AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shakes her head. “But what if there aren’t any more? I’ve been chasing dead ends forever. It’s like he’s a ghost.”
Romeo wipes the blade of her knife on a clean patch of carpet, then snaps it closed and hands it to her. “Even ghosts leave a trail, Fuck-up. We’ll find him.”
She takes a step back, surveying the carnage she unleashed. “We need to clean this up.”
I blow out a breath. This level of cleanup requires time and equipment we don’t have. “I’ll have it taken care of.”
She turns and blinks at me. “By who?”
“We know some people,” I assure her. The Morettis have cleaners all over the goddamn country. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” I turn my attention to Romeo. “Grab that DVD.”
“What the fuck are we gonna do with it?”
“No harm in having someone look at it. If it’s what I suspect it is, there might be a clue on it.”
He takes it out of the machine and slips it into the empty case on top of the TV cabinet. “Good thinking.”
Keres wraps her arms around herself and shivers. She’s such a fucking paradox, but at least now I understand her better. Despite how royally she’s fucked me and Romeo over, I have to fight back the urge to wrap my arms around her and give that little girl inside some kind of comfort. It would likely only earn me a punch in the jaw or a kick in the nuts. “Do you want to talk about anything, you know, the stuff you said?”
“With you?” She huffs a laugh. “Fuck no.”
And there she is, the Keres I’ve come to know. At least I know where I stand with this one. Romeo catches my eye, a devious grin spreading across his face. Her ice-cold exterior makes her more of a challenge to him, but it only makes me want to get the hell away from her as soon as possible. Keres Sideris is the most dangerous kind of woman there is, and not just because she could skin a man alive with her eyes closed, but because she’s already under my skin, and if she gets any deeper, I’d let her burn me up from the inside out.
Chapter
Twenty-One
KERES
I’m irritable and edgy and I need a long hot shower, all of which isn’t helped by the fact that I can feel Romeo’s eyes on me even as I try to ignore him. He leans against the wall outside the motel office, legs crossed at the ankles and arms folded over his chest, watching me like I might break into a million pieces.
I let my guard down today, revealed parts of my past that nobody except Phoenix or Father Mike know about, and it only adds to that itchy feeling beneath my flesh. I scratch the back of my neck, wishing I could peel off this skin like a suit and wear someone else’s for a while.
Doing my best to avoid Romeo’s gaze and the weight of his concern, I check my fingernails, which are caked with Jeremiah’s dried blood. Bile burns my throat at the memory of his bloated body beneath mine while I threatened to cut out his tongue. His flaccid penis hardened between my legs while I was straddling him. Sure softened real fast when I actually did cut out his fat tongue.
“Got us a room,” Ace’s deep voice cuts through the thick tension.
I frown at him. “A room?”
“Yeah, a fucking room.”
Un-fucking-believable. “You seriously expect me to share a room with you guys again?”
Ace walks past me, headed in the direction of the room blocks. “You seriously expect us to let you out of our sight for a fucking second, Trouble?” he calls over his shoulder.
Romeo pushes himself off the wall and smirks at me. “Besides, we’ve already had an up-close look at the parts of you only your gynecologist is intimately familiar with, Fuck-up. Pretty sure we can keep our hands to ourselves if that’s what you’re worried about.” He walks after Ace, and I reluctantly follow, if only for the promise of a hot shower.
The room smells musty, like bedding that’s been stored away for the winter and needs airing, but at least it looks clean and there are two beds, so that’s something. I step inside and toss my leather jacket and my backpack onto one of them. Opening my bag, I pull out my small toiletry pouch. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
Romeo snorts. “Such impeccable manners, Fuck-up.”
I fold my arms and glare at them. “Do either of you have that jockstrap’s blood all over your hands?”
“Just go take a fucking shower and stop with the constant fucking snark.” Ace gives a heavy sigh. “None of us want to be here, but here we fucking are.” He throws his own backpack onto the other bed. “Let’s just do what the fuck we have to do so we can all get back to our normal lives.”
Clutching my bag to my chest, I walk into the bathroom and slam the door closed. When I turn on the shower, I’m relieved to see the steam almost immediately. I crank up the temperature as high as it will go and strip off my clothes, kicking them into a pile in the corner of the room. I step beneath the scalding water and close my eyes, tip my head back, and allow the cleansing water to run over my entire body.
It soothes my aching muscles and washes away the stench and grime of Jeremiah Boone. There isn’t much in the world that beats this feeling. I plant my hands on the solid tiles and drop my head forward, letting the water cascade down my back, and for a few blissful moments, there is just me and the hot water and nothing else.
