Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
Sugar Skull
“Not a fucking chance.”
I say it once. Sharp.
No argument necessary.
Zee opens her mouth to speak, but I cut her off with a hard look.
“We’re not going back," I repeat.
Eastmount doesn't give second chances. It'll only be chaos. Erasure.
“I’m not losing you again, Zee.” I look them both in the eye, a bottle of whiskey on the glass coffee table between us. “Cherry, he’s too far gone. You know it, or you would’ve gone back.”
“That’s not fair,” Cherry says. “He helped you."
“He’s only loyal to himself.”
"He kept you in our Family after Barry died.”
My voice hardens. "He killed Barry. A father. All for more power. He’s not the same. He’s selfish and opportunistic. He moves ahead by any means necessary.”
“Wait, I thought only heirs could take the role of Father after death," Zee says. Her brows lower, her face paling. “Guys, is…” She blinks. “Is Emery my brother?”
She looks like she might hurl.
I place my hand on her knee. “Lola and Barry adopted him so they wouldn’t remove Barry as Father when they found out about your mother. They needed something to prove they were a happy family. Or they faced consequences. Your Father met that consequence anyway.”
Zee nods, but her brows knit. There’s a lot she’s learning in a short time. I squeeze her thigh, my grip tightening. Her hand lands on top of mine.
“So you expect me to hide forever?” Cherry asks, frustration in her tone. “I’ve already given up enough for Eastmount. I’m not living the rest of my life under a rock because of it.”
“Be reasonable,” I sigh.
“Do you love her?" Cherry asks, pointing at Zee. "Is this love?”
My stomach tightens.
I already said it. I’ll say it again.
“I’ve been through hell and back for Zee, and I’d do it a thousand times.” Turning to Zee, I catch those dark, glimmering eyes. “Yes. I love her.”
Zee’s eyes lock on mine.
My chest heats, words lingering in the air I’ve never said to any woman.
“Then understand why I need to go back,” Cherry says.
“Zee isn’t a monster, Cherry.”
“We all are,” Cherry snips. “She’s a murderer, too. We’ve all done fucked up things.”
I rise to my feet. “She only did it for protection. Emery’s motive is power. There’s a difference. One is evil.”
“I need to remind him what matters.”
“He’s gone, Cherry.” My voice rings around the room. “Let him fucking go.”
She slams her hand on the table, rising.
“You’re not fair. You went back for her.
That’s why I’m here. And now, you’re stopping me from doing that for myself.
” Her voice shakes, tears blurring her hard gaze.
“He’s my soulmate. Without him, I might as well be dead.
” She grabs the bottle, moving towards one of the two bedrooms. The master.
"Say what you want. I’m going back, whether you come with me or not. ”
Slam!
My eyes move to Zee as Cherry lets out a frustrated scream from her room.
Zee's quiet, and I wonder if our conversation shook her.
I give her another second, sitting beside her, squeezing her thigh.
After a minute, she turns towards me. “I’m going with her.”
What? “No, Zee.”
“You can’t stop me either.”
I scour her face for answers. “Have you already forgotten what they did to you? Didn’t you hear what they’ve done to your family? The Establishment is the reason you don't have one. Emery is the reason you’ll never meet your father.”
“If Cherry feels even a fraction of what I felt when I wasn’t with you, you gotta understand." Her face comes closer, those eyes bigger. "I risked everything to go back there and be with you. And when I thought they killed you? I wanted to burn that place down from the inside.”
“She married a monster, Zee.”
“And I’m in love with one.”
A hammer to my heart.
A smile starts at the corner of her lips. “You heard her,” she continues. “Cherry's going back. The girl is set on it. And I get it. That’s why I can’t let her go back on her own.”
I stall, my eyes tracing her face.
Stubborn, Immovable.
Loyal.
I take a long breath before I speak again. “Zee…”
She puts up a hand. “No, Atlas, if you’re not coming, that’s okay, I accept that. I’m yours, I mean it. But you can’t stop me.”
Taking her hand, I pull her knuckles to my lips, inhaling the sweet scent of her. It settles the tightness in my chest. It soothes the pain in my head.
