Chapter 30 Remy
REMY
I was still stewing over Aloha’s revelations the next day while I tried to read a book on the sofa, but no matter how many ways I turned the information over in my head, none of it made sense.
If Ethan hadn’t been connected in high school, how had he ended up at Aventine?
According to Aloha, his spider had only found that one picture of Ethan after high school. Then, nothing until he burst onto the scene as Ethan Todd, a right-wing influencer in the early days of the modern manosphere.
And I had to give Maeve credit: she’d been right all along. There was something off about Ethan Todd, something beyond his misogynistic bullshit.
Something he was hiding beyond his alleged crimes.
“Where’s Poe?”
I looked up as Maeve entered the living room and my heart caught in my throat. I never got over how fucking pretty she was, even when she had her long black hair in a ponytail and was wearing nothing fancier than jeans, a sweater, and her combat boots.
My dick stirred and I forced myself to focus on the question, which wasn’t easy because ever since Poe and I had fucked her in the shower I’d been hungry to do it all over again.
“He had to do a work thing,” I said.
Her shoulders slumped. “We were supposed to go grocery shopping.”
It had become a weekly routine for Poe and Maeve to do the grocery shopping on Sundays.
“I can take you,” Bram said.
I just about fell off the sofa. Hell had definitely frozen over and I was pretty sure if I looked out the window I’d see pigs flapping their wings, because Bram never — and I do mean never — offered to help Maeve with anything.
I clocked the surprise on Maeve’s face. I clocked her indecision too. Bram was a dick, but she hadn’t given up on him yet. I wondered if even she realized it.
“No.” Her blue eyes shone like chips of ice. “I’ll go alone.”
“I’ll go with you.” I stood. “I have an errand anyway.”
Bram glared at me, but what could I say? When it came to Maeve, it was every man for himself.
She exhaled. “Okay.”
I put my book down and stood. “Let’s go.”
I smirked at Bram as I followed Maeve down the stairs, because I wasn’t above being a little petty when it came to Bram. I still didn’t know what had happened between them, but whatever it had been, Bram had done it to himself.
He flipped me off behind Maeve’s back, which only made me smile wider.
Pissing off Bram while scoring alone time with Maeve was a double win in my book.
“We need to take the Hummer,” she said when we hit the parking lot. “The Spider won’t fit all the groceries.”
“You’re the boss.” I was feeling pretty chipper at the prospect of having her all to myself for a couple hours.
We started walking toward the car when Maeve stopped. I followed her gaze to a scrawny, mangy-looking dog with a patchy yellow coat lurking at the corner of the building.
“Poor thing,” she said. “He looks hungry.”
She started toward it.
“I don’t think you should…” But there was no stopping her.
“Hi there, boy,” she cooed, holding out her hand. “Or girl.”
The dog was medium-size, with the short hair of a lab mix. Either he’d been in a scrap with another dog or he was sick because some of his fur was missing in patches, but when Maeve walked closer, he opened his mouth in a smile and trotted over to her.
“Aw, look!” she said, stroking his neck. “He’s friendly.” She craned her neck to look at his belly. “And it’s a boy!”
“Um… congratulations?”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I wonder where he came from.”
“I have no idea,” I said. “I’ve never seen him before.”
The dog rubbed up against her legs. “Poor boy.”
“You like dogs?”
“June was the dog lover.” Her voice had turned flat. “She even volunteered at the shelter.”
She straightened. “We have to go now, boy. Stay out of the road.”
He whined when she walked away, but I was glad to see he stayed put so I didn’t have to worry about accidentally hitting him on our way out of the lot.
“So what’s the errand?” she asked when I pulled onto Main.
“Errand?” I was still thinking about the dog, about how happy Maeve had been to pet him. It was the first time I’d really seen her with her guard down, not counting the times Poe and I had fucked her.
“You said you had an errand?”
“Right. I need to stop by my parents’ house. My little brother is going to the winter formal in a couple weeks. I told him I’d loan him one of my ties.”
She looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “Ties?”
I laughed. “Do you think I was born this way?”
And by “this way” I meant wearing ripped jeans and boots that could put a dent in a man’s head, carrying knives and guns, depending on the day and the occasion.
“Well… no, but I also never imagined you in a tie.”
“I went to school dances just like everyone else,” I said. “I could point Owen in the direction of my closet, but I want to be supportive and shit.”
“Owen’s your little brother?”
“Yep.”
“How old is he?” She turned to look at me and a swarm of butterflies took flight in my stomach.
Fuck me.
“Sixteen. Just got his license.”
She laughed. “Oh boy, my little sister’s about to get her license.”
“Now we know how our parents felt when we started to drive.”
“Totally.”
I pulled off Main Street and wove my way through the neighborhoods that ran behind the business district until I pulled next to the curb in front of my parents’ house.
“Which one is yours?” she asked.
I pointed at the blue two-story Cape. “That one.”
She followed my gaze. “It looks so… normal.”
I laughed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just thought— ”
“That I was raised by wolves?”
“Maybe,” she admitted.
“Nope, just your average American family. Like you.”
“Then how…?”
I lifted my eyebrows. “How…?”
“How did you end up… doing what you do with Bram and Poe?” she asked.
I tried to find the words to explain and settled on the truth. “I don’t really believe there has to be a reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think maybe we are who we are. Sometimes things happen that give us an excuse to be that way, but deep down, we’re probably just built the way we’re built.”
“I don’t believe that.” She sounded defensive. “I wouldn’t be out here trying to get rid of Ethan Todd if Chris hadn’t killed June.”
“Maybe not him, but…”
“You think I had a hidden murderous streak that would have manifested sooner or later?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just think when you get right down to it, we’re all animals. We fight to survive, and when our survival’s taken care of, we get bored and look for something else to occupy our primate brains.”
She looked at me long and hard, but she didn’t dispute what I’d said.
I reached for the door. “You coming?”
“You want me to come in?”
“Obviously,” I said. “You can meet my family.”
I was glad I’d managed to sound like it was no big deal, because the truth was, I hadn’t introduced my family to a girl since high school.
And this girl? This girl was special. Something I was afraid to admit even to myself.