Page 32 of Grim Girl (Dead Girl Duology #2)

Kali

D espite the most indescribably delicious ache throbbing in every part of my body, I had a job to do.

A job that was well overdue.

The guys followed behind me when the mood turned from playful and sensual back to serious. They could sense my need for vengeance, and they were supporting me in that quest. It wasn’t just mine, either. Chance deserved to take his pound of flesh, too, and I was more than willing to let him join in.

I had no set plan, and I didn’t think we really needed one. With the police no longer an option, I wanted to fuck with him. I wanted to make him feel the fear he’d made us feel when he cut our lives short far too soon. I wanted him to look me in the eyes and know that he’d fucked him.

I wanted him to fucking cower beneath our wrath the way he’d made so many women plead and beg for mercy, only to be denied for the sake of sating his sick desires.

‘What shall we do first?’ Rhodes asked, rubbing his hands together with a wicked grin that made him look like a cartoon villain.

‘Get Dakota out of the line of fire,’ I said, and that dimmed whatever amusement he felt over the situation. I enjoyed his bubbly personality, but there was a time and a place for it, and this wasn’t it.

‘Right. How are we going to do that?’

We all turned to watch her cry on Blake’s shoulder as Rhodes’ body was carted away by the coroner. Mikey was close by, looking very much like he wanted to tear her away from him and comfort her himself, but he wisely held back.

‘I don’t know, yet,’ I admitted.

‘What about DeLuca?’ he asked, and we all turned confused eyes on him.

‘Who’s DeLuca?’ Chance asked.

‘The detective. The partner of the cop Blake kidnapped.’

Morty snorted. ‘That’s always how it ends. The cops catch the scent, dig a little deeper, and the killer starts to make mistakes. He’s a fucking idiot for kidnapping a cop. He should’ve just accepted that his run was over.’

‘Seen a lot of serial killers, have you?’ Rhodes asked, half joking, half not.

Morty shrugged off the question, focusing his attention back on the gathering of living people milling about in front of us.

‘Okay, then,’ Rhodes trailed off, shifting to put me between him and my most surly boyfriend.

That seemed like the wrong word for what this was between us.

Boyfriends were for the living, for those dating around with the intent to settle down and start a family.

These three men surrounding me surpassed that.

They meant more from the very beginning.

Chance and I had been building towards this for so long, it was a wonder we hadn’t given in before now.

Morty and I were kindred spirits, choosing one another because there really wasn’t any other choice.

We were inevitable. And Rhodes? Fuck, he was just a ray of sunshine that balanced us out.

With my thirst for vengeance, Morty’s obsessive tendencies, and Chance’s possessive overprotectiveness, we all needed someone like Rhodes.

He rounded us out, turning us from a chaotic mishmash of lust and violence into something beautiful, something in tune.

With him, we made sense. He was the reminder we needed that there was more to exist for once this was all over.

‘What can this detective do to help us?’ I asked, unsure where he was going with this.

‘We can head on over to the station and enlist his help, or something. Right?’

‘Um…’

‘I already did that,’ Morty stated, stunning me so much that I actually took a step back.

‘What?’

‘I was the one who left the note.’

‘No way. Really?’ Rhodes bounced excitedly on the tips of his toes. ‘That’s so cool! You’ll have to teach me how that works. I haven’t figured out how to not fall through things yet.’

‘You are not like us. You will have to find your own way,’ Morty told him so bluntly that Rhodes flinched like he’d been slapped.

‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’ he demanded, clearly hurt by Morty’s dismissal of him. In fact, I was about to lay into him myself, but then he explained.

‘You weren’t murdered. Your death was a natural consequence of your illness, and it was your time. Our deaths were abrupt, violent, and an act of betrayal. We were not meant to die, which is why we are stuck here in Limbo.’

‘Limbo,’ Chance repeated, the epiphany hitting us probably harder than it should have.

‘So… how am I here, if I’m not supposed to be?’ Rhodes asked, and it was a valid question that I wanted the answer to, as well.

‘I don’t know. By all rights, you should have passed on to a different realm, further away from the living,’ Morty answered, but he seemed to be getting bored with this line of questioning, because he stalked away to the other side of the room.

‘Well, damn. That just gave me more questions than answers,’ Rhodes mumbled with a pout.

I placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to comfort him, but he grabbed me and pulled me into yet another one of his bear hugs instead.

‘I don’t care why I’m here, because I’m here with you,’ he murmured softly against my hair.

