The Devious Heart, Part Two (Toxic Hearts #4)

Chapter 1

Darkness swallowed my whimper, leaving an imprint like tattoos in my throat. My senses blunted, and I fought through the sharp, knifelike sensation by breathing to calm my panic. Easier said than done.

I was here because of my lies. But I never truly thought the men I loved would turn on me this way.

Especially Beck. The lingering burn of his dark gaze hurt, even in the dark.

He knew how deeply this would cut me, and he punished me in the quickest way he could.

Maybe I deserved it. Maybe this was karma for all the years of deceit.

There was a humorless god determined to humble me.

My lip tickled as blood rolled over it, but I didn’t wipe it away. The cuts on my tongue throbbed as I anchored my fingers in the dirt. At least there wasn’t a body next to me this time.

“Back where it all started,” I muttered to myself.

I’d talked to myself back then, too. That was after I’d screamed myself hoarse calling for help, begged my mom not to leave me, and almost wrenched my nails off scrambling up the sides. I knew about conserving energy this time.

I rolled over onto my stomach and willed my jelly limbs to straighten and support me. It was like asking a shattered mirror to show a complete picture. There was no logic or patience in my panic. Dirt crumbled under my fingertips, and musty earth choked my nostrils.

The rumble of Ray’s car echoed right through the ground. I coughed as my lungs contracted with panic again.

I would not die here.

With each hard-fought breath, I came back to my body a little more. Until my digits tingled with pins and needles, and each lungful was steadier. Still full of knives, but large enough to cut through. I rolled to my feet and leaned my shoulder against the dirt wall.

Earth, rich and textured, coated my nostrils, not iron. I wasn’t among the dead yet. I reached my hands up the wall like spiders, hoping it wasn’t as deep as I thought. But the vertical drop was well beyond my reach. Who had graves hanging around like this?

Maybe that was why my shoulder hurt so damn much, and my right arm was numb and loose.

As I came back to myself, new hurts slammed into me.

I’d dislocated my shoulder on the way down.

It didn’t matter. I was going to get out of here if I had to carve footholds into the cold fucking soil and claw my way out.

The ground shuddered, and I crouched down, refusing to let my breath become short now that it returned.

How long had it been? An hour? Did they think that was how long it would take to break me?

Every sense except my eyesight felt heightened, and the air thickened for a brief, dizzying moment before the dark embrace of night filtered in. Stars. They were right above me. I never realized how nuanced the color of the night sky was. Not just black. But a rainbow of shadows.

“Did I get here too late? Have you lost your marbles down there?”

It wasn’t the gruff whisper of Jonah, the acerbic quip of Beck, or the flirty snap of Ray. It was a voice I knew from my nightmares, a whisper and promise of danger.

“Ellington?” I stood and winced as my shoulder throbbed.

His name came out slurred. What was I thinking, cutting my tongue? Did I think a grand gesture could save me from the brutality of men?

Ellington leaned over the earthen lip and scrunched his nose. Maybe it was the absurdity of seeing him there, or his blatant disdain, but the panic that ran free moments ago subsided enough for me to breathe.

Deeply breathe. Oxygen filled me like sweet nectar.

“I assume you’d like to get out of there,” Ellington said.

“Did you come to gloat?” I was too tired to argue.

Ellington got down on his knees and held out his hand. “A little birdie told me things might have gone south with your boyfriends.”

Connall.

I wonder if it was an educated guess or whether he had cameras. I flexed my toes on the dirt wall and leveraged myself to leap for his fingertips. It took over three tries before Ellington grabbed my sweaty hand and dragged me out of the grave.

I lay in the dirt and breathed through the wave of pain from my shoulder. Definitely dislocated.

“I just got you out of the dirt, and now you’re returning to it?” Ellington whistled.

“One second,” I grunted, slowly inching my arm until my elbow pointed at the sky and I could scratch the back of my neck. I reached my hand over to the opposite shoulder, letting out a roar as it popped back into place.

“Fuck me,” I groaned.

“Not my type.” Ellington grimaced. “Now, if you’ve sorted your shoulder, I would recommend we get out of here.”

“Why would I go with you?” I coughed in the thick, pine-scented breeze.

It was so much better than dirt and the iron that coated my throat.

