Page 56 of Seven Graves

The Mortician

After all this…being in my apartment couldn’t feel like a bigger blessing.

Malek came clean about the vacation house before we went back for my car, and I surveyed that damage for myself.

He’s about to inherit a fortune. I’ve been assured that it’ll be fixed and updated before anybody has time to figure out what really happened here.

It’s not like the place doesn’t need it…

but I don’t know if I can even go back there again.

Bridget and Declan went back to Belfast to dismantle whoever is left lingering now that she and Malek are in power, and plan whatever needs to be done with the house.

I finally decided to change clothes before making the drive behind Malek back home, and he insisted on going into the house first. In light of recent events… I’m not arguing.

I set my bag by the door, and he checked every corner of the apartment.

When he didn’t come back right away, I pulled a beer out of my fridge and lingered in the kitchen.

The cold air chilling my bare legs is hitting way too close to home for me after being stuck in that basement nearly a whole day.

Seems I’m gonna have to actually get that therapist now.

I know this is gonna be a thing. I just have no idea how the fuck I’m supposed to talk about it without incriminating all of us.

I pulled out a second beer and slammed the refrigerator shut. Malek stood quietly behind it.

“Double fistin’?” His smirk curled up one corner of his mouth, but it was wary and tired. I know he’s going through it, and one would think I’d have a word of comfort in the business that I’m in, but…after all these years, I’ve learned none of it really helps anybody anyway.

“Nah. We need to talk.” I handed him one of the bottles and his jaw feathered when he dropped his eyes to the floor.

He knows what’s coming, and it’s just making this harder on me.

I never wanted this shit. But now that I have it, it’s left me with no other choice than to do what I think is right to protect not only myself…

but my family. No more close calls. No more dangerous bullshit.

Back to lousy lays and boring dates—and that’s gonna be a long time from now.

“I know. There’s somethin’ I need you to do first, though.

” He reached out with his other hand, grabbing mine and tugged me behind him towards my bedroom.

I heard the water running and my heart ached a little.

I’m not used to feeling like this, and it fucking blows that this gesture is overshadowed in hurt.

Malek led me into the bathroom and the tub was filling with steaming water and suds that smelled like coconut shampoo.

A scent that I was just starting to really love on him.

He turned me to face him and took my beer, setting them both on the bathroom sink while he lifted the hem of my tank top.

I let him slowly undress me, and he took his time, like he knew exactly what I was about to tell him, and he’s committing me to memory before he has to let me walk away.

“In ya get.” His hands gripped my hip bones, and I swallowed hard, nearly forcing him to make me move to the tub.

The water’s blissfully hot. A perfect buffer to how shitty I feel right now.

I lowered myself into it and submerged, palming my hair back as I stretched out relaxing while he dropped the toilet lid and sat down.

He popped the top off my beer and handed it to me before doing the same for himself…

and then we just stared at each other in silence.

“You don’t have to say it, ya know…” Malek took a swallow and let the bottle hang from his fingers between his knees.

“Deal’s a deal. And I get it, Sev. I really do.

I’ll never forgive myself for puttin’ you and Bridget…

and your family , in that shit. You’ve always deserved better than me. I’m just a selfish git .”

“I’m selfish too.” I took a sip, flicking my fingers through a pile of suds and staring at them like a coward. “I chose to believe whatever this is was real.” He shifted on the toilet seat and my eyes drifted towards him. He looks equal parts shocked and understanding.

“It is real, Seven. It might have started out one way, but…that changed.”

“Yeah? Forgive me for not believing that, Malek. You wanted the love of your life back…not me. Knowing what I know now, my heart breaks for you. But you came in here and flipped my entire life upside down for a person that isn’t even alive anymore.

And you let me believe every bullshit line that I was perfect, after spending my life the exact opposite, just to find out I was only perfect in whatever way suited your grief. ”

He shook his head and lowered it, raking a hand through his hair.

“That’s not at all true, but I understand why you think it.

