Chapter 14
vera
Elaine was delighted in the house as I showed her through it all, from the living room with the built-in entertainment center to the massive indoor/outdoor kitchen, and of course, the primary bedroom with a huge attached bedroom.
She gushed about how it felt like something out of a movie, and I guess part of me felt bad, because I left her to take a shower, and then I was brooding sitting in the window nook up in the second-floor library when Petra found me.
She didn’t even say anything, just leaned against the side of the window nook, looking out the glass with me. Distant storm clouds were rolling in now, and I could smell rain in the air even before it was starting to come down.
“You’re starting to fall for her,” Petra said.
“I know the mission,” I said. “She’s just attractive.”
“Fucking bull. I know you too well to let you get away with that crap.”
I shook my head. “You’ve never had to kill somebody. It’s… not something I can really describe.”
“It’s hard. I know that.”
“It’s impossible. But at the same time, it’s easy.
I don’t think I’ve really killed anyone.
Maybe… maybe my father. Or maybe the first time.
But in general, it’s not really me who does it.
” I put a hand to my chest. “There’s something…
in here. Something else. Someone else. And when it’s time to kill somebody, that person comes out.
I might have feelings for Elaine. But that…
that person, that thing inside of me… it doesn’t.
” I shook my head, closing my eyes. “It’s never felt anything for anybody.
Just cold, hard reality. Just looking at a person and figuring out every possible way to kill them. ”
She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “It’s for the family. We have to do this.”
“I know. I can’t betray my family.”
“If we even thought about changing course, Glenn…”
“I know. I don’t fancy my odds if he sends Quayle after me.”
She sighed, checking her phone. “Pizza’s here in five,” she said, stepping away. “See you downstairs. Don’t fuck this up, Wolf.”
“I won’t.”
But after she’d left me to the quiet of the dark library, I looked down at my ring, and I slid it higher up my finger.
Elaine’s smile. Her laugh as she told me you never deserved any of that. You were just a kid.
She was a damn fool. Thinking that just because I looked like a human, that meant I had emotions like one. And that stupidity was going to get her killed. I couldn’t be blamed. It was her own fault for trusting me.
I pushed off from the ledge with a sigh, heading downstairs.
The four of us gathered around the dining room table with three massive boxes of pizza between us, and Caitlyn squealed in excitement as she dug in.
Special celebratory meals like a pizza night were apparently rare in the Whitner household—most of the food budget went to the mother’s alcohol—and she looked like a kid in a candy shop as she stuffed her face with pizza.
Petra, as she usually did, tore through almost an entire pizza like it was nothing, and Elaine, sitting next to me, laughed and had a little more light in her eyes as we ate.
And of course, the cat was here too. She stuck to my leg, constantly mewing for attention, until I sighed and held her in my lap, stroking her absentmindedly while I ate.
We talked carefully around matters of business, not revealing too much while Caitlyn was here, but once Caitlyn had eaten her fill, she turned on me.
“Now you can explain, because Petra wouldn’t. What is happening?”
Petra leaned forward. “Forget that,” she said. “Did you know that deep rainforest trees can communicate with each other via fungal networks—”
“Petra, I’ve had it with you!” Caitlyn said, and Elaine laughed, a hand over her mouth. I sighed, a glance at Elaine, before I turned back to Caitlyn.
“I can’t say too much right now,” I said, “but your sister’s in danger.”
Caitlyn frowned. “I know. I heard shouting from the house after I left, and Petra drove me here so fast and wouldn’t tell me anything that was going on.”
“We’re not married yet,” I said. “Elaine and I. But us getting married will keep her safe.”
Caitlyn blinked hard. “When did you two even meet?”
I smirked at Elaine, who blushed, looking down and wringing her hands together.
“Er… last night.”
“Whoa,” Caitlyn laughed incredulously. “That’s a new level of U-Haul. Are you… I mean, if it’s just to keep her safe, it’s… are you staying married?”
“I’ll be able to set her free once the threat has passed,” I said. “I don’t know how long it will take. Probably a few months. Not more than a year.”
“A year married to a stranger…” Caitlyn looked wide-eyed between me and Elaine before she smiled. “I mean, not bad as far as strangers go.”
“Cait,” Elaine said, a hand over her face.
It was hard to do worse than one who was going to kill you in your sleep. Caitlyn was an unfortunate loose end… she might start to suspect it was us who murdered Elaine for the inheritance.
“In the meantime,” Petra said, “we’ll make sure you’re taken care of. From what I’ve heard, your mother is a real piece of work.”
Caitlyn’s expression hardened, but Elaine just crumpled, tears shimmering in the corners of her eyes. I put a hand down on top of hers without even thinking about it, and she looked at me with wonder in her eyes, but I looked away.
