped to the door that Tully had led Scout and me down two nights ago. While only in there once, I remembered it well. I hurried along the hallway, past the doors, until I found the boiler room.
When I accidentally found this room before, I hadn’t given it much thought. But now, it was perfect for what I needed. I went to the water heater and smiled when I saw it was gas.
Stupid fucks.
I looked around the room. This was too easy. I grabbed the box of spray paint and dropped them right next to the water heater. Then, I went for the T&P valve.
There was some water on the floor under the drip pipe. Looking at the heater, I thought it was old. The room itself probably hadn’t been touched in years. It was full of random tools and boxes of cardboard and other DIY shit. Probably Dante’s doing, by the looks of it.
I started digging through the boxes until I found a wrench. Moving faster, I got the valve off and tossed it on the ground.
There we go.
I fled the room, wrench still in hand. I sped up the stairs, through the gamblers, and slammed the door behind me. I then sped to the kitchen and turned on every burner on the oversized stove, and as one finalfuck youwent to the den, where I had watched Tully puff on a cigar.
The fire was rolling, and I grabbed a throw blanket from a chair and stuck it halfway into the fireplace. Then, went behind the small bar and swung the wrench across all the glass bottles.
There. That should do some damage.
I left through the front, grabbing the raincoat Dante had mentioned as I went.
As soon as I had the coat on, I began to sprint around the house. That boiler did not have long at this point. I had to start looking for her at the spot in which she dropped from her room. It was raining pretty hard, but I still looked for something. A scrap of clothing, something from her bag, her blood. Nothing.
I turned then and stormed into the thick forest, in which I was sure she had gone after her leap. There was nowhere else to go.And then— there was the boom.
