Ever Marked (Mystics of Mercy Ridge #1)

1. Ever

Chapter 1

Ever

N o matter how many times I shoot him, this son of a bitch refuses to die.

“Remember, you brought this on yourself.”

Without a hint of remorse, I whip out my flamethrower and torch his stubborn ass, holding the trigger until he’s nothing more than a pile of ash.

“Damn, Nevermore is right,” SilentKnight teases through my earpiece as his avatar runs through a pile of human debris on his way to our next checkpoint.

“And don’t you forget it,” I shoot back, darting past him and tagging the marker a split second before him.

As the game goes through the loading sequence for the next level, he asks, “Didn’t you say you needed to run something by one of the bosses head honchos before diving into work tonight? If we call it for the day, you can still beat rush hour traffic and catch him before he leaves the office.”

“Since when do you encourage me to get off early? You're the one usually bargaining for one more round. Hot date tonight?”

There’s an awkwardly long pause before he deflects, “I know how much this project means to you. Stop procrastinating and go kick some real ass. Show those pompous assholes not to underestimate you, that you’re a real asset they’d be fools to lose.”

I don’t bother muting my headset, snorting my derision right in my best friend’s ear. “Like the boss would ever meet with a lowly peon like me. Hell, I’ve met with the head of the tech department three times, yet he introduces himself every time as if we’ve never met. How someone like that is running things while I’m stuck scrubbing toilets is ridiculous. I swear, when it’s finally time to sign on the dotted line, they’re going to fuck up my name in the contract and delay everything even longer having to fix it.”

He scoffs. “You’d think after all this time, Adam would have set them straight. Are you sure he’s qualified to handle things? Isn’t it a conflict of interest for him to represent you if you’re dating? You should get an outside lawyer not connected to the company to check things over before you sign your baby away.”

“Yeah I know, I’ve been setting aside money for one. That’s the only good part of how much they’re dragging shit out in negotiations; it’s giving me more time to save up. Don't worry, I won't sign anything without triple checking the fine print.”

My headset crackles as he blows out a relieved breath right in his microphone. “Good. I can pitch in for the lawyer, you know. Call it an early birthday gift.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not taking your money, Bell.”

“Fine, then pay me back after you get your first royalty check. But there won’t be a contract if you don’t finish fine tuning the best game console ever created.”

I sigh, saving and quitting. “You’re no fun.”

“Au contraire, I’m a fucking blast,” Bellamy says with the utmost conviction. “But I know how pissed you’ll be at yourself if you blow this. And how,” he trails off, the game's main screen music keeping it from awkward silence. “ Upset Adam will be if the deal falls through.” He pauses for so long I think he left the call before he finally growls, “You’d tell me if something was wrong, right? If that asshole was hurting you?”

I completely freeze, caught off guard. Both from the fact that he thinks Adam might actually hit me, and that he thinks I’d stick around if he did. Sure, things have been a little… uncomfortable at home recently, but nothing I can’t handle. If he raised a hand to me, I’d be out of here so fast, the jerk would get whiplash.

Frowning, I touch the bruise on my eyebrow and double check that my webcam is off. Why else would he bring up something like that out of the blue? I kept it off today specifically because I didn't want to admit I was so distracted reading on my phone, I walked face first into a doorway. He'd never let me live that one down.

“I’d handle it myself before you even realized anything was wrong,” I assure, ignoring the annoying fact that he doesn’t immediately respond.

When he does, it’s to murmur, “But you shouldn’t have to.” Thankfully, he changes the subject. “Same time tomorrow, then?”

“Sounds good. Night, Bellamy.”

“Drive safe. Call me if you’re off early, I’ll be around.”

Plugging my headset in to charge, I crack my neck and stretch out all the muscle kinks, glancing at the clock. 4:00 pm. With our opposite work schedules, Adam and I rarely eat together anymore. If I hurry up, I should have enough time to pick up dinner on the way into the office and surprise him before he clocks out for the day.