“What the fuck happened to your tongue?” Ellington took a step closer, but I jerked away.

I didn’t want to explain that minor lapse of judgment.

“If you want to stay here and face the wrath of three men, be my guest. I’m sure they’re tattling to Adelaide as we speak.

You think she’s going to give you a hand up, and a hug?

Face it, Lyra. You’ve run out of options.

At least I can offer a shower if you decide to go back and let them slaughter you. ”

“I’m only coming with you because—” I started, but Ellington cut me off.

“Because you’re backed into a corner. I know, I know.”

I dipped my head. He had a point, and was I any worse off if I went with him? It was a strange turn of events that Ellington had become my safe option and the people who held my heart wanted me dead.

I staggered to his white sedan and groaned as the leather seats enveloped me. My eyelids dragged down as if rimmed with concrete. Greenich Bay was blurry as Ellington cut the car against the coast.

“Taking the scenic route?” I winced at my slurred voice.

Slicing your own tongue would do that. I was an idiot.

A dramatic moment that would cut through the red-tinged betrayal was never going to work.

The back of my head throbbed, and a wave of nausea washed over me.

Right now, I couldn’t focus on physical pain, so I latched onto the frustration roiling in my stomach.

What was the next step?

“It’s our first official date.” Ellington tossed me a wink. “Maybe next time you won’t be half dead and covered in blood.”

I ran my hands down my arms, smothering a wince. The last thing I wanted to do was let him know how hurt I was.

“I look best in red.” I fluttered my lashes, as if I wasn’t bloody and battered, sitting opposite one of the most dangerous men I’d ever known.

Ellington Vizer.

Who knew if it was his real name. There had been a time when he had wanted to be part of The Unseen. But where I worked for balance, Ellington worked for his own selfish reasons.

He was a traitor.

Or was he?

A tired, delirious part of me whispered. The same one that made me save Angelo Amato’s entire database. I quickly squashed the traitorous idea.

He’d been two steps ahead of me this entire time.

Panic was a tight knot in my throat. The triumphant, maniacal grin on Ellington’s face exacerbated it.

His incisors were sharp enough to be fangs.

I’d spent so long obsessing over what he looked like that the reality was overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.

Last time, the half-ruined prosthetic and drug haze made him look like a macabre villain.

I took him in through the dim street lights as we whizzed past. His mop of shaggy dark hair was greasy, and his lean body belied the strength I’d felt when he pulled me out of the grave.

How could a man with a shiny T-zone be the threat The Unseen poured so many resources into finding?

He had a mole on the pale column of his neck, another imperfection.

In my mind, Ellington Vizer had become someone who made a deal with the devil. He served himself, which was the opposite of what we were supposed to do at The Unseen.

There would always be villains. It was inevitable, and to think otherwise was naive. I knew that well, having lost my innocence as my mom cooled next to me in the dark. But we could rein in the evil. Contain it like a wild lion in a zoo.

There was a catlike energy to Ellington, a smile that could easily turn into a purr. Maybe it would, once he gobbled me up. I was the prey in this scenario. I leaned against the car seat, unconcerned about staining it with blood and dirt.

Those were the only honest things about me.

“You’re quiet.” He danced his fingers along the steering wheel, giving me a coy pout.

His teeth flashed, and a shiver went down my spine.

All the better to eat you with, my dear.

He played at innocence, like a wolf in disguise. Like he hadn’t been the catalyst for the destruction of my life. I would have rolled my eyes, but they fluttered closed instead. My body ached, and Ellington wanted to play with me a little more until my little mouse body stopped twitching.

I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

Fingers grazed against the filthy chain around my neck. “Is your pretty little head racing right now, Lara? Or Lyra?”

I jerked away, biting my tongue as pain stiffened my muscles. The tracker necklace Ray gave me weighed heavily on my chest. What promise did it represent now? I couldn’t process what they’d done to me. And the sinking, horrible voice that said I deserved it.

Ellington cocked his head. “It’s always awkward, isn’t it? Deciding which identity to use? It’s not my fault your boyfriends turned on you.”

I curled my split upper lip, hoping it looked better than it felt. Ellington let out a whistle of approval. The sound rankled, but I latched onto my heart, full to the brim with three men.

Ray.

Jonah.

Beck.