Page 8

Chapter 8

Sunday Murder Club – Episode Three

MORI

T onight was the third meeting of our Sunday Murder Club.

Like the first two, it was being held at my club. Well, our club now, I guessed. Pretty much everyone was here already, but my eldest brother was yet to arrive.

I grinned over at my mate, who was in deep conversation with his twin. I hadn’t told River that I’d put The Closet in both our names yet. To be honest, I was wondering how long it would take him to find out.

Given how nosy he could be, I was amazed it hadn’t happened already. Not that I was expecting him to be surprised or anything. Our lives and mortality were already intertwined—it made sense to do the same with our mortal assets too.

Conversation was flowing around me while we waited for Cal to arrive, but I was content to sit in silence. It was my preferred state of being.

Which was good, given River could talk for both of us.

I stroked my thumb over my lip as I stared at my mate. Fuck, how I loved to watch him, especially when he was talking. It was as though he was lit from the inside out, his whole body becoming animated as the conversation carried him away.

It reminded me of other times he became animated. Like when he was riding my fingers. My face. My cock.

River’s words faded out mid-sentence as he likely felt the directions of my thoughts through the bond. His gaze snapped to me, the predator that lay beneath his sunny exterior showing in his eyes. “Whatcha thinkin’ about there, lumbersnack?”

I sat back in my seat and winked at him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

River’s eyes darkened. “I really think I do.”

His desire twined with mine in the bond, everyone else in the room fading away. Maybe River and I should pay a visit to the storage closet. Cal was late already, and I was certain we’d have time for at least a blow job.

Before I could come up with an excuse to drag River away and do just that, Harlow smacked his hand on the table. “Ew. Whatever the two of you are thinking right now, please stop. It’s not hot when one of the horny pair is related to me.”

“It’s not hot either way,” Sebastian muttered, twirling his dagger between his fingers. “We need a rule about the behaviour of mates during these meetings.”

“Don’t be sour just because yours isn’t here,” Toby drawled, sliding an arm over Blaise’s shoulders. “The rest of us shouldn’t have to miss out just because this is a supes-only meeting.”

Dagon chose that moment to pipe up. “Dimitri and I manage to behave.”

We all snorted, but it was Dimitri who called bullshit. “No we fucking don’t. We get each other just as wound up sometimes, knowing it’s driving Lucky crazy at home.”

“That’s true.” Dagon sighed happily before kissing Dimitri’s cheek. “He’s feisty when he’s horny. And nothing makes Lucky hornier than when he can feel us together through the bond.”

That had me wincing along with Harlow, Sebastian, Blaise, and Ferry. Yeah. Perhaps we did need some rules, or even just some solid boundaries. I might’ve started this little detour, but now I was mightily regretting it.

Thankfully, I felt Cal cross my wards a second before he appeared in the doorway.

I glanced over at him as he entered and my stomach flipped. There was an expression on his face that I’d once known so well. One I hadn’t seen on him in a long time.

That wasn’t Cal stalking towards us.

It was the Butcher of the Ninth Circle.

Silence fell across the room, tensions rising as everyone read Cal’s expression. The one that suggested someone was about to die.

Painfully.

He didn’t take a seat as he drew close. Didn’t speak. Didn’t so much as look at us. Just threw a handful of pictures onto the table. They slid across the surface, one coming to a stop directly before me.

It was a headshot of a young girl. Fifteen or sixteen, if I had to guess. The harsh, bright light it had been taken under highlighted the dark blue bruise around her eye. The swelling around the bridge of her nose. The weeping wound on her lower lip.

The injuries were bad enough, but it was the look in her eyes that had my heart breaking.

There was no life there, just a weary exhaustion. An understanding that was beyond her years.

This was a young person who had no hope.

I glanced around the various photos the others were studying. It was the same person in all of them.

And in all of them, she had similar injuries.

The difference was her age…and the expression on her face. In Harlow’s she was about ten. Tears were streaked down her face, eyes swollen not just from injury, but from crying.

Cal signalled for us to pass them back. We did so silently, all of us too horrified to speak. We were supes—most of us demons—but this was a child. A child who’d suffered.

That touched us all.

Cal lined up the photos in age order. My eyes swept over them, heart sinking as my suspicions were confirmed.

In each photo, a little more of the girl’s soul slipped away. The hope that she might be saved faded.

Until there was nothing left.

“Who is this?” Fire licked around my hands as I asked the question. I wasn’t the only one close to losing control, either. Flames wreathed both Dagon and Harlow, while Sebastian had gone deathly still.

