Jace
The ride back home is… some sort of outer-space-level silence. It’s not exactly awkward, but it’s definitely interesting in a way that’s difficult to explain to someone on the outside of my SUV.
Kieran is less shocked than I am, and Silas is still all in. He might be more in than we originally suspected.
Eris is humming along to the radio like she didn’t just call in and order to have a woman zipped up in a body bag and tossed into an unmarked van because she tested the wrong boundary.
I don’t even know what station is playing or how I drive us home without wrecking. My brain short-circuited somewhere between she shot someone and she shot someone for us. Meanwhile, she’s adjusting the fucking seat like this is a normal night.
And maybe it is for her…
But what does this mean for us?
The door to the loft barely clicks shut behind us, Kieran still pressing buttons to arm the security system, before I turn on her.
“Are you going to pretend that didn’t happen?”
Eris kicks her shoes off and raises a curious eyebrow. “Which part?”
“You shot someone.”
“I was there.”
I scrub my hand down my face. “Yes, but why did you shoot her?”
“Are you upset that I shot her?”
“Well—” I cut myself off and sit with her question for a moment, glancing at Silas and Kieran like they might feel differently than I do. “No. I’m not upset. A little shocked, perhaps. Confused. I’m trying to understand when, or maybe just why, it escalated to murder?”
Eris snorts at me and fights a grin. “It’s a relief to hear you’re not upset.”
“Eris,” Silas prompts, intrigued by the entire situation. He lowers himself into his favorite armchair and props his elbows on his knees as he stares at her. “She had no actual leverage. The entire thing was a bluff from the start, but we went because we wanted to shut down the situation for good.”
“Bluffing. That’s cute.” Eris leans back against the counter, eyes sharp as that grin continues to play across her lips.
“She tried to call my bluff, but I wasn’t lying when I told her I’d put a bullet in her pretty little head.
I warned her. She was just too ignorant to comprehend that she had stepped into a world that eats people like her for sport.
And I won’t apologize to anyone for being a top contender. ”
“Who the fuck are you?” I catch myself whispering once more, admittedly a little more awestruck this time.
She stretches her arms over her head as if her muscles are tight; the hem of her black shirt lifting just enough to distract me in a way I want to resent right now. But I can’t even fake being mad at her. I’m just so relieved.
“Aren’t you the ones who started digging?” she challenges us. “Couldn’t find anything useful while you were stalking me?”
“Nothing like this,” Kieran mutters, though he’s smiling like he’s happy he’s been one-upped. “Nothing about your… hobbies.”
I sit on the edge of the coffee table, mimicking Silas with my elbows on my knees. “The cartel thing. That’s real?”
“Yeah.” Eris doesn’t take a single second to think about her answer. “Very real.”
Kieran stares at her like she’s fire wrapped in silk, intoxicatingly dangerous while remaining delicate. “Define real.”
Okay. Maybe he’s struggling to process some of this too. At least I’m not alone.
“So you’re a fixer,” Silas says, having a better grip on the background of cartel politics in the Bay. Better than Kieran and me.
Sometimes I forget Silas spent every summer here with his grandparents. I visited them with him when we were in college and fell in love with the coast. And the hockey team… But nothing prepared me for the crime. Not until someone tried to rob us, and Silas stabbed him without hesitation.
“No.” She smiles and shakes her head. “I’m the solution.”
“And us?” I ask. “What does this mean for us?”
Because that’s a big fucking hole in this conversation.
Her gaze flicks to me and softens just a fraction.
“What do you want it to mean, Jace? How long do you want this us to last? The one that includes me… Are you asking what my hobbies mean for you in a relationship aspect, or are you asking if I’m going to kill you after confessing all of this and toss a match over my shoulder to burn the evidence? ”
Kieran exhales harshly. “Jesus.”
“Not Jesus.” Eris lifts her hand, and I spy the tiny M tattoo between her fingers. “Just privileges.”
“I’m asking if confessing all of this is going to put us in danger,” I enunciate slowly, tasting the strangeness of the words. “Should we be walking around with guns and shit? Or will I make it to the grocery store without taking a bullet?”
A quiet giggle leaves her, and she slaps a hand over her mouth like this is the most inappropriate thing to happen all night.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, but the laughter lingers. “This is Crimson Bay. You should always have a weapon within arm’s reach. Always.”
“Sure, okay,” I snap and turn to glare at Silas when he coughs. “I’ll go buy something in the morning, but until then, can you answer my questions?”
“I sort of did,” she informs us. “But honestly, in a town full of criminals, whose side you’re on is important. You don’t have to be in the club to get certain perks of the membership.”
“How protected?” Silas pushes, jaw tight. “We don’t need you jumping in front of bullets for us, but we do need to know if we should expect more bullets than normal.”
“Protected like bodies disappear before the news hits,” she says matter-of-factly.
“And cops don’t ask you questions unless they’re told to.
Like your names never make it onto anyone’s radar without me knowing.
You can continue your daily lives as if nothing ever happened, and I’ll continue doing my job by keeping the trash out of Crimson Bay. ”
My mouth moves before my brain processes what I’m asking.
“Then why haven’t you killed Daniel yet?” I blurt, the words clawing from my throat like a mildly curious accusation.
For the first time all night, she hesitates. It’s just a breath and a quick grimace, there and gone so fast that if I wasn’t giving her all of my attention, I would have missed it.
“Before HimLock, Daniel only really wanted to hoover me back into his world. He wanted control. To feel important. If I’d taken him out the first time he crossed a line, it would’ve been loud and messy. And public. He would’ve turned into a mystery people asked questions about.”
Eris walks toward the wall of monitors, taking a seat in one of the computer chairs.
“Killing him was never going to be the hard part,” she admits, frowning as she shrugs. “It was timing, catching him somewhere private, so I had less cleanup to manage.”
She leans back in the chair and points at the monitors.
“And then you put cameras in my apartment,” she continues, flashing us a quick smile.
“Firewalls Roo didn’t build. Systems we couldn’t bypass without tripping alarms. So, I made a plan to lure him into my bathroom, kill him there, and hunt the rest of my stalkers while Roo ripped the digital evidence apart as viciously as possible. ”
“But we showed up instead,” Kieran adds, nodding his understanding. “It’s kind of difficult to kill him when strangers are watching you.”
Eris nods, but her eyes are hard, focused on the original threat. “I don’t kill unless I can erase the echo.”
Silas goes very still.
“And now?” Kieran asks quietly.
“Now… I quite enjoy being in the company of said echoes,” she answers, shaking herself out of whatever dark void her thoughts were falling into.
“Daniel has gotten sloppy and emotional since he’s seen me with the three of you.
He wants to touch things that don’t belong to him.
” She glances between us. “And now, I don’t have to hide the fallout from you.
It’s all on the table. Regardless of your stance on murder, he’s going to die by my hand soon. ”
Silas visibly relaxes, which makes me wonder… How close to death were we before our charm won over the reaper?
“So, we kill him.” Kieran steps closer, spinning the chair so she has to look up at him. “Tell us how to help you.”
Eris smiles sweetly at him, and the juxtaposition between this moment and ten seconds ago is so striking, I feel as if Eros himself just slapped me.
“Hollow,” she sings softly, “Are you flirting with me while conspiring to be my accomplice in a murder?”