Page 35 of Seven Graves

“It’s okay, Seven. You can say it, ‘cause that’s what I am . Thing is, it’s not somethin’ I’m ashamed of, and I’m more than just that part of me. I thought you of all people would understand that.”

I hugged myself. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means. It’s the reason you’re fightin’ this off.

Truth is, you are a perfect ten to those blokes…

until it comes to one of the biggest parts of you that you’re not ashamed of.

You’re strong enough not to let it diminish who you are.

Me? I don’t see a single flaw. We’re the perfect amount of dark and insane.

I see every part. And I meant it when I said you’re perfect. ”

The doorknob in my throat was getting hard to swallow around. I think I’ve hurt him, and I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do .

Malek’s finger was rough against the underside of my chin, and he tilted it up, just like the night I met him. I felt my heart doing flips when he leaned in and the heat of his body started to blend in with mine.

“If you’re not able to see all the other parts of me that I shamelessly wear on my sleeve, lass…

I’m happy to break it down for you. I’m honest. Sometimes, as brutally as my kills.

You’re wrong about me not knowin’ love. I love just as hard as I fuck.

I’m nothin’ if not loyal, Seven Grey, and I might be a horrible singer, but it comes straight from my black heart.

I knew you were mine the minute I looked into those eyes, and I’ll do whatever it takes to put a smile on that face, even if I have to dig my own grave to do it.

” His breath skated over my chin, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“I’m gonna go take this rapist van back. It’s not doin’ much for my image.”

This dude…I swear.

I locked up when his mouth ended up swallowing mine without warning.

I think I kissed him back without even really meaning to.

It felt seamless and as raw as uncut heroine, and…

fuck, what is wrong with me? I reached into his hair, gripping it and found myself pushed against the wall next to the back door.

It was tongues and teeth and harsh, sexy breathing and… yeah, I’m lost.

He broke away, panting, and I watched that tongue slip over that piercing.

“Feicfidh mé go luath thú, a Nathair Bheag.”

His hand twisted on the doorknob, and he closed it behind him, leaving me breathless and wet between the fucking legs in the middle of the hallway.

I don’t have a clue what he just said, but I could have eaten it with a spoon, when usually…

I’d rather stab him with one. When I finally got my shit together and walked out the back door, he was nowhere to be seen.

Every word he said to me was still ringing in my ears when I unlocked my door and found Bridget chopping vegetables at the kitchen island. Every word…and what he went out of his way to do today. Even if hacking into our computer system was a bit much.

No one has ever done anything like this for me.

Not ever. I couldn’t even get my chair pulled out on a date.

And then I went and threw a molotov cocktail into his ego, which would normally fill me with delight, but somehow…

somehow right now, it just doesn’t. I set my bag on the table, and an obnoxious vase of about two dozen blood-orange roses sat between me and Malek’s baby sister.

Deep orange…

“Hey. I saw you had a thing for plants, so I got you these as a thank you. For all you’re doing. I’m also trying to cook, but…I’m known to burn fucking water , so…I don’t really know how this is gonna turn out.”

“Bridget…these are stunning. I—thank you.”

“Don’t get soft and shit. I’m cutting onions.” She sniffled and wiped her eye with the back of her wrist. “I’m not used to all this happiness. It’s disgusting.”

I walked around the island and bumped my hip against hers, kissing her on the temple and taking the knife out of her hand. “What are we burning? Lemme help.”

“Well, I saw this thing on Malek’s phone for some sort of vegetable lasagna? It seemed easier than it is.”

The door opened, and he stepped through it—two pizza boxes in one hand.

“If she hasn’t already cremated our dinner, I’ve already decided I’m not eatin’ that shite. Pizza?” Bridget’s mouth dropped open and her brows knotted.

“You know what? I take back everything I ever said about loving you, Malek Byrne. I hope they gave you anchovies. I hope somebody’s toenail is in that pizza. I hope it gets stuck in your windpipe, and you need a stoma to speak for the rest of your life.”

“So…no to the pizza, then?” I tried to cover my mouth and keep from laughing. Bridget shoved the vegetables aside and reached over the counter.

