Page 11 of Seven Graves

The Executioner

Little Viper didn’t like her gift.

Pouty face.

To be fair, though…I guess I’m a little rusty with the whole, ‘let’s knock a woman off her feet’ thing.

I’ll do better. She seems really caught off guard by the notion that I’ve decided she’s mine now, but see…

she tried to bite me . And that’s my favorite brand of foreplay.

That’s all second to the fact that even though I haven’t seen what color her hair is yet, she’s way too similar to my guardian angel than what’s a coincidence to me…

and Irish lads are a superstitious lot. She’s similar…

and yet she’s not. She looks like Shavonn reincarnated, but the way she talked shit to me tonight…

I’ve had my fair share of tongue lashings from my woman.

Even before we grew to love each other. But that little firecracker that walked out my door tonight has a mouth like mine.

Not Shavonn’s. And it’ll surprise the hell outta me if Declan finally pulls an I.D.

on her and she don’t have a head full of ginger hair.

There was an event tonight that I should have been present for, but I had an event of my own planned, and a house all to myself.

I’d decided that my little inkling about Conor and the fact that I let my rage get the best of me last night, pulled his number to the top of my kill list. I dropped the ball, and Pop dropped one too, letting him hop a fence of that magnitude and switch his side of this war.

He can’t be trusted. Or at least that’s what I kept reminding myself after he called my little daydream cute , and thought he’d get away with that.

His gesture was nice, if not an attempt to brown his nose a bit, and I’m not disregarding that, but at the end of the day…

a finger’s just a fucking finger. I’d gotten what I needed the minute Braughton’s heart stopped beating at the sake of my hands.

I guess I could have cut Conor some slack.

He was, after all, the reason I knew my Little Viper existed…

but I also decided I didn’t give a fuck about that either, and cut him some slack in other ways instead.

Some slack on his belly, just because it’s fun.

Some on his hands for taking too long patting her down out front.

His eyes, just for looking at her long enough to call her cute. I’m nothing if not generous.

I’m not taking the money back. Even if I did have to mop Conor up myself.

Call it boredom or disappointment, either is fine, but slowly killing him lost its appeal the minute her car left the driveway.

I’m sure she thinks she’s beyond reach now that I let her make it all the way to wherever it is she lives without giving chase…

but she must have been too rattled by the situation to remember that I was kind enough to mention a tech guy.

Declan is likely well on his way to figuring out where she ran off to.

She didn’t drive the same vehicle here tonight, and my money’s on that being her personal car.

It looked very feminine. Run the camera feed, zoomie zoomie, run the plate, hack the two phones she conveniently left within range of his Wi-Fi and…

there we have it. Or at least he made it sound that simple, anyway.

Conor’s a heavy motherfucker. I tried to remember some details about how Viper took care of her bodies, but I was pretty limited on whatever I could find in the house.

I did rip the shower curtain out of my bathroom.

I could have sworn that was one thing I noticed her use.

Smart. Effective. It’s just big enough to roll him up in.

I zip-tied both ends and he kind of looks like one of those sausages we used to have when I was a wee lad.

I’m hungry .

Digging a grave, even this shallow, really takes it outta you.

How does she manage this shit on her own?

I’m salivating for some more information on this lass.

The more I consider it, the more I find to be enchanted by.

It’s like she was fucking made for me. I bet if she was here, she’d be telling me everything I was doing wrong in that sassy way she spoke to me earlier.

It’s kinda makin’ my dick hard. I’m about knee-deep in the dirt out here in the wooded part of the side yard.

Is this deep enough? There’s a little grove of trees out here with just enough light from how clear it is tonight, and the utility lights from the corner of the right wing of the house.

Fuck it, he doesn’t deserve this labor. In he goes.

Thump .

“Tell Braughton dia duit for me, mate. See ya at the fiery gates.”

I was a good ways in covering him up, to the point that the only plastic I could see now was the part that stuck up highest on the tied ends, when my phone started ringing in my back pocket.

I slammed the shovel into the dirt and wiped the sweat off my brow before I answered it.

I’m outta shape. Turns out I’m a lot more winded if I’m not in my fit of rage.

