Chapter 15
Layla watched Elise pace back and forth across Jamie’s living room. She still wore her torn and bloody dress from the club and made no attempt to remove it despite the overwhelming scent of death clinging to its design.
“So, you’re saying there’s a new type of reaper hunting in Harlem? But no one knows exactly what it is—not even other reapers?” Jamie asked. He raised a finger. “Have we considered asking around?”
Elise grumbled under her breath, and Layla dragged her gaze away from the Saint heiress to look at the gangster. “Do you have people in mind you’d like to ask?” she inquired.
Sterling rolled his eyes. “The Saints won’t help anymore. According to your father, it’s not quite a pressing issue since it’s mostly affecting reapers. My guess is we turn to the police and the mayor—”
“No,” both Jamie and Layla said at the same time.
“Like they would care at all. There was a massacre at the club, yet the police are citing it as usual reaper violence. Never mind that humans died there too, and they are holding something captive in the basement—you people don’t give a shit about anyone but yourselves,” Layla spat.
Sterling glared and stepped forward, his hands fisting by his sides. “I went to the club and found nothing in that hole you mentioned. And I’m here right now trying to help, aren’t I?”
Layla matched his ire and met him in the middle. She stood several inches shorter than him, but her own fury was enough to keep her strong in the face of his. “Only because of your own personal interests. If it were anyone else involved, you wouldn’t care. But because it’s Josi—”
“That’s not true,” Sterling seethed. “Even if Elise does not see herself as the true heir to the Saint empire, her actions still reflect on it and all government parties and powerful individuals associated with us. Someone has to keep her in line. I’m here for the greater good of Harlem as a whole. ”
Layla’s body further heated with anger. She clenched her jaw so hard, her teeth began to ache and her fangs snapped out on impulse against the pain. “Bullshit.”
Jamie pressed a hand to his face, sighing. “This is going so well already. Miss Saint, do you care to step in here? Since you’ve brought all your friends into my home and they are now giving me quite the headache.”
“This is all wrong,” Elise said. She stopped her incessant pacing and turned to face everyone.
“We have to tell my father Josi is involved. Even if anyone else stepped in to help, they would stop at nothing to see her dead. I cannot let that happen.” Pain shook her voice, and though she spoke with clarity, tears welled in her eyes.
Layla regarded her with pity. Her gaze softened, and she moved closer, her body itching to be near Elise. “It might be too late to save her. She could be too far gone.” Layla spoke quietly, as if dealing such a lethal blow in a gentler voice would make any difference.
The Saint heiress reeled back and shoved past Layla, cursing.
“No. She’s not. Josi will be fine; we just need to find her and Dr. Gray, and we can fix her.
” Elise pointed at the messy map on the floor.
“I found a pattern in the attacks. Shipments of karma must come to certain clubs at certain times. We can figure out which club is next and intercept it there. My father can mobilize his associates to help. If he knows about Josi, he will have to.”
A painful lump rose in Layla’s throat. Before her stood a girl on the edge of ruin, whose own thoughts were not in her control.
Layla did not have the heart to tell her that if Tobias could be responsible for these things happening in the first place, why would he step up to fix anything at all?
All she could do was nod as Elise kneeled by her map and began to put the pieces back together.
Jamie cleared his throat, and when Layla turned to face him, he gestured for her to leave the room with Sterling.
Once they were out of sight and hearing range of Elise, Jamie shook his head.
“We can’t do this. There is a monster that is close to running rampant on the streets of Harlem, and she wants to not kill it but catch it?
I’ve seen what that thing does to people.
There’s no way in hell any of us will survive it. ”
Images of the man severed in half at the dock resurfaced in Layla’s mind. She understood Jamie’s perspective—especially as someone who hardly knew Josi. Why rush headlong into danger for something that might not even be worth saving?
“I honestly don’t think she’s thinking clearly anyway. It’s been months of this. You two have not seen how unwell she’s gotten,” Jamie muttered.
The thing was, Layla did see it. She saw the shadows that ran deep beneath Elise’s eyes and the haunted look that never seemed to leave her face.
She smelled the blood from the aggressive digging of her nails into her palms and peeled-back skin around her fingers.
Layla wondered if she would bleed herself out without proper assurance.
Sterling crossed his arms. “Josephine is her sister. She’s already lost one. We have to try.”
Jamie fell silent for a long moment. Finally, he nodded, albeit with hesitation. “If you can get the Saints on board”—he looked at Layla—“and you can get the reapers involved, I will join in with my men.”
“I can get Celie to help me convince Julius.” Layla had no choice but to agree. She could not tell them that her clan was hardly her clan anymore. Finding Josephine and settling the tensions between reapers and the Saints might have been the only way forward.
***
For the first time in months, Elise felt small in the presence of her father.
Returning to the Saint home could have been more of a regression than a plan for progression.
If she could not get him to listen to her or see her side, she would have no choice but to become that begging, hopeful girl who needed her father.
As much as it was against her will, Tobias had become her lifeline again.
“Home again already? Consider me surprised, given the way things ended last time.” Tobias Saint leaned against a large mahogany desk in the back of his study. He had his arms crossed, his face a mask of unmoving stoicism.
“I do feel badly about that, Father. Especially now. Our neighborhood—our home—is on fire, and the Saint empire has only begun to burn with it. I was born with a duty to this family. I have to see to it that the business remains standing. There’s so much left for us to achieve.
I might not be your chosen heir, but Josi…
” She swallowed past the rise of bile in her throat.
“Josephine deserves a chance here. We should all be coming together in these times, rather than fighting.”
Lying to her father was easier than Elise had thought it would be. Waiting for his reaction, however, was a different beast. The time in between her declaration and the shift in his expression made her palms sweat.
Her words were met with silence for a long stretch of time. Tobias pushed himself off the desk so that he stood up straight and walked toward Elise, his hands clasped together in front of him. “And here I was believing you hated our empire and everything about its business.”
“I like the loyalty of your associates, and I wish to have that back in my life. As for how the empire moves forward, we would have to discuss that in depth—”
“So I can hear how ungrateful you are for my care. And how much you hate me and wish I was dead,” Tobias said slowly. He watched her face, no doubt looking for an obvious tell to decipher her emotions. “Is that right?”
But Elise kept her expression neutral. Even with anxiety crushing her chest and her heart slamming against her ribs, she did not break. “I was hoping to gauge whether you could ever trust me again. Because I have a proposition and I need your help.”
Her father gave her a curious look. “You really do need me.” Another smile emerged on his lips, and Elise’s stomach turned at the thought of him believing he had her again.
He nodded, still moving through the room.
It felt massive with his slow steps and calculated movements.
Several paces later and he was still far from her, despite his words brushing up against her like poison-tipped fingers, ready to drag her down with his frayed thinking.
“Trust. It’s such a familiar term, from petty situations between friends to forming global alliances.
Trust between family might be what holds kin together.
Trust between the Saint empire members is necessary to push our message and goals forward.
” Tobias stopped by the fireplace. It sat in the back wall, empty, but Tobias looked at it as if had the ability to compel magic to life.
“Trust is not something reapers know well. Especially not with humans.”
Elise thought about Layla, who believed she was better in isolation to protect people from her monstrous tendencies.
Then she thought about every reaper out there still roaming the streets with no ties holding them down anymore.
She thought of the Harlem reaper clan and how they had rallied behind one another and Layla even when she was working with a Saint.
The reapers never had a problem with loyalty until it was broken.
Humans had solidified the importance of loyalty, then continued to ruin it for centuries.
“I believe that is something we can change,” Elise said firmly.