“Gimme that. Fucker.”

I ate in silence, listening to them bicker back and forth for a while, and if I’d really put a dent in Malek’s swag, he wasn’t letting it show.

At least not in front of his sister. We started a slasher movie, and I was laying next to Bridget, who was snoring, watching the undead murderer chase an idiot with obviously fake tits through a slaughterhouse.

“I hope her boobs are the first thing to go,” I said through a mouthful of popcorn. Malek snorted from his spot in the coffin.

“I don’t like her face. I’d probly take care of that first.” I turned my head in surprise.

“Really?”

He glanced at me and grinned, chewing. “I mean, yeah. I don’t have a particular order to the madness. If I’m carvin’ somebody up like a Christmas ham, then I start with whatever feels right.”

To be inside the mind of a butcher…I’m perplexed.

“Can I ask you something?”

He was about to shove another handful of popcorn into his gourd, but he dropped his hand back into the bowl and turned his body to face me, propping his head up on his hand. “Anything.”

I gnawed on my lip and thought hard about whether or not I really wanted to know the answer to this question.

Normally, this is exactly what I don’t do.

But this situation is a bit different. “The man that was missing the finger. He was way worse off than the other three. You carved a name into his head.”

The green in his eyes seemed ten times as fierce. Like I’d just set fire to a pile of jade. “I did. I told you. He took somethin’ that didn’t belong to him. Honestly, I don’t even remember what I did first with the bastard.”

“You loved her.”

His mouth tightened and I saw his jaw feather…but he looked down and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I did.”

“I shouldn’t have said that to you. I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t know, Seven. It’s not like you’re wrong about anything else, either. I was just hopin’ you saw the rest by now. I don’t blame you for not wanting to bring me home to Mommy and Daddy. I do get it.”

I turned myself towards him and tossed a kernel at his face. “Hey…” He smirked, picking it up and eating it. “It’s not because I’m ashamed of you. I don’t want you to think that was the reason.”

“Educate me.”

“You’re part of a dangerous group, Malek. We’re hiding your sister from bad people. Bringing you around my folks is a risk. It’s not really a secret that I’m an outcast, and I’m cool with it…but they’re all I have. I’m just trying to keep them safe.”

He got quiet, but a slow smile crept across his face. Like I’d just taken any scarred pride and shined it up like a penny. “Thank you…”

“For?”

He looked at me then, and I saw genuine, heartfelt emotion. “For asking. And for not prying too far when you did. Kinda makes me think you might like me more than you let on.”

“Psh…” I averted my eyes just in time to see Malibu Barbie bite it. Anticlimactic. Boring. She tripped, of course. He put a machete through her back and got stabby.

“Booooo…” Malek tossed a handful of popcorn at the TV, and I chuckled. The killer flipped her corpse over and stabbed her again, this time pulling back an implant on the end of his blade. We both burst out laughing. “Well, that was unexpected.”

“Told you they weren’t real,” I laughed.

“Yours are.”

I shot my head at him, but he continued to watch the screen. “What makes you so sure? And you better not say because you’ve seen them already…‘cause I’ve yet to let you.” Malek shrugged, popping another kernel into his mouth.

“I know boobs. I don’t have to see ‘em bare to know if they’re natural. The good Lord took his time on you, pet. That’s for damn sure.”

“On that note,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes and easing off the air mattress. “I’m gonna go to bed. I have it on good authority that there’s a chainsaw involved somewhere in this movie. If you rub one out to the pointy things…could you at least do me the courtesy of getting out of my coffin?”

He leaned his head back as I made for my bedroom door, practically looking at me upside down. “Where should I go exactly?” Every one of his teeth showed with that grin.

“Goodnight, Dexter.”

“Night, Wednesday Addams.”

Something smells good.

Like, really good.

Like oak, and coconut…maybe a hint of leather? I’d say it was making my mouth water, but I’m pretty sure my face is already laying in a puddle of drool, anyway. What is it? I cracked an eye open, and—

“BLAAAGGGGHHHHHH!”

