Page 21

Eve

We lie on that table for what seems like eternity, his cock still buried inside me while we catch our breath. His head is nestled in the crook of my neck while I bring my hands up to his back, stroking his skin and feeling the blood on my hands leaving small trails along his flesh. I slowly dance my fingers along the lines of his shoulder blades, tracing his muscles as I finally bury my hands in his hair.

“Mmmmm,” he groans into my ear when I rub his scalp, massaging his head and neck and tightening my grip around his waist with my legs.

We could stay like this forever, and I’d die happy.

“You like that, stud?”

He lifts his head and we gaze at each other, small smiles tugging at our lips as he scoffs lightly and lifts himself up to his elbows.

“Eve,” he says, his voice suddenly serious and soft. “I’ve spent all my life avoiding this feeling, keeping relationships at a distance and refusing to let people in. But tonight: watching you work, us being completely ourselves together…the chemistry I feel with you right now…”

His voice drifts off as his eyes begin to dance around me, and I can feel him beginning to retreat into himself. I know he mentioned before that he tries to avoid attachments, but I’ll be damned if after everything we’ve been through, he still tries to keep me away.

I grab the sides of his face with my hands.

“Look at me, Jace,” I demand, and he meets my gaze. “What about tonight? Talk to me. Tell me what you’re feeling.”

For a moment he studies me, as if he’s memorizing the lines of my face, the color of my hair, the scent that hangs between us.

“I feel like I’ve just been born again in this room. On this table. I feel like you’ve helped to reach a part of me that I thought was LONG dead and gone. The ability to love, to find my humanity, to see that there is more to life than death…”

The words trail off as he shakes his head slightly, as if waking himself from a dream. He pushes himself up and off of me, the table shaking slightly, and my hands drop from his face: he hops off, and as he grabs a few more towels and retrieves his clothes, I can’t help but to feel…disappointed.

I fell for Jason because of his raw, aggressive personality and indifference to the violence that he wrought on his deserving victims. He allowed me to embrace who I was, to drag my true nature out of the darkness and shake hands with the demons that resided there. But to find out that there is more to him than that? A softer side? Humanity?

I’m sick of humanity.

“I’m glad that you’re able to feel that way again,” I roll to my side, doing my best to sound as sincere as possible. “But you can’t let that affect what you do, or how you work. I mean, you provide such a service to society by getting these criminals off of the streets for good.”

Jason turns to look at me, and I take him in: this tall, sculpted masterpiece of a man, bloodied handprints on his cheeks and reddened sweat painting his body: he is the embodiment of perfection, and yet I can’t help but to feel…repulsed…at the softness that’s been burrowing inside him.

“What do you mean? I won’t be quitting the Suits. I can’t quit the Suits.”

He turns his back to me, reaching down to grab his clothes before walking over to the desk nearby. His head dips down as he looks over the computer, the camera and equipment: the silence between us hangs in the air, louder than the sound of any scream that could come from this room.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” he mutters as he sets his clothes on the desk, pivoting to face me as I push up and slide off of the table.

As I pass the chair, I stoop down to pick up his mask off of the floor, brushing it off before slinking over to him. His eyes roam my naked body, and I revel in the utter worship I see in his eyes: setting the mask next to his clothes, I press myself against him and take his hands in mine.

“I know you have,” I say, my gaze locking onto his as I give his hands a squeeze. “And just because you’ve found somebody who accepts and loves you, doesn’t mean that you need to change what you do or who you are. You can have me, Jace. You can have me, AND the Suits. There’s no need to feel compromised by what we have.”

I glance at the mask on the table, and his eyes follow mine.

Do I tell him that I’m envious of his ability to satisfy his darkness, that he’s not only found an outlet for it, but a family to support him? That I wish I was living the life he has?

“You are able to do things that I only dream of,” my voice shakes slightly as I fight the frustration welling up in my chest, my eyes still tracing the filigree and shadows of the mask. “You helped me to claim revenge against the men who wronged me. But I can’t help but feel that now that I've had a taste of it, I want more. I don’t want to just live on the sidelines, Jace.”

I whip my head up to face Jason, and my brow furrows slightly as I try to decipher his expression. Joy. Mystery. Angst. But something else, too. I can see a smile buried beneath all the blood and sweat, and I can’t help but to cock my head.

“What is it?”

Keeping my hands in his, he turns towards the door and looks up: I follow his eyes to a small device mounted in the top corner of the wall.

A camera. And the light is on.

“We’re being recorded?? Is that Ace??”

The light turns off and on twice, as if Ace can hear what I’m saying and is nodding in response.

I huff.

“Eve, it’s normal for Ace to have his own direct line to these rooms,” Jason says matter-of-factly, and I glare up at him. “In case the activities in here don’t go as planned, he always has eyes on all of us. Ears too. It’s for our safety and protection. And it comes with the package. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you, but I didn’t know if you would’ve been ok with continuing tonight if you knew you were being watched.”