Tucking a lock of long teal hair behind my ear, I grab my purse back from the security guard and head for the elevator, takeout in hand. Might not be anything fancy, but growing up the way I did, I know for a fact it’s the little things that mean the most. I’d have killed for someone to care whether or not I went to bed hungry. It’s why I always make sure to pack Adam a lunch and leave it in the fridge before I go to bed, so he knows I’m thinking about him even if I’m distracted with work. Treat others the way you want to be treated even if they don’t deserve it, and all that jazz.

Hasn’t worked out for me yet, but I like to think I’ve banked enough karma by being a decent person in a sea of selfish assholes that it’ll eventually come back to me with interest. After all, with what I make an hour? Karma’s really my only feasible retirement plan.

I check my watch as I step off the elevator onto Adam’s floor. Enough time to surprise him, catch the department head to ask a couple of questions before he leaves, then come back for dinner. Perfect.

His office door is cracked, and I ease it open with a smile. “Glad I caught you before you lef-”

A loud moan drowns out my words, and I freeze in the doorway, praying I walked into the wrong office. But no, that’s definitely Adam’s pale ass in front of me, breathing heavily as he fucks the blonde bombshell bent over his desk with her skirt hiked up around her waist. Right next to the framed photo of the two of us.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and release it with a shuddering exhale. I knew better. This is exactly why I don’t get close to people. As soon as I let them in, they let me down. I have to hand it to Adam, though. When he finally showed his true colors, I didn’t expect them to be ‘pasty ass fuckboy.’

And a twisted, horrible part of myself is actually relieved to find out he’s been cheating on me . Because it gives me an excuse to leave without it being my fault.

By the time I open my eyes, I’ve begun building up the walls around my heart, more pissed off at myself than anything. Honestly, my heart hasn’t been in the relationship for months, but I was trying to stick it out for a change, dreading the thought of starting over yet again. Careful not to make a sound, I set the bag of food outside of his office door and make my way back to the elevator.

Fuck this, and fuck him. I wanted to run a few ideas past the department head about backwards compatibility, but now? I’ll take the entire project to another company.

Adam woefully overestimated his value. There are several other heavy hitters in the industry that would trip over themselves to cash in on this tech. I could walk around downtown and have ten different lawyers trying to convince me to let them handle the contracts for this piece of tech that might even be willing to work in exchange for a bigger cut if I can’t afford their fee yet.

Storming through the lobby, I furiously type out a resignation email to my boss on my phone. I can get another crappy cleaning job anywhere, but like hell am I sticking around where I’m going to have to worry about bumping into my ex’s cheating ass. I’m not an idiot; a contract like this would have set us both up with seriously life changing money. Even if I move out, that bastard will corner me at work and show up on my doorstep either begging for another chance, to keep representing me even if we aren’t together, or he’d come up with some bullshit about his twin brother setting him up to sabotage our relationship.

I make the drive back to our apartment in record time, slamming the door behind me. Every step upstairs, I have to remind myself to not cave into the petty little demon on my shoulder whispering ideas in my ear. But while vengeance would be satisfying in the moment, it’d only give him ammo to screw me over.

“Lawyers really do suck the fun out of everything.”

Bright side of growing up a foster kid? I’m an expert at packing my entire life up at the drop of a hat. The only things that suck to haul out to my SUV are my computer setup and all the tech for my project. Still, within twenty minutes, my trunk is loaded and I’m stuffing the last of my clothes into a backpack. Taking one last scan of the apartment, I make sure I have everything I can’t live without, and a familiar pang has me rubbing the heel of my hand over my chest.

I can be completely erased from someone’s life in less than an hour, like I never existed at all.

“Thanks for the wake up call, you son of a bitch. Good luck figuring out the new WIFI password.” Removing my apartment key from the ring, I set it on the kitchen counter, sling my backpack over my shoulder, and walk out of his life forever.