Chapter 31 Evie
EVIE
“My mind feels like mush,” Tempest grumbles, slamming her laptop shut.
We’re sitting on the couch in the front sitting room beneath the wide window.
Sheer curtains block most of the night from view, but the air feels heavy somehow.
“If I do one more practice test, I think all the information is going to melt right out of my brain.”
“Want to talk things through with me?” I ask, closing my own screen. “I know going over the processes sometimes helps you more than quizzes, and I’ve been staring at the same paragraph of my essay for the past fifteen minutes.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind? I’m going over sugar structures.”
“I love sugar.” I grin, taking her offered computer and flipping the screen open. I blink, finding a series of H’s and OH’s stacked around vertical lines and connected across it with perpendicular lines. “Uhhhh…”
“Read the name at the bottom, and I’ll describe the structure.”
“D-Ribose,” I murmur, squinting at the small label.
“Thumbs up,” Tempest says, raising her hand. “Double-bonded oxygen on top, all OH’s on the right.”
“D-Mannose,” I call next, not understanding what she’s saying.
“Pew-pew,” she says, mimicking a gun with her pointer and middle finger. “First two have the OH’s on the left, and the last two on the right.”
“Yes,” I answer, starting to catch on. “D-Glucose.”
She holds up her middle finger with a grin just as the back door flies open. Noctis rushes in, shoving his helmet off as the others file in behind him. My brows furrow as I scan the group for the emerald serpent, but come up empty.
“Silas, Mavros, and Erik have been arrested,” Noctis says, his voice lethally quiet.
I blink, my gaze sweeping the room as my mind tries to process his words. Teal sloth for Noctis. Orange hellhound for Bane. Gold dragon for Adrian. Navy blue devil goat for Dominic. My pulse picks up as I look again, hoping I missed something.
“How?” Tempest whispers.
“Her,” Noctic snarls.
My brow furrows at his pointed finger, not comprehending why it’s aimed at me. I glance at Tempest, hoping for clarity, only to find confusion mirrored in her eyes.
“What are you talking about, Noctis?” Tempest snaps, slapping his hand away and pinning the others with a glare as she pushes to her feet. I rise too, having her back as a gnawing sense of dread coils in the pit of my stomach.
“I’ve gone through everything in the last hour,” Noctis mutters, shaking his head as he begins to pace. “The cleaners were there within minutes, and nobody else knew the location.”
“I don’t understand,” I say.
“Mark,” Adrian answers, pulling out his gold coin and giving it a flip.
It whirls, spinning end over head until he snatches it from the air and slaps it against the back of his palm.
He cocks his head, studying the result before lifting golden eyes to mine.
“You’re the only person outside of us who knew about Mark’s death—specifically, the location of his justified end. ”
My throat goes dry as understanding finally dawns. “You think I gave Silas up to the police?”
“Are you saying you didn’t?” Bane asks, and for the first time I see the ruthless glint of his Italian lineage.
“Of course she fucking didn’t,” Tempest snaps. “She’s half in love with the idiot.”
Blood rushes to my cheeks as my heart flutters. God above, am I in love with Silas? No. He’s dangerous. Devious. Completely unhinged. I couldn’t possibly—
“Really?” Dominic asks with a smirk, his deep voice smooth and full of intrigue.
“There’s no one else, Tempest,” Noctis insists. “The cleaners are loyal to a fault, and even if they weren’t, I’ve got too much shit on them to risk defection. Next thing I know, Silas is calling me saying there are two cops taking them in.”
“You weren’t with him?” Tempest bites.
“I needed to get back.” Noctis lifts his chin. “Erik and Mavros stayed.”
“A lot of fucking good that did,” Adrian adds, pocketing his coin. “We heard Erik running his mouth and Mavros cackling while getting the shit kicked out of him.”
“Crazy bastard,” Bane mutters with a shake of his head.
“Cops are crawling all over the canyon,” Noctis says, fixing me with a dark stare. “And bail is set at three times the norm. If you didn’t rat us out, then you told someone what happened.”
Something about the ringing silence and loathing in Noctis’s eyes finally shatters the last remnants of disbelief. I stiffen, clenching my fists as I straighten and meet each of their gazes.
“I didn’t breathe a word of what happened. To anyone,” I add before Noctis can accuse me again. He grits his teeth, but Tempest loops her arm through mine, daring him to challenge me.
“I believe her,” Adrian says, drawing Noctis’s attention.
“She does seem to be telling the truth,” Bane muses, his gaze sharp as it seems to pry into every corner of my mind. “Dominic?”
“The two of them have insane chemistry,” Dominic says, titling his head as he purses his lips. “And I don’t think they’ve fucked yet, so I believe her.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Tempest mutters. “Now that you lot have pulled your heads out of your asses, can we focus on the problem at hand? How the hell are we going to save Erik, Mavros, and my brother?”
My heart thunders in my ears as I watch each of them dip their head. My palms start to sweat as the silence stretches, making it clear there are no easy answers here. No quick fixes that can put everything back together.
“Even if I post bail,” Noctis says finally, his shoulders slumping, “they don’t have alibis.
The arresting officers who took them in broke half a dozen laws, and I know for a fact the scene’s been wiped clean, but they’re still being held.
The judge already signed off on a transfer downtown tomorrow morning. ”
His eyes find mine again, still looking like a shark stuck on a blood trail. I don’t flinch, letting him see the storm of anguish swirling inside of me. Tempest squeezes my hand, loaning me her strength as I roll back my shoulders.
“I have a plan.”