“Zee, I’m going wherever you go. If you go, I will too."
It makes me stupid all over again.
Zee
If anyone’s a serious planner, it’s Atlas.
He moves around the room, closing curtains, unplugging landlines and covering vents. He moves like prey, or like he’s familiar with being one.
“Didn’t you do all this when you got here with Cherry?” I ask, my arms folding across my chest as I relax into the sofa. “Alone. By yourselves? In this glamorous suite?”
“I wasn’t thorough.” He peeks behind a curtain. “I didn’t need to be when I thought we’d only be here a night. But after you and Cherry changed the plans, I need to change my approach.”
He dips into the bathroom for a quick second before poking his head back out. The light from the wall lamp shines on his eyes. “You still think we did something?”
When I don’t answer, he comes over, taking three large steps. The minute he puts his hand on my knee, something in me settles, a wave of warmth washing over me.
“You’re it. It’s you. That won't change. You get that, right?” His hand comes to my cheek, and it’s so hard for my eyes not to lock onto his.
They look as deep and focused as always, but there’s a softness to it now.
“I never thought I’d want anyone. Especially not in the way I want you, Zee. I won't fuck that up.”
My head hangs. “I’m sorry. I know I said I’m prepared to go back with Cherry. But..."
Eastmount Manor flashes through my head.
The leather.
The cold room.
Father
Ezra.
“Breathe.” He lifts my chin with a finger. “We’re in this together. This time and forever."
Cre-ak!
Atlas shifts in front of me like a shield.
“There’s power in numbers!” Cherry peeks out of the bedroom, her hair wrapped in a towel piled on her head.
“How many bathrooms are in here?” I mumble, taking in the space again.
“Emery has better odds on numbers, Cherry,” Atlas says, still not thrilled about our plan. “You know that.”
“We’re worth a dozen men,” Cherry says.
“No, we’re not.” Cherry glares at Atlas’s response. “He has too much support. The first thing we need to do is take it away.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?” she asks.
I catch on. “We can lure him here.”
“Lure Emery, a Father out of Eastmount?” Cherry snorts. “He hasn’t left in five years. He has power. And he’s drunk on it. He’s not coming down, haven’t you noticed?”
“So, we take away what matters to him the most.”
“I already did that with Cherry," Atlas responds.
“And how’d that work out?” I tease. His muscles tense, and there’s a look in his eye. The one that tells me I’m being a brat and he wants to do something about it. “Power matters to him more.”
“That only matters when he has people to rule over.” Atlas gives me that intense stare.
“And who does he enjoy ruling over the most?” I ask them.
“Women,” Cherry chimes in, finally catching up.
A small smirk crosses Atlas’ face. I can’t tell if it’s pride. Or something more sensual. The room gets warmer.
“But how do we take them away?” Cherry asks, pulling me out of his spell.
“Well, you wanted to leave, and you’re married to the man in charge.” I turn to Cherry, who leans against the doorframe. "I don’t think it’ll take much for the others to follow.”
Atlas leans in, his lips grazing my neck like this turns him on. “When did you get so observant?”
“Not everyone thinks like me,” Cherry says. “Look at Rosa. She takes the Eastmount wife thing to a whole other level. She lives for it.”
“She’s also easily influenced by you,” Atlas says. “Zee’s right. You’re married to the man in charge.”
“Who I left,” Cherry clarifies.
“Tell her why you left,” Atlas says. “Once she’s on our side, we won’t have much to worry about.”
My head snaps to Atlas. “You just said it’s too dangerous to go back there alone.”
“I’ll go with her.”
My brows lower. “Am I missing something? You literally just said we shouldn’t go.”
“Not without a plan.”
“And what about me?”
Atlas smirks. “Still like watching me?"
Even through the screen, Atlas is a hell of a sight.
To me, he still looks like a stalker, wearing an EMU ball cap, sunglasses, and joggers. But that varsity jacket makes him look like another student.
The camera he pinned to the hallway gives a clear feed as he leans against the wall, one hand in his pockets, his phone in the other.
The other camera we have is in the spa's private lounge. That’s where Cherry plans on speaking to Rosa.
