“We’ll see about that when I get my hands on her again and-“
“Do not push your luck. You’re on borrowed time at the moment.”
A near laugh barks out of me. More fucking furious than entertained. “I want my Alice back. And if I don’t get her back I might as well use the next available slut as a diversion.” My feet move towards the stairs, hands attempting to control the fists they’re trying for. “Yours will do.”
All that calm, relatively amused interest in my predicament morphs into something I know well. He takes steps to meet me at the bottom step, enough rigidity in his spine that I know he’s thinking about fighting. That would be as pointless as the last time he thought about it.
“Put your dick away, Gray. We both know I’ll win if you try.”
At least he concedes to that to some degree, choosing to drink again rather than continue to wind me in the wrong direction. The thought makes me sneer and search the empty space again, perhaps hoping that she’ll be found sleeping quietly in a corner. My sweeping gaze still doesn’t find her, and it’s still fucking empty in here.
“Did you cut your throat, or did she?”
I run my fingers over the light ridge on neck, protective of it for some reason now he’s reminded me it’s there. “She did. I gave her that choice.”
“To kill you?”
“Yes. Why not? She’s become my reason to exist.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
What else is there to say about that? Nothing. That’s what we were, what I was allowing her the pleasure of. Power over me, or over her own past. Who fucking knows? But it was relevant in ways I hadn’t got to yet, hadn’t found. We could have ended each other out there in the woods. We could have drained away in the snow; me choking her to death, her taking the blood from my veins for me as we fucked. Poetic somehow. Rhythmical. Like our song.
“While you were having a mental breakdown in here, I did check the landing strip. A plane left an hour ago.” My head swings back to look at him, eyes narrowing. He takes a few mouthfuls of his drink and waits there, as if he hasn’t finished. “Damien’s. Maybe that would be good place to start looking.”
I frown and walk swiftly for the elevator so I can get back up to the main rooms, both irritated and comforted with Gray’s presence beside me. Damien was here. Although, having now cleared the place I wouldn’t know when he left.
By time we reach the hallway, and stride through to each of the waiting rooms, there’s no one to be found. It’s as empty here as it was downstairs. “Damien wouldn’t take her,” I state, turning for the drinks tray. “We’ve known each other too long, and no matter how degenerate he might be while he’s here, he would never take his games off these grounds.”
“Odd that he isn’t here helping you then.”
I pour some scotch, and then keep pouring. “I made him leave. I made everyone leave.”
“And yet I’m still here.”
The drink goes to my lips as I turn to look at him, and I drink the full glass. “Yes. Why are you still here? Go away. Take your smug sense of superiority out of my face. It was all fine before you got involved.”
“Fine? You tried killing yourself. Again.” I turn away again for the drinks. “I did what I thought was best. It’s about time someone did something to stop you.”
“And because of that, because you chose to fuck around in my head and bring me back to the here and now, I took my Alice somewhere to contemplate that, found a new thing I hadn’t worked out, and now someone’s taken her from me. Your fault.”
“It’s hardly my fault that-“ Every single bottle and glass in front of me gets thrown across the room, the entire tray thrown to make my fucking point.
“YOU DARED TO FUCK AROUND WITH ME. YOU!” He backs up, scowls at me. “You made me think something was special – someone was special – and now you’re daring to try denying your fault in this?”
“Malachi-“
“No. You started this. You, Gray. You kept me breathing, and then you took away my only reason left to bothering doing it.”
“I did not take her.”
“Not her, my pills.”
Both his brows shoot upwards. “The pills?”
“Yes. They’re mine. And they make all this type of crap easier to deal with.” I pace, agitated with everything including my disordered emotions. Fucking fretful and agitated? What the fuck is that? And the pain won’t go. It won’t leave me in my relative sanity.