A scoff escapes my lips as I release Jason’s hands before walking around him towards the camera, my hips swishing like the tail of an irritated cat as I prowl right up beneath it and glare at it intently. I’m not embarrassed in the least–Ace seeing me naked matters precious little to me–but I AM concerned about the potential blackmail that comes with being recorded while brutally torturing and killing someone.

“I’m less worried with being watched while we fuck, Jace,” I say, keeping my eyes fixed on the camera. “But I am NOT ok with being recorded while I fucking skin a man’s cock and stab him in the heart.”

The sound of a drawer behind me breaks my concentration and I turn around to see Jason standing next to the desk, holding a small black satin bag in his hand. He looks up behind me at the camera, and I whip my head back just in time to see the camera light blink twice again.

I face Jason and feel my heartbeat increase. I know better than to trust anyone in this room with a fucking mystery bag, and as much as I want to trust Jason, I know I’m technically expendable to the Suits.

And I know Jason will never choose me over them.

“Jace what the FUCK is going on??”

Jason takes a step towards me and I steel myself, raising my chin as he reaches me and hands me the bag. It is so light, I find it hard to believe that there’s anything inside it at all.

What the hell is this?

“We wanted to see if you would be able to make it through tonight. How you would react and handle this situation. After all, torture and killing aren’t the same as self-defense, and what you did here tonight…well, let’s just say Ace and I had a talk before you arrived.”

He looks down at the bag in my hands and then up at me, as if waiting for me to open it. Keeping my eyes on Jason, I reach inside the bag and my fingertips dance along smooth curves and lines, and instantly all of the worry I had melts away as a smile spreads over my face.

“Jace…”

Sliding my hand out of the bag, I look down to see a beautifully delicate half-mask resting in my hand. The polished leather is the deepest shade of red I’ve ever seen–almost black–with filigree cutouts tapering out towards the sides. The bridge of the nose dips down slightly, as if the shape was molded after a bird of prey, and the feminine patterns of the cutouts mimic that of fine lace.

I look up at Jason, my eyes welling with tears of joy as my jaw drops slightly in disbelief.

“Eve, I had a talk with Ace. He’s vetted you thoroughly. You haven’t balked at any of the rules, and you have already proven to him that you can be trusted.”

He gently takes the mask from my hands and beckons me to turn around. I oblige, looking up at the camera and trying my best to convey my appreciation to Ace through its lens. No sooner do I make eye contact with the camera than Jason reaches around me, settling the mask against my face and fastening it in the back.

I turn to face him, and he takes my face in his hands.

“I will always be the King of Hearts, Eve,” he says as the glow returns to his golden eyes, and his face once again takes on his signature stoic scowl. “And there can only ever be one King of Hearts. Just like there’s only ever one Queen of Spades, or Jack of Clubs. But my former mentor had me as his apprentice…and I can think of nobody I’d rather have by my side than you.”

My skin breaks out into goosebumps, and I can’t believe this is real. My brain is going a mile a minute as all the possibilities of what this could mean flood my mind.

“So what does this mean for us? For me? Do I get to be there with you for all of your kills, and when can I get a briefcase of my own? I have so many ideas for how I can—”

“Eve, Eve, slow down,” Jason chuckles as my words die down and I look at him earnestly. “It means you can be with me on SOME of my kills, at my discretion. It means you can help by trading out my tools as I need, tying tourniquets or cauterizing wounds, and helping to assist me in any way I might need.”

The smile quickly fades from my face as I consider what he just said.

“So…so I’d be a glorified nurse? A fucking magician’s assistant?”

Jason’s brows knit as he tilts his head and takes me by the shoulders.

“Eve, you are SO much more than that to me, and I hope you know that. But the last thing I want is for you to turn into the kind of monster I am…You’ve killed once. Twice, if you include the man in your driveway. And even though that’s enough to prove that you can handle it, it doesn’t mean I want to expose you to more than is necessary. If we’re going to have a life together, I want to make sure ONE of us is able to live in the sun, fully. To have a normal job, to have friends, to roam without too much fear of being stalked or discovered and hunted for retaliation by the organizations we fight to break.”

My mouth is dry and I have no words, I just stare at him. It takes everything in my body not to lash out and scream my truth to him. That there is NOTHING in me that wants normal friends, or a normal job: I have NEVER wanted ‘normal,’ and now I’m having killing–the one thing that’s brought me any type of joy–dangled in front of my face, just beyond my reach.

Check yourself, Eve. You can’t let him see you upset. You need to be grateful, to learn more about what this position means and learn all you can whenever you’re down here.

I toss my hair and plaster a smile on my face, trying to force happiness into my eyes as I step towards Jason and press my body against his.

“That’s so thoughtful of you, to think of me that way,” I purr, taking his hands from my shoulders and sliding them around my waist. “I can’t see anybody else ever taking your place. I’ll happily rule by your side, and be what you need me to be.”

I link my arms around his neck in a tight embrace. As he hugs me warmly, my eyes darken while I look across the room at the corpse on the ground, the bloody table, and I can’t help but to feel a sense of resentment. Jason said he was born again in this room tonight…and he’s not the only one. My smile fades as I repeat his words in my mind.

There can only be one King of Hearts…