“Dec?”

“You workin’ the muscle? I can call back.”

“Not the one that matters. What ya got?”

“I found her. You were right. It was her personal vehicle. If you go all psycho stalker, tell her that her tags are out.”

“Beautiful. You sendin’ everything?”

“Already did, mate. Zip file in your inbox.”

“You’re a wizard. Thanks, man.”

“No problem. Wash ‘yer hands. I’ll know if you don’t.”

“Fuck off, Declan.”

“Yep.”

“Wait…what color is her hair?”

“Funny you ask, actually.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s the same as her last name. Grey.”

She has gray hair? Interesting…my cock twitched. “And her first name?”

“Also funny…it’s your lucky number.”

Seven Grey.

The tiny serpent has a name. Every detail I learned about her in this file only makes me more convinced that she was put on this Earth for the sole purpose of me finding her—and absolutely ruining her for anyone else.

She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to fall for my Irish arse.

Her driver’s license picture alone bewitched me.

She’s just as gorgeous with a full face of makeup as she is without it.

And Dec wasn’t lying when he said her hair was gray.

She’s got a head full of long, silky, moon-kissed locks that would be even prettier if they were wrapped around my fist. She’s pretty inked up too, though I missed that detail while she was here. Must have been the cleaning getup.

I knew she must have lived close, but I’m ecstatic at the notion that she’s only a couple cities away from here.

What really got my guts twisted though? Declan got the handles to her social media, and upon checking that out…

I realized why being a cleaner is likely a cake side gig for her.

She’s a fucking mortician . And proud of it.

Death is just as much a staple in her life as it is in mine, and while we’re on totally different sides of this rainbow, she’s definitely the pot of gold at the end of it.

And I stay true to my culture. Apparently, she’s also a metalhead, which I adore.

A bit dark…even sexier. And it doesn’t look like she owns some kind of big ass attack dog that’ll eat my throat out.

Which means…

It’s a green light straight into Stalktown.

It took me a little digging to figure out exactly where she worked, and finding out that it’s a family business—where they also reside …

well, that could complicate things a bit.

At least she doesn’t live there. And it also explains the hearse she rode in on the first night she was here.

It was nearly dawn before I realized I spent the entire night after my drafty shower, watching all her posts.

I vowed to hear her voice in my sleep. Maybe I am a little psycho.

I’ve seen her twice and I’ve already sold my soul.

When I told Shavonn I wished there would come a day when I could feel something like this again, I didn’t think she’d come back to haunt me on the same fucking evening.

And yes, I do realize it isn’t the same woman.

But…if the striking resemblance wasn’t enough to reel me in, then this whole ordeal just made turning my back on it impossible.

She’s fucking mine .

I’m gonna give her a couple days to believe she’s off my radar…and then things are gonna get fun for both of us.

Check, Little Viper.

“My God, you sound like a bear in a woodchipper .”

Who let her into this room? What time is it? Bridget shoved my shoulder back and forth with the strength of a single gnat. Just enough to be annoying…and so is her voice . I groaned and shoved her back, turning over and waving my hand for her to shoo, just to piss her off.

“Tell me I’m not witnessing the waste of an entire box of tissues on whatever you were watching on your phone last night. Is this why you didn’t show up at the merge? You had a candle-lit moment with your hand?”

“Get outta my room, Bridge.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick. How many times did you get off?

” She gagged and I heard it echo into the bathroom.

“What the hell happened in here? Where’s the shower curtain?

” I peeked an eye open to see her picking up all my wasted swimmers with a wad of toilet paper in her hand, and the bathroom rubbish bin.

It’s hilarious to see her mother me when she’s taking a five-minute break on being a spoiled brat.

Had these roles been reversed I can safely say I wouldn’t be doing this for her.

Not if anybody paid me. Whatever shuts her the fuck up.

She’s got quite the mess to clean…because…

the answer to her question is four. Four massive, absolutely divine loads that took a few extra tissues to clean up.

What can I say? Declan had an idea, and I decided to run with it. Nothin’ like exercising a little muscle.

“Why are you bothering me and cleaning up my bodily fluids, Bridget?”