“Maisie North,” Cal said. They were the first words he’d spoken since stepping inside the club. “She’s a student in Oscar’s tutor group. Often skips school for weeks at a time. When she returns, Oscar says it’s like a little more of her soul has been stripped away.”

We all looked at the pictures in unison. At the clear progression of futility.

“He’s been getting more and more concerned about her,” Cal said, his voice deathly soft. “So I offered to look into her, see if I could dig up anything that might show what’s going on.”

Harlow pointed at the photos. “This is what you’ve found?”

“Yes,” Cal said curtly. “In the bottom drawer of her stepfather’s desk. Seems he likes to collect…trophies.”

There was a heavy silence as we all took that information in.

“Why haven’t you killed him?” I asked bluntly. “Why bring it to us?”

“I promised Oscar I wouldn’t act rashly,” he said simply. “But just look at her face. There’s no way we can leave Maisie in that house with him for a second longer.”

“He needs to die,” Ferry said darkly. A rumble of agreement went around the table.

“I’ll do it,” I said abruptly. I didn’t know what it was, but something about this girl’s suffering spoke to me. Probably because of the types of sinners who’d been on my roster in Hell.

Gaslighters. Abusers. Rapists.

Torturing them had been my speciality. I’d never felt a shred of guilt over doing so.

I wouldn’t this time, either.

“I’ll go too,” River rasped. I looked up and found his gaze on me. “Together. We’ll make him pay.”

I pushed gratitude towards my mate through the bond. While I’d volunteered for this, and would likely enjoy it, no doubt it’d stir up some unresolved bullshit for me. Memories from the centuries in Hell that I’d tried so hard to bury.

With River there though, they wouldn’t drag me under. He’d keep me afloat.

Just as he always did.

Cal inclined his head in thanks. “You’re exactly who I had in mind. I appreciate it.”

“Any specific requests?” I asked, my fingers touching the edge of one of the pictures. Fucker deserved to pay in whichever ways Cal determined for what he’d done.

Cal straightened his jacket, flames dancing in his eyes. “No powers. Make him feel every one of your hits.”

Just like Maisie did.

My mate stood, and a slow sinister smile spread across his face. “Oh, we can do that.”

* * *

A n hour later, River and I had Maisie’s stepfather tied up in an abandoned warehouse by the docks.

“I’m just saying, these are sturdier than the ones we use at the moment.” River hefted a coil of rope in his hands. He spoke in a normal tone, despite the screaming man in the chair. That was the benefit of being supes—our hearing was superior.

And as a demon, I was used to the screams of deserving humans. I used to hate it, but knowing exactly what David Jenkins did to his stepdaughter? Turned out I quite liked it. Music to the ears, as one might say.

“Please,” he screamed again. “I ain’t done nuffin wrong! Please let me go!”

“Maybe we should upgrade ours,” River continued as though David hadn’t spoken. “Think of all the fun we could have if they didn’t burn so quickly.”

Cal had not only given us the cunt’s address, but a few supplies too. Including the rope River was currently salivating over.

“Ours are fine,” I said, pulling back my fist and letting another hit fly into David’s face. It was tricky finding the balance between making my punches as painful as possible, and not knocking the fucker out, but I was managing it so far. Probably helped that I’d compelled him to not lose consciousness. I knew Cal had said no powers, but I was certain he’d approve of this. “They’re designed for sex, Riv.”

“They’re designed for human sex,” River corrected me, dropping it to the floor. “Maybe chains are the way to go.”

David groaned, snot and blood mingling on his face. “Why are you doing this to me? I didn’t do nuffin wrong!”

River pulled back his lips in a snarl. “Neither did Maisie, you little fucker.”

The hit he delivered to David had his head snapping backwards. I’d wager that my mate hadn’t just broken his nose, but his cheekbone too.

I grabbed his hair and used it to haul him back upright.

“What’s that little skank got to do with this?” David wheezed, spitting a tooth out. Then another. “I didn’t do whatever she said.”

River studied him thoughtfully. “Cal didn’t say anything about his tongue, right?”

“Nope.” I let my demon shine in the smile I delivered to David. “And I for one am done with hearing his bullshit.”

“Excellent.” River pulled a wicked dagger from the sheath on the back of his trousers. “Would you like the honour, lumbersnack?”

The front of David’s trousers darkened as his fear overtook him.

Good.

I wanted him to suffer.

“You do it, brat,” I said, kissing River’s temple. “Make it hurt.”

* * *

B y the time we finally sent David on his way to his eternal unrest, the sun was peeking over the horizon.

“Come on.” I kicked the pile of ashes that was once David. “There’s something else we need to do.”

River eyed me curiously, but didn’t say anything.

We popped home first, needing to wash the blood off. Maisie had been traumatised enough; the last thing I wanted to do was add more to her plate.

