Page 7 of Queen Crow
He looks over at Bingley’s corpse and then back at Lips. “You do this shit a lot, huh? I should’ve fucking known.”
No.
It’s been a long night, an endless week, and I don’t care who he is, no one speaks down to Lips like that in front of me. “Your sister is the Wolf of Mounts Bay. She took on the Jackal, the Lynx, and every other slum lord in this city to keep her family safe, because that’s who she is. If you disrespect her in front of me again, I will show you exactly what happens to people who attack our family.”
He goes very still, taking in every inch of my blood-soaked image, because I still haven’t even managed to wash my hands,oh my fucking God, and the fact that he’s eyeing me warily while happily giving the Wolf lip?
He is so out of his depth here.
“Lips has been soft on him,” Ash mutters grumpily, and Lips shrugs at me.
“I’m doing the best with what I have, but Noah is a lot fucking harder than any of us expected when we took him in.”
I glance back over to where he’s crouched down, looking over Bingley’s leaking corpse, and it’s never been so clear to me that we’re in a lot of trouble with these Graves kids.
Too much trouble.
Chapter Two
There’s nothing I want more than to climb into the shower and scrub the filth of the night away from my skin, but I’m also stronger now than I was before—I can handle this moment.
I won’t be moving the body though.
“What the fuck did Atticus do to him?” Lips murmurs as she crouches over Bingley, looking over the damage that I did.
I can’t think about that softplopof his innards on my foot when I’d yanked the knife out of his gut, except now it’s all I can think about, and I immediately start retching again.
Ash’s arms tighten around me and he snarls at Aodhan, “Deal with it, I’m taking her to get clean.”
Aodhan’s eyebrows almost hit his hairline and there’s about to be another argument that I can’t handle right now. “I’ll go wash up by myself. I don’t need hand holding.”
And then I walk out without waiting for their arguments or protests because now that the adrenaline has left me, I’m no longer upset about the way things have gone.
I’m furious.
I duck into one of the downstairs rooms so I’m close to where everyone is, just in case. I’m pissed, not stupid, and if Amanda fucking Donnelley didn’t get what she wanted from us tonight, then I’m sure she’ll be back to take another swing at us.
I can’t take the scalding hot, four-hour shower I want, but at the very least, I can clean away the blood from my skin and scrub at my foot until the first three layers of skin are gone.
I forget about what clothing I’ll have to put on when I get out, but when I unlock the bathroom door, wrapped up in a towel and prepared to rummage through the wardrobe until I find something to get me through the next hour until I can pass out, I find Lips sitting on the bed waiting for me, her eyes on the ceiling.
She looks as exhausted as I feel.
She holds out her hoodie and a pair of yoga pants to me. “I left Ash and Aodhan to clean up, and I called Illi to tell him what went down… and that we’re home. Harley and Blaise are still a few days out.”
With a quick glance at the door, I drop the towel and pull the clothes on, grateful that they’re clean and smell like family, the same soap as I use because Lips is as sappy about that stuff as I am. She’s just a little more discreet about it.
“Are you sure Ash isn’t murdering Aodhan right now? We should probably babysit them both until Ash gets over this… so until the end of time, then.”
She shrugs at me, her eyes respectfully away from me, because if there’s anyone on this Earth who understands what it’s like to feel exposed and on display, it’s Lips. “Ash will get over it. He honestly thought we’d left you behind with a rapist, he was frantic. He just fucking disappeared; I’ve chased him halfway across the country with Noah dragging me down, but Ash wouldn’t listen to me. He wouldn’t until he saw you.”
I slump down onto the bed next to her, tears in my eyes, and then I take a shaky breath. “Lips… Atticus was shot.”
She hesitates for a second, like she’s figuring out what the right thing to do here is, before she puts her arm around my back and pulls me in close to her side. “Illi told me. He told me everything. I’m sorry and whatever I can do, I will. We’re going to sort everything out and, fuck, if Atticus needs a new kidney or lung or something, I know a guy. We’ll get him good again.”
I snort at her attempts to cheer me up, because of course she has a spare organs guy on speed dial, but it’s a watery sound thanks to the tears now streaming down my face. “I swear, I’ve been a complete badass since you’ve been gone. I haven’t cried and I’ve only stress-cleaned once a week, which is a record for me.”
She huffs out a laugh and murmurs back, “Thatisimpressive. I’ve cried since we left. Enough that Harley has broken half the bus over my moods, growing up is fucking hard.”