I wasn't sure how we'd get cameras there. When I asked, Cherry and Atlas laughed.
Cameras already exist all over Eastmount. It only took Atlas hacking into them to give us access to the feed. And now? I can see everything I need.
Cherry’s in a big fluffy robe, sitting on a lounger by the pool in the marble room. With cucumbers over her eyes, she looks like any other privileged Eastmount woman on a spa day.
But we’re on a timer.
It’s only a matter of time before Emery finds out Cherry and Atlas are back in the neighbourhood.
Atlas stretches, that Varisty jacket riding up enough to reveal his washboard abs.
“Looking good,” I say into my mic.
His eyes flick to the camera, hunger in them.
“What are you wearing, Zee?” His voice dips low, a spiral in my gut.
My eyes spot something on the other end of the screen.
A woman walks towards him.
"Wait," I say. "Stay put.”
“Oh?” Atlas relaxes against the wall. "I like it when you’re demanding.”
My cheeks burn when he gives a flirty grin to the camera as the woman walks by.
She stalls, turning towards him.
“Aren’t you—”
“No,” he says.
The woman stands in front of him, eyeing him from head to toe in a way that makes the muscles in my jaw tense.
That ass is mine.
“Do you have a Chosen?” she asks, which I’ve learned in Eastmount is equal to asking if you’re single.
“Yes.” His answer is firm. Hard. “Excuse me.” He shifts to the side, snubbing her.
She stalls but continues around the corner, heading into the spa with a glance behind her.
I’m no one’s Chosen, but I’m his. And hearing him say he’s chosen me, too, makes a fire fill me and light me up in a way I haven’t felt before.
“I did what you said,” he says. “Now will you?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“You’re wet from hearing my words. You should do something about it.”
“You won’t know,” I remind him. “I’m the one watching you this time."
“I’ll know, Zee. I know the sounds you make when you touch yourself. The whimpers on your tongue when you imagine your fingers are mine. Your deep breaths when you want my cock plunged inside your perfect, wet pussy.”
I stir in my seat, a tug between my thighs, a pull between my legs.
“Atlas, I—”
Something shifts on the screen.
A woman in a robe enters Cherry’s room and sits on one of the loungers. She glances at Cherry as the door closes.
Cherry sits up.
“She’s there.”
“Is Cherry safe?” Atlas asks.
“They’re talking.”
“So we have time. Do it. Put your hands between your legs, Zee. Tell me how it feels.”
A smirk pulls at my face as his eyes meet the camera and lock with mine. He grazes his thumb against the band of his joggers, and I can see that outline in his pants growing from here.
I get it. I get what he felt when he watched me.
Parting my legs, I let my hand slide between them.
“Good girl,” he says, as if he’s watching me press my fingers against my damp panties. “Don’t be shy. Pull your panties to the side and slide your fingers between your slit. Pretend it’s me. Think about what it’ll feel like, once I’m back in that hotel room, with my face between—”
"Wait!"
My eyes snap back to Cherry's feed.
Atlas straightens up. "Zee?"
“There’s another person in the room.” I squint, leaning closer to the screen. “A man. He’s tall. Bald…”
“Fuck.”
Atlas sprints inside as the man lunges for Cherry, his hands closing around her neck.
Rosa scrambles back against the wall as Cherry kicks and swings, the towel slipping off her body.
The man yells behind him when Atlas enters the space.
Atlas moves towards him. Calm. Steady.
The man keeps yelling. Cherry keeps swatting. He won't let her go.
If this alarms anyone else, our plan is over. Ruined.
If Emery finds Atlas, we're all fucking dead.
Atlas takes another step towards them, his hand sliding into his pocket.
I catch it.
A knife.
Rosas still frozen in place, the man finally tosses Cherry to the floor, who crawls to the nearest wall.
His focus switches to Atlas.
Atlas glances at the camera, as if he’s waiting for me to clear him. But there’s no time. I know what he has to do.
Heat fills my chest. "Do it."
The man charges at Atlas like a hungry bull.
The minute the man is a foot from him, Atlas takes one controlled swipe.
The man swings, but Atlas is quicker.
With a smirk that matches mine, Atlas slices his knife across the man’s throat.