You’re right in sayin’ I flipped your life on its ass.

I did. I chased after you when I shoulda just let you walk away.

There’s no denying that. But I swear to you…

on my life…on Bridget’s …I chased you because of the person you are, Viper. Not because of the person she was .”

“You don’t know me, Malek. You think you do, but you don’t.”

“Don’t I?” I turned my bottle up, looking away and hoping I could hide whatever thinks it’s about to leak out of my fucking eyes.

This sucks. I heard him move and fixed my eyes on the tile of the shower wall while he knelt beside the tub.

I heard my shampoo bottle fart, and gnawed my lip when he rubbed his hands together.

“Sit up.” I did, and turned away, giving him my back.

The way my eyes wanted to roll back when he started shampooing my hair…

massaging circles into my scalp. Using those sinful hands to settle me.

“I’ll admit. When you made me give up that finger and didn’t wanna look at me, I was curious.

I did what I always do, and invited myself onto your last nerve…

and you looked at me, and I thought I’d fuckin’ die.

The truth is, looking back…I only thought I saw Shavonn first that night.

I pissed you off, and you snapped your teeth at me…

” He chuckled under his breath and his thumbs kneaded out the knots in my neck.

I felt myself give under it and closed my eyes.

“It’s been you ever since. It was you I couldn’t stop watchin’ on that phone. Your voice I couldn’t stop hearing.”

“It’s just words, Malek.”

He moved down to my shoulders, pressing a bit harder.

“Shavonn’s always been familiar to me. You’re anything but that.

You are me. The best parts of me. You have a sense of dark humor that’s unmatched.

You’re smart. Funny. Infuriating. You make black look like the brightest crayon in the fucking box, Sev.

You’re unapologetically yourself. You talk to the bodies in that basement like they’re old friends, and you have the kind of respect and a calling for something that nobody else could ever have.

I think it’s the reason you’ve dealt with me this long.

You don’t see death the way other people do…

and I am Death. You see me. You understand me.

You’re a shade of dark that somehow makes the last fucking ember of light in me, shine a bit brighter.

You’re bold. Sexy as fuck. You know who you are, and it fucking shows .

Some of my father’s last words to me were that he picked the knight that would fall the hardest, Seven…

he’s right. There’s no coming back from how hard I hit for you. No matter what you decide.”

Why couldn’t I just hate you. Goddammit.

He turned me, easing me back and washed the soap out of my hair. His green eyes were glued to what he was doing, but mine were glued to him . I didn’t think this son of a bitch had a gentle side. Not in the way he acts, and definitely not in the way he fucks…but he did warn me.

“I love just as hard as I fuck.”

I just didn’t think he was capable. And I’m starting to think I’m wrong.

But that’s putting up a valiant fight against what I know is the right thing to do.

Malek rinsed his hands off, letting me situate myself against the far side of the tub, and then he sat back on the lid to the toilet.

I have no idea what to say. No clue what to fucking think anymore.

Especially when he reached back into the water, taking my right foot into his hands and started cleaning and massaging that too. What the hell do I do?

“Tell me what happened with your dad.”

He was slow, and thorough, easing the ache from whatever’s plagued the bottom of my feet for twelve hours.

I sipped on my beer. “It was all a ploy. He used my temper and my psycho to bait me. He knew I’d rip them apart.

He—he was dying. And I didn’t know it. None of us knew it.

I went back in and killed Nolan. And then he told me that he planned all of it because he’s eaten up with fucking cancer .

” The bottle paused in front of my lips, and I slowly lowered it until half was underwater.

Holy shit… “He said he refused to die that way. Wanted everything to go down with him so that me and Bridget could get outta this life. He tried to blow his brains out and…and I couldn’t let him. ”

“A mercy killing.”

Malek nodded, starting on my other foot. “The only one I’ve ever committed.”

“Why didn’t you get him out? I could have—I could have given him better than that. Didn’t you want to see him off with something more fitting than a fireworks show?”