River didn’t ask where we were going, but he knew. We both wanted Maisie to know David was in a place where he could never reach her again. Better than that, she’d gained at least two supes who’d be watching over her from afar.

Likely more, given how everyone else had reacted. I wouldn’t be surprised if Harlow was looking into ways to make her life better financially. Knowing Sebastian, he’d probably just wire her a shit-tonne of money.

The vampire could pretend to be an arsehole as much as he wanted, but Matty had changed him. As had becoming a parent.

He wouldn’t let a child suffer. With her stepfather out of the picture, it was likely money was the next thing she’d need. Enough to escape this life if she wanted to. To achieve whatever dreams she had.

Assuming David hadn’t destroyed them all.

Thanks to my tracking skills, it was easy to locate Maisie at a bus stop near her house. She was sat with her head ducked down, long hair covering her face.

Was that because she was shy, or because she was hiding injuries?

The one consolation I had was that she couldn’t be too badly hurt, or she wouldn’t be going to school. But as we drew nearer, she fidgeted right as the wind picked up, clearly revealing the yellow skin around her eye.

Fury rolled through the bond as River clocked exactly what I had. “Fucker didn’t suffer enough.”

“Don’t worry,” I said darkly. “I’ll pay a visit downstairs and make sure he’s given the special treatment.”

I stepped back as we reached the bus stop, letting River take the lead. He was better with people than I was.

“Hi,” River said softly. He made sure to give her some space. “Are you Maisie?”

She shrank back in her seat. “No.”

Smart girl. I’d hope she wouldn’t give her name up to two strange men. Not wanting to scare her, I let loose a wave of compulsion. It wouldn’t do much, just keep her calm and believing what we said was true.

“My name’s River.” He dropped to his haunches so she was above him. “And that big ol’ lug over there is Mori.”

Her green eyes darted in my direction and I smiled kindly.

“What do you want?”

“Just to tell you that you don’t need to worry about David anymore,” River said. Maisie sucked in a breath, but didn’t panic thanks to the compulsion. “We know what he did to you, Maisie. We’re so fucking sorry that you had to go through what you did. But he won’t ever be able to hurt you again.”

She studied River before turning her keen eyes to me. “Did you make him pay?”

Her voice was quiet, lilting. But strong. So fucking strong. I wasn’t sure what Cal would have to say about me sharing this, but I didn’t care. This was what Maisie needed to hear. “We did. We made him suffer.”

“Good.” She exhaled, her hands shaking in her lap. “I’m glad.”

“Maisie, are you safe at home now?” River asked. “Are you cared for? Loved?”

She was quiet for a long moment. “I’m safe, or I will be now. And I’m cared for. Mum tries her best.”

Heartbreak went through the bond. I rubbed my chest as my own ache developed.

“Loved?” River repeated tentatively.

Maisie looked down at her hands. “Love is too much to hope for for a girl like me. I’m grateful to be safe now. That’s enough.”

River’s mouth set in a grim line. No, it wasn’t enough. Not for either of us, and definitely not for Maisie.

To be this jaded at her age…it shone a light on how much she’d suffered. The cruelties of the world that had been dropped at her feet.

“You’ll find it one day,” River promised her before looking back over his shoulder at me. “I didn’t think I’d find it, but I did. And the wait was well worth it.”

From the tight smile Maisie gave him, I knew she didn’t believe him.

I hoped that whatever person chose her, they’d prove her wrong. That they’d show her the happiness she truly deserved.

“Mori and I will watch over you from afar,” River promised. “If you’re ever in trouble or need anything, I want you to find a club on Belmont Road called The Closet. Tell the bouncer on the door you’re there to see River. Can you remember that?”

She bobbed her head, her eyes slightly glassy. I realised River had compelled her too, writing this information into her subconscious.

“Take care, Maisie,” River said, getting to his feet and stepping back. “And don’t forget—anything you need, come find us.”

I took his hand in mine and smiled at Maisie once more. She was watching me carefully, her head cocked to the side. “Wait.”

I paused. “Yes?”

She got to her feet, approaching me carefully. “You seem really familiar. Have we met before?”

River shot me a questioning look and I shrugged. “Nope, can’t say we have. I do know your tutor though, Mr. Price.”

“Maybe that’s it.” She retreated to her seat. “Thank you. For taking care of David.”

“You’re welcome,” I said softly. “Look after yourself, Maisie.”

River’s thumb stroked over the back of my hand as we began the walk home. I’d told her to look after herself, but we were going to too.

Killing David hadn’t given us the satisfaction we’d craved, but perhaps caring for Maisie from afar would.