Caitlyn already knew what the situation was with her mother. She went through the worst of it, and in a way, was better for it. Jaded already. Elaine had lived so long in delusion, telling herself her mother deserved forgiveness she’d never give herself.
I knew you couldn’t betray your family, but… maybe her mother was never family at all.
“I left all my things back at the house, though,” Caitlyn said. “My computer, my tablet…”
Petra leaned back in her seat. “We’ll go shopping tomorrow! Pick you up some new ones. Don’t worry, we’ve got cash to cover it.”
“Tomorrow? It’s my sister’s wedding!”
Elaine cleared her throat hard. “Caitlyn, it’s not… I hope you’re not expecting a ceremony. It’s just paperwork.”
Caitlyn folded her arms, pouting. “It had better be a ceremony! It’s your wedding! Even if it’s just for now, you can’t get married without a little ceremony!”
“Caitlyn…” Elaine looked down, but I could see the hint of blush in her cheeks.
She was doing something terrible to me by, somehow, making me sentimental. I was used to killing cold-hearted monsters, people who deserved it. But Elaine had never done anything except help people. Even me.
If she had to die, I wanted her to at least die happy.
“We can spare some budget for a ceremony,” I said, and Elaine looked wild-eyed at me. “Nothing fancy. Just something nice. We’ll call it a welcome ceremony to this new place… to where you’ll be spending some time until we’re sure you’re safe.”
Elaine swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t want to… I couldn’t possibly keep troubling you for more—”
Caitlyn clapped her hands down on the table. “Elaine says yes! She wants to.”
“Cait!”
Petra and I exchanged glances, and Petra chuckled. “Then I guess we’ll go shopping for your new computer and for wedding decorations tomorrow.”
Caitlyn beamed at Elaine. “I like your wife’s friends.”
We were quick to crash after we finished food, all four of us exhausted, and I cleaned up the mess while Petra helped Caitlyn upstairs to show her around the bath and to her own room—Petra promised to get her wheelchair here and make sure everything was set up for her to get around, but Caitlyn assured her that she’d be able to move around the house okay—and then I took my shower, too, getting ready for bed.
I found Elaine in the library after I finished, wearing her white dress again, a book in her hands as she sat under the tall arched window, silhouetted perfectly against moonlit rainfall.
“Guess you really will be happy here,” I said, sidling up next to her, and she jolted, only just noticing I was there. “Enough books to keep you happy for years.”
She blushed, looking down at the book. “It’s an impressive collection… is it your family’s?”
“It’s Blackbird now. So, sort of.”
“Do you… like them? The Blackbirds, I mean.”
I shrugged, leaning against the window, the loose cotton of my pajama shirt leeching the cold from the glass. “They’re my family. Well, they’re Glenn’s family.”
“Glenn… is he the head?”
I nodded. “Hopefully you won’t have to meet him. A very intense man.”
“Do you like him?”
I scoffed. “Not really the important thing. It’s a crime family. We’re not singing kumbaya around the fire.”
She looked down at her hands, folded on top of the book. “You seem so… lonely, Vera,” she whispered. “Like you’re right there, but at the same time, you’re so far away… that I can’t even find you.”
I scowled, turning away. “I’m not the type for friends. I don’t chat. I don’t open up.”
She laughed quietly. “Not even for your wife?”
“Hm.” I couldn’t fight a small smile. “I know what I’d ask for from my wife.”
She cocked her head. “What’s that?”
I smiled. She flushed as she realized, eyes wide, looking down.
“Oh! Right… right.” She cleared her throat. “You don’t need to, er… go… find someone to handle the situation with?”
“Don’t really have time right now. I wait until the mission is done.”
“Right… so, after we’ve gotten married.”
“Could make it easier, if you’re offering.”
She put a hand over her face, blushing down to her neck now. “I’m not…”
“I know, I know. You’re the good girl type, aren’t you? Probably waiting until marriage.”
“I-I’ve had sex.”
“With how many people?”
“Er… well, um…” She cleared her throat.
“One?”
“T-two.”
“Aw. Cute.” I mussed her hair. “Good job making it through okay this far. Now, are you coming to bed?”
“Coming to…?”
“There’s only three rooms set up as bedrooms right now,” I said. “Caitlyn needs some time alone, and I don’t recommend sharing a bed with Petra. So… you coming?”
She looked away, blushing harder. “It’s not going to be too… er… distracting for you?”
Of course it was. I felt like I wanted to rip my own skin off, I was so feral, and thinking of Elaine lying right there in bed next to me, I was barely going to sleep in between all the fantasies.
But I’d get myself off in the bathroom and call it a night. Or maybe in bed without her knowing again.
“I can make it one more night,” I said, and I opened the door for her. “Now, come on. Your last night as an unmarried woman.”
And her last night alive.