Page 57 of Blood We Steal

Though I flung the door open, Simone didn’t look surprised.

“Did something happen?”

She was on the couch sitting crisscross applesauce, as she called it. So ridiculous, like the ridiculous woman.

She was wearing the top of a prison uniform, but her brown legs were bare, the smooth expanse of her thighs practically begging for my touch. It wasn’t an attempt at flirting.

So no fantasies of Simone trying to seduce me, subtly offering herself in hopes I would take her.

No, she was being practical, holding a pen so cheap that even she, who held onto money like she was afraid it would flee and never come back, had found the brand beneath her before.

Like nothing had changed.

Like nothing mattered.

Rage, hot and raw, flickered in my chest.

She’d sat with him, laughed with him, and eaten a half portion of cold, lumpy grits and treated it like a feast. And now, still, she was…normal.

Like she wasn’t trapped in a prison. Like the world hadn’t fucking ended. It occurred to me then that this was how she had managed to fool me.

I’d thought it admirable, the resilience that was so easy to miss at first glance. But now it was the thing that taunted me.

Because sitting here serenely, calmly, through this… This was the way she had sat next to me for years, collecting evidence that she could so calmly deploy to her benefit.

Like it was okay. Like it didn’t even matter. Simone had shown the ultimate disrespect and had just done it again, like she knew that I was nothing to fear. I pulled her to her feet.

She stumbled slightly, then looked at me, confused. “What’s going on, Rubin?”

I was too…angry. Yes, that was the feeling that had seized me and had my throat closed too tight to speak.

So I didn’t. Just threw open the door and walked her down the hallway. I barely noticed the smudges on the floor, dust accumulating from the lack of circulation and of my usual maintenance routine.

Didn’t notice anything, really, but the steady, even thud, thud, thud of her pulse beneath my fingertips or the way she breathed.

Calm, steady, unbothered. Even now. I kept walking, then stopped at the threshold, right at the catwalk.

I glanced at her. Her eyes were narrowed slightly. But there was tension around her mouth now. “So you remember this place,” I said.

She chuckled the little nervous laugh that I refused to allow to disarm me. “How could I forget?”

At that she glanced over the edge and looked down. The few that had been there the first day had grown.

I wasn’t sure how. We had checked the floors and made sure there were no more hiding, but still these had come, probably wandering out of cells that they hadn’t been able to escape before.

Or another gift from Merrick. Merrick, who should have been my top priority, my only concern. And yet again Simone was distracting me with her antics.

“Rubin, why are we here?” She spoke the words calmly, but with a care that was more than usual for her.

“You know we’re here because I say so,” I said. She gulped but made no move to pull away from my grip.

I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Was she worried she would offend me? Was she trying to manage me?

I should stop trying to figure out anything at all about Simone. I’d proven to be shit at it so far and had no evidence that was going to change.

But a point needed to be made. I pulled her closer, her body flush against mine. She sank into me.

But I noticed the way her eyes darted toward the well. “I told you what to do, didn’t I?”