Page 41 of Rule the Night (Blackwell Butchers #1)

MAEVE

Hours later, I still had a hard time thinking about anything but him.

It wasn’t like I’d never had an orgasm with a guy before, but I’d never felt the kind of hunger I’d felt with Poe, had never felt like I might actually die if I didn’t feel someone inside me.

It had been like standing in the eye of a hurricane, my soul quiet while my body came apart around me.

I’d been mortified to find Reva in the kitchen when we finally came upstairs, and not just because she was making her infamous monster cookies (aptly named but not for the reason the iconic cookie had originally been named).

Did she know? Had she been able to hear us?

But she hadn’t given any indication she knew Poe had just fucked my brains out downstairs.

It seemed impossible — my whole world felt like it had tilted on its axis — but I went with it, answering her questions about how I seasoned and cooked the chicken while I put it in the oven and cut sweet potatoes and onions for the roasted paprika dish I planned to serve as a side.

I felt flushed while I cooked, had a hard time looking Remy in the eye when he came in from whatever work he did during the day (Bram wasn’t a problem since I was still invisible to him). I was dying to ask what they did for a living, but it seemed like a question that was off-limits.

I left them in the dining room and took my food to my room, not wanting to pretend it was just another night when my entire reality had shifted. Because if I was fucking one of the men who’d chased me through the tunnels, literally anything was possible.

At my desk with my computer, I scanned Ethan Todd’s new video (I’m Back, Bitches), skimmed the comments (the king returns/bitchesnhoes watch out/#legend), and opened up my chat with the girls.

Nat8965: I can’t believe he’s back.

Fuzzywuzzy: Ugh, I know. So gross.

JennyJay: My little brother is all over it.

I jumped in.

Jslittlesis: I’m sorry. :(

We’d started talking because we’d all been affected by Ethan Todd in one way or another. We’d been the only women in Todd’s comments pushing back on his bullshit, and we’d connected over our shared horror that there were others in the comments who agreed with him.

JennyJay: Does anyone know where he’s staying?

Jslittlesis: I read he’ll be at the Warwick. That’s where the conference is being held.

Fuzzywuzzy: What about after that?

I hesitated over the keyboard. I’d spent months digging into Ethan Todd in the wake of June’s murder, not just into official accounts of his backstory, but into the rumors that circulated online.

I’d run those rumors down, fleshed them out, separated truth from the fiction that Ethan Todd spun about his story.

And I knew something the girls in my chat didn’t know.

Ethan Todd was from Blackwell Falls.

And rumor was, he was coming back.