8. Tank
Tank
There's blood on my knuckles again.
Not mine this time, which is about the only good thing I can say about tonight.
The job was clean… or cleanish. Just a collections run on a guy who owed Kade money and thought being three weeks late was a technicality.
I convinced him otherwise. Didn't even have to break anything important.
Just bent his wrist at an angle God didn't intend until he remembered where he stashed the cash after all.
The house is dark when I come through the back door that opens into the mudroom off the kitchen. I'm halfway through pulling off my boots when I hear them.
Cyrus and Jinx. They're talking in low voices, which never means anything good.
I go still. One boot off, one on, my hand frozen on the lace.
"—access to more of his network now," Cyrus says. "The estate manager cover gives me the run of the house. I've got taps on his personal lines now."
"And?" Jinx asks, his voice sounding tighter than usual.
Cy pauses and I hear him set something down on the counter.
"I don't have any reason to believe Ellie is working for him."
"Obviously," Jinx mutters.
"At least," Cyrus continues, "not willingly."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
I lower myself into a crouch, resting my weight on the balls of my feet. The kitchen doorway is six feet to my left. I see their shadows stretching across the tile from the under-cabinet lights Jinx always leaves on because he hates the dark. I don't think he knows anyone notices, though.
"Marney," Cyrus says. I hear the shrug in his voice.
"What about her?"
"She's a shell, Jinx. I'm not being dramatic. The woman barely knows what room she's in. She was popping pills between courses."
Jinx is silent for a few seconds.
"You mean the senator isn't a model husband?" His voice comes out flippant, but I can tell he's anything but. "Shocker."
"It's more than that." Cyrus's chair creaks.
I picture him leaning forward, forearms on the counter.
"The way Ellie acts in that house is off.
It's like she shrinks around them. Her voice changes, and her whole body stiffens whenever he calls her name.
Every move they both make has this edge to it, like they know there will be consequences. "
Jinx doesn't say anything for a while.
I know all about the kind of consequences he implies. Know them in the scars that map my face and the silence that fills my throat where a voice should be.
Is he saying Ellie…?
"I don't like it," Cyrus says, interrupting my thoughts. "Something is wrong in that house."
My hands are fists at my sides. The blood on my knuckles has dried to a dark crust and I want to put those fists through the wall, or better yet, through Todd Waterson's face.
"Do you think he's hurting them?" Jinx's voice breaks on the words.
Cyrus pauses again, even longer this time.
"I don't know." He sounds tired. Tired and vulnerable like he only ever is around Jinx. "But the guy is enough of an asshole to them in front of his servants. I've seen what men like that do behind closed doors. It's not pretty."
My vision tunnels and the mudroom shrinks to a fine point.
The point is Todd Waterson's throat in my hands and the crunching, rending sound his neck would make if I squeezed hard enough to make his eyes pop out of their sockets.
"You think that's why she hired us?" Jinx's voice is barely above a whisper now. "What if it's not for the money or whatever Kade thinks, but because she's actually…"
"I don't know," Cyrus growls. "Maybe."
"Then why wouldn't she say anything?" Jinx sounds hurt now. "She could've told us. Could've said it from the start and even Kade never would have started with this collaring bullshit."
"I don't know," Cyrus repeats. "The only reason I can think of is that maybe she really is working for him. Maybe she's afraid of what he'll do to her, or her mom, or both."
"He’d have to know who we are to do that," Jinx challenges.
"He has enough connections he could have found out if he had reason," Cyrus counters. "And if he’s wrapped up with Southside, that’s reason enough."
The rage spikes. Can't keep it contained any longer.
I step into the kitchen and both of them startle.
Jinx actually jolts off his barstool, one hand going to the knife block before his brain catches up with his reflexes.
Cyrus's hand shoots under the counter where I know he keeps a piece taped to the underside, and the realization that it's me doesn't settle him the way it does Jinx.
"Fuck." Jinx presses his palm to his chest, breathing hard. "For a big guy, you move like a goddamn mouse."
I don't acknowledge the joke or even sign. My hands are shaking too hard for signs to be legible anyway.
I grab the pen off the counter. The magnetic notepad Jinx uses for grocery lists that's shaped like a cock and balls for some fucking reason. The top sheet is covered in his loopy handwriting with a half-written list.
Eggs
Butter
Oat milk (NOT ALMOND CY)
I flip to a clean page and write in big, blocky letters that dig grooves into the paper.
ELLIE IS NOT A SPY.
I shove it across the counter. Cyrus picks it up and reads it with a completely blank expression before setting it down.
"I'm not saying she's doing it willingly." He takes off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm saying we can't fully trust that she's not being controlled by Waterson. Not until I know more."
He puts the glasses back on.
"We need to watch more closely. Ellie, but also Marney." He looks between us. "We need to know what Waterson is capable of so we can protect Ellie."
My hand tightens around the pen.
"Including from herself," he adds.
Jinx's head tilts as he looks back at Cyrus. "What do you mean?"
Cyrus sighs. "She's self-medicating. Xanax mostly, I think. I caught her at the manor taking pills she'd stashed in a bag and tucked into a wall cavity in the upstairs bathroom like a fucking squirrel." He pauses. "I searched her things when we got back."
Jinx blinks. "You searched her things?"
"She signed a contract to be our sex pet," Cyrus says flatly. "We have cameras in her bedroom. We put a tracking collar around her neck and a GPS in her phone. Now me looking through her things is where you choose to draw the line?"
Jinx looks like he wants to argue, but the logic is hard to defend against, so he grimaces instead. "What did you find? More pills?"
"Empty bottles. Two different prescriptions in her name, one in her mother's, all benzos," he answers. "God only knows where else she's hiding them. She told me she's been on them since she was sixteen."
My stomach drops through the floor.
Sixteen.
She was sixteen when she started.
Which means Todd's house. Todd is the reason she started taking that shit, because of whatever he's done to her and Marney behind those pretty white walls.
"It's bad," Cyrus continues. "These pills are supposed to be carefully monitored, and they're highly addictive. She's been taking them long term and I highly doubt she's been dosing responsibly."
Jinx runs both hands through his hair, pulling it back from his face. "So what do we do? We can't just take them away. You can't quit benzos cold turkey, Cy, that's actually dangerous. She could have a seizure, or a heart attack, or—"
"I know." Cyrus holds up a hand. "Trust me, I've already researched the tapering protocols. We need to manage this carefully, but first we need to know the extent of the problem." He leans back. "Which is why we should probably tell Kade."
I grab the notepad.
I write KADE in large letters.
Then I draw my finger across my throat, hoping that makes the message clear.
Jinx watches the gesture and swallows visibly. "Message received, big guy."
Cyrus studies me. I see him running through it in the cold, logical way he does.
But this is Ellie, not one of his fucking databases. Right now, Kade knowing about this is the last thing we need. He's already got plenty of his own assumptions.
"Fine," Cyrus says with a sigh. "Kade isn't capable of seeing Ellie objectively right now." He looks pointedly at me. "Neither are you, for entirely different reasons."
I grunt, tearing the page from the notepad, and crumple it in my fist before stuffing it into my pocket. He's not wrong. I've never been objective when it comes to Eleanor Riggs.
But right now, protecting her means keeping Kade from finding out about the pills.
At least until we know how to help her.