‘I’m glad you’re here, too, Rhodes. I had hoped you would stick around.’

‘Like I could ever leave you. I was yours from the moment I first saw you,’ he said, and I melted into him, winding my arms around his trim waist to squeeze him back.

‘Let’s focus on what we do know,’ Chance said as he slung an arm over both of us, tugging us both into his side.

‘Blake needs to be taken care of, and Dakota needs to be removed somewhere safe so she doesn’t get caught in the crossfire.

We can talk to the detective if we need backup from the living, and we can interact with the living realm now that our power has grown. ’

‘How’d you grow it?’ Rhodes asked, ever curious.

‘By consuming the souls of the damned,’ Morty answered from across the room, and I snorted at his dramatic response.

‘Wait, really?’

‘Kind of, but it’s a little more complicated than that,’ I told him.

‘Okay. There’s a lot I need to figure out, apparently, but I’m here for it.’

Chance chuckled and ruffled his hair, earning him a scowl from the youngest of my men.

‘So… what, we divide and conquer?’ I asked.

‘Actually, that might not be the worst idea,’ Chance said, and then we promptly lost him to his thoughts.

‘I can go back to the police station,’ Morty offered. ‘I know where to find the detective.’

‘And then what?’ I asked. ‘To what end?’

‘No, she’s right,’ Chance chimed in again. ‘If we want to fuck Blake over as much as possible, the police are the last thing on the list. If we call them in too soon, we could lose our opportunity to really make my little brother pay.’

My heart clenched with sadness for him when he spat out those words with so much venom that even I felt sick.

‘So we hold off on going to the detective. We just need to figure out how to separate Blake and Dakota, and how to get the cop out of the basement.’

‘The basement?’ Rhodes asked, disappointment twisting his face into a sneer. ‘Seriously? He has a murder basement in his secret murder house? What a fucking cliché.’

‘I know,’ Chance agreed. ‘I was pretty let down when I found out, too. I expected something more… elaborate from him.’

‘I don’t know what you guys are talking about,’ I scoffed.

‘His murder basement is creepy as hell, completely kitted out, and even has a reinforced door. There’s no escaping, you’re stuck down there for days, possibly even weeks with nothing more than the torture tools hanging on the wall to keep you company, a lumpy mattress, and a bucket to shit in.

There are no windows. No hope. No nothing except Blake and pain. ’

They were silent for a beat as they absorbed the hint of what I’d been through at his hands.

‘I’m sorry, Kali,’ Rhodes said, stroking a hand over my hair. ‘I didn’t mean it like that, and that was super insensitive of me. Forgive me?’

I sighed. My anger wasn’t directed at them. Not really. ‘There’s nothing to forgive. I just…’

‘Need to make him pay for what he’s done,’ Chance finished for me. ‘Yeah. Me, too.’

‘Then let’s stop yapping and get started,’ Morty interrupted, annoyance causing his shadows to flick at the tips like the tails of hundreds and angry cats.

‘Dakota first,’ I reminded him, and though he rolled his eyes at me, he acquiesced.

‘Fine. Where do you want me to take her?’

‘Take her?’

He huffed at my question, but I was still stuck on the fact that he could move entire people, and up until recently, I struggled with making a breeze. ‘Yes. I am a powerful man, Kali. I can wrap her in my shadows and drag her through the darkness to wherever you choose.’

I blinked, then blinked again, until I finally snapped myself out of it. ‘Uh,’ I stammered. ‘How about we don’t do that?’

He growled out his frustration and threw his hands in the air, his shadows twisting around him like they were preparing to carry out the deed regardless of my decision.

‘I don’t want to scare her any more than necessary. She’s going through enough as it is. We can at least afford her the courtesy of not dragging her around in the shadows. I don’t think she would appreciate that very much.’

‘Fine,’ he snapped, though I could see he saw the reason in my approach.

‘However… if you can do that, maybe we’re focusing on the wrong person?’ I mused out loud.

Chance barked out a laugh. ‘Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?’

‘Uh, care to clue in the rest of us?’ Rhodes prompted, an adorably baffled look on his face that made me want to shower him in kisses.

Later, I promised myself.

‘While I’m considerate of Dakota’s wellbeing, I don’t particularly care about Blake's,’ I told him.

‘Ah,’ he chuckled, catching on. ‘I like it.’

I smirked at Morty. ‘Care to do the honours?’