I just started swinging, the heel of my palm hurts ridiculously, and I’m not sure which one of us is screaming louder, but now I’m standing on top of my covers, confused at how fast my Louisville Slugger got into my hands, and there’s somebody on the floor of my bedroom groaning.

“ Naofa fecking cac! I think you just broke me’nose! ”

“Malek?!” I dropped the bat onto my mattress and sprinted to the bedroom door, flipping the light on to see him holding said nose on the floor next to my bed. “Jesus! Are you okay? What the hell are you doing?! ”

He sat up, eyes tearing, and pulled his hands away to check for blood. There was a bit, but it wasn’t terrible. “Was that your fist? ”

“Well, yeah! Was that your face an inch away from mine, in the dark, when I’m trying to sleep?!”

He smiled at me from the floor, wiping the blood on the back of his hand and sniffling.

Bridget burst into the door with a metal frying pan raised.

“Who’s gettin’ it! Where they at?!” I don’t know if it was the adrenaline, the terror, or the delirium that set us both off, but Malek and I burst out laughing.

The frying pan slowly lowered, and Bridget rolled her eyes, huffing and cursing her way back into the living room.

“Damn, you got a right hook, Viper. And here I thought you couldn’t get much sexier.”

I reached a hand out to help him up off the floor. “What the hell were you doing, Malek? If you’re trying the wooing thing you mentioned? There were about a thousand other ways that could have fucking gone. My God .”

“I’ll need a detailed list of all—”

“Uggghhhh!”

He snickered, and pulled a burner phone out of his pocket, handing it to me before turning to go nurse his nose in the bathroom. It’s mine. The cleaner line .

“I heard buzzing and for a second, I thought I was gonna have to come in here and show you exactly what I meant about that naughty drawer. But sadly, it was just this damn thing.”

I looked at the time when I flipped it open.

It’s two in the morning. One body. The crime rate around here must be insanely misunderstood.

I’ve never had this many calls to clean in a month.

I was about to politely decline, but…the payout for this is a couple of uncut diamonds? Holy shit. What a sweetener.

“I’ve got a cleanup.”

Malek popped around the bathroom door, holding a rag on his bloody nose. “Seriously?! It’s not…well…”

“No, I’ve worked for this guy before. He doesn’t talk nearly at all. Not likely to be anyone you know.”

He popped a hip out and stared at me. “You’re goin’?”

“Yeah. There’s diamonds involved. This changes things.”

I walked to my closet, reaching to the back and pulling out one of my jumpsuits. I felt, more than I heard, Malek behind me. “I wanna go!”

“Absolutely not.”

“Whyyyy?”

“I work alone. You don’t think someone who already knows that will think it’s odd that I’ve got another person with me to clean one body?

” I turned around, shoving past him and laying my stuff out across my bed.

I flipped through the messages, replying to one to confirm and then went to the bathroom to pull back my hair.

“I’ll wear a mask or something. You can say I’m here for muscle .” I laughed around the bobby pins wedged between my teeth. “Why are you laughing?”

“Muscle?”

“I used one of those muscles on you already, and you didn’t seem to find it lacking. Plus…you know…I saved the day today with dear Mrs. Porter.”

Well…he’s got me there.

“It’s not a good idea, Malek. This guy’s scarier than your dad. The fact that he doesn’t speak much just makes him more intimidating. I dunno what he’ll do if he sees you.”

He came into view of my mirror, standing behind me while I started wrapping my bun in a head scarf. “Nothing. That’s what the fuck he’ll do. If you think he’s more intimidating than my Pop, then I’ll be going with you even if I have to drive behind you.”

I sighed hard and slapped my palms to the sink.

“Fine. Look in the closet and grab a jumpsuit. I don’t have a mask other than the one I use for the fumes.

And you need something that covers most of your face.

And gloves. The kind of company this guy might keep, he might easily recognize your tattoos.

One body is enough at two in the morning. ”

He dropped the bloody rag into the sink and trotted off towards my closet like a five-year-old.

I’m gonna regret every second of this. But the upside is that he could actually be useful, and gore obviously doesn’t bother him.

I won’t have to use a dolly to move a stiff to the hearse.

I’m choosing to look at the bright side, but I know… this is going to be torturous.