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He chuckles. “Is that why you introduced your knee to my goods?”
As I contemplate my literal knee jerk reaction, I decide that’s not why. “No. I did that because I could, and because I trust you.” The words don’t have to make sense to be true. Then again, since he doesn’t question it, maybe they were clear enough.
I’m half asleep when there’s a knock on the door, and after Gray shouts for them to come in, Tido sticks his head through the door.
“Got an update for me?” Gray asks as he gets up and pulls me with him.
“I do, Gray. The detectives were quick to take over the scene, and they practically sent me here as soon as they arrived,” he explains. I’m still not sure how I feel about the detectives. Mostly because it’s weird. “Do you want Slasher here for this?”
Gray looks at me, and the concern in his eyes is easy to read. He’s worried about how I’ll feel being in here with three men. To help him, I offer, “I’ll go find Alana.”
“The fuck you will,” Gray growls. “You’re not leaving my side, Princess. Besides, I think you need to hear this as well.”
I try to steel myself for what’s undoubtedly going to be a gruesome update while Gray ushers all of us into church. But nothing could prepare me for the pictures Tido shows us on his laptop.
“This is how we found her,” he says. There’s no emotion in his voice as he gestures at the screen. “Her back and hair were covered in jizz, indicating it was a group thing.”
I gag as I look at the young woman on the screen. Erin’s eyes are sewn shut and her lips sewn together. Her cheeks are littered with cigarette burns, and her chin is like one gaping wound. All color drains from my face, and I gasp, “Gray,” as I notice the mark on her forehead.
Clawing at my throat, I try to breathe, but no air reaches my lungs. I fall out of the chair, gasping for the sweet relief of oxygen that never comes.
“Princess!”
Oh God, her forehead.
An inhuman wail leaves me as I dry heave on all fours like a fucking animal.
I still remember the way it felt, and the sweet stench of burned flesh once he was done.
“Princess!”
The smell was the worst. Worse than the all-consuming pain that made screaming impossible.
“Snap the fuck out of it! Slasher, get Alana. Now.”
For days I couldn’t get rid of the smell, or maybe it was weeks. Even after squirting soap directly into my nostrils, I couldn’t smell anything but my flesh burning.
“Gray!” I grasp onto his arms, pushing myself impossibly closer. “Don’t let go,” I beg as sobs make my body tremble violently in his hold.
“Shh. You’re okay, Princess. You’re safe. With you in my arms, this is the true definition of Nirvana.”
Just like the first night I was back, it’s the use of his secret cabin that breaks through my thoughts.
“Do you hear me, Princess? You’re my Nirvana.”
“I-I h-hear you,” I stutter as I fight against the sobs. “You’re my Nirvana, too.”
When Slasher returns with Alana in tow, I’m softly crying into Gray’s chest as I sit in his lap and his arms are holding me tight. I don’t look up or answer when she says my name, Ikeep all my focus on breathing. Something that should come easy, but right now it’s anything but.
Slasher says something to Tido, who asks, “Should I carry on?”
Even though he isn’t asking me, I nod against Gray’s chest. “Yeah, go on,” he says, answering.
Tido talks about the brutality, and how the macabre stitches have often been thought to be when the Reapers wanted to send a message.
“In the past, they’ve taken the eyes or sewn them shut if the victim sees something they shouldn’t,” he explains. “And when it’s the lips, it’s been a verbal offense. Like a disrespect against Rusty or Irina, or someone who broke their code of silence.”
Leaning forward I look at Tido. “B-but Erin wasn’t one of theirs. So how can any of that apply to her?”
