Chapter 29 Kieran
The two dots on my phone screen move closer to the loft, side by side, as I follow their location.
“She’s on her way back,” I tell Silas. “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Good.” Silas doesn’t look away from his task. “Come here.”
I circle the kitchen island and stop beside him. His right hand clenches around the mouse hard enough that his knuckles go white. His left hand grips the edge of the desk like it’s the only thing keeping him vertical.
The wall monitor shows the familiar hallway outside of Eris’s apartment.
Then her living room.
Then her bedroom.
I lean in without meaning to.
There’s a man in a black hoodie painting her apartment; the color is visibly darker. He’s moved all the furniture just far enough away from the walls to squeeze through… It’s the most bizarre thing I think I’ve ever seen.
“What the fuck?” I murmur, running a hand through my hair. “Why—”
“He painted her walls,” Silas says, deadly calm, but measured in a way that tells me he’s not sure why either. “Yesterday. He entered through the broken balcony window, propped her front door open so he could go downstairs and get all the supplies.”
Silas fast-forwards the camera feed to Daniel barefoot, missing the hoodie and his shirt, paint flecking his arms. He steps back to admire the walls like he’s finished something sacred.
A shrine.
He’s not just stalking her anymore; he’s completely delusional.
“The apartment felt wrong to her when she walked in,” I say quietly, recounting what Jace told me when he called.
Silas speeds up the feed, tracking Daniel’s movements as he cooks a meal in her kitchen and disappears into her bathroom. He comes out sometime later in a towel with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. And he grins at the camera as he drops the towel and climbs into her bed.
Her.
Fucking.
Bed.
Daniel was in her bed.
Naked.
Under her covers.
One arm thrown over her pillow, face pressed into it like he’s breathing her in.
“He slept there,” I say aloud, because one of us needs to acknowledge what we’re seeing.
“Yes.” That one venom-laced word resonates in my chest like the heavy thump of bass from a speaker.
“He was probably dreaming of her,” I absentmindedly mention. “He looks like a pervert.”
Silas’s jaw tightens as he flexes his fingers. “Probably.”
Watching Daniel roll around in her sheets is like watching a cat leave its scent behind. It’s an animalistic claim that’s just… unhinged to witness.
“Eris can’t go back,” I state, though I know he won’t disagree.
“She won’t,” Silas replies. “Not until he’s dead.”
We let the feed run at an enhanced speed for another few seconds. Daniel shifts in his sleep, fingers curling into the sheets like he expects her to be there when he wakes.
“I want to gut him,” I grumble, looking away from the monitor.
“We will.”
“You think he wired the place?”
“Not likely.” Silas finally straightens in his chair, switching the feed from Eris’s apartment to the cameras around our loft. “But we should still sweep it and strip it. Burn it if we have to.”
I nod once. “We’re not leaving her alone again.”
“Not for a moment.”
My phone buzzes, a text popping up on my screen.
Whisper
Three minutes out.
I type back the same line I say aloud to Silas.
“We’ve got a problem.”
Hollow
We’ve got a problem.
“Speaking of problems…” Silas exhales slowly, as if he’s searching for his patience. “One just pulled up outside.”
I lean on the back of Silas’s chair, squinting at the monitor until he makes the camera feed bigger… But I’m not squinting because I can’t see who it is. I’m just blurring her out and wishing she’ll get hit by a runaway semi truck.
Of course it’s her.
And she’s dressed like she expects to be invited in. Like history still counts as currency that she can use to buy favor with us.
I’m hoping she’ll make the hit list too. Let’s just fold her up in a deep hole somewhere with Daniel and pretend like they never existed. They’re a match made by Cupid himself.
Silas shuts down the wall of monitors with an aggressive click and stands.
“How does she know where we live again?” I ask more out of curiosity than expecting an answer. “And why haven’t we fixed that yet?”
“We will,” Silas replied cryptically. “After Daniel.”
Three knocks… That’s all it takes to ruin the rest of the day.
I open the door just enough to make it clear she’s not welcome.
She smiles, unconcerned about our hostility. “Hi, Kieran.”
“Wrong door.”
“Don’t be like that,” she croons, fluttering her fake lashes. “I’m trying to be nice. I need to talk to all three of you.”
Silas steps into view at my side, opening the door a little further. “About what?”
Her eyes flick past us, scanning the loft like she expects to see the person she came to reclaim.
“Jace isn’t here,” I say, my tone flippant.
Her smile tightens at the corners of her lips. “But he’s coming back.”
“He’s not coming back for you.”
“You’re not even going to ask what I want?” she simpers, false pleasantries so sickly sweet I want to gag.
Silas moves closer now, just to make her uncomfortable. “We don’t care.”
“You used to.” She tilts her head, studying us like a prize she refuses to believe she’s lost. “Before your new toy showed up.”
Animosity vibrates off Silas in a physical wave of violence. The temperature around us drops.
I meet her eyes. “Careful.”
“Why?” she asks lightly. “You don’t honestly believe you can love anyone else. You know how this ends.”
“Yes. We do.” Silas’s voice is flat as glass. “It sounds like you believe they loved you, which is an interesting take on the relationship the three of you had.”
She laughs softly, but not out of amusement.
She’s convinced herself of how this story ends.
Obsession has a funny way of showing up when you least want it.
I see it clearly now.
She isn’t here for Jace.
She’s here because Eris exists in our orbit.
And that makes her just as dangerous as the piece of shit painting a shrine on our girl’s walls.
I don’t wait for her to say anything more before I slam the door in her face and turn the deadbolt as loudly as possible.
Silas and I move toward the kitchen on autopilot. Eris and Jace will pull up any moment now, and I want to be ready and waiting by the garage door.
“She’s watching us,” I murmur, though there’s no reason to whisper.
“Yes.”
“And Eris.”
“Yep.”
My phone buzzes again. Jace has just remotely opened the garage door.
They’re here.
Home.
I roll my shoulders, grounding myself for the conversations that need to happen once Eris is inside and settled.
“Good,” I say to Silas, pausing at the garage door to meet his cold blue eyes head-on. “She needs to learn what happens when you mistake proximity for ownership.”
Silas’s mouth curves into a cruel smile.
“She will.”