Page 26 of The Cruelest Chaos

“What do you do?”

I wonder if Natalie mentioned the nameUnsaintsto her, but I’m not about to bring it up. “That’s none of your business.”

In the dash lights, I see her mouth pull up into a smile.

“Is anyone here?” I ask her, gesturing to her house, remembering she’s fucking nineteen.So damn young.

“That’s none of your business,” she parrots me.

I scrub my hand over my face, think of letting it go. Letting her get out.

Let it go.

Instead, I reach across the console, grab her by the throat. Her breath comes out in a rush but it’s not my imagination that sees her eyes light up.

“When I ask you a question, Ella, I want you to fucking answer it.” I’m not sure if this is a game. I don’t treat girls nicely, but I don’t always do…this.

Is this a game?The lines from all the sex we’ve had and…reality…are starting to blur.

I like it. She’s an escape and god, she’s good at letting me forget myself in her.

Her breath comes out in soft pants, and my dick swells in my jeans. I’m fucking late. My father will be there. Lucifer might kill him before I get a chance to, and Elijah will have my head.

We don’t miss Council.

Ever.

“No,” she says quietly. “No one is home.”

That means someone in her family owns a car, which is good, I guess. But I think back to how she ate more of the mac-n-cheese than I did. How she was the one to suggest we eat again after I’d made her eggs, because when I’m not high, sometimes I forget all about food.

How she offered to cook.

I did it, because she’s a guest and one that I was fucking at that, but still… She’s not a small girl. She has thick thighs and a fat ass, big tits, but her waist is narrow, and I don’t think it’s just from good genes.

“Do you at least have food?”

Her eyes widen and then narrow in quick succession and she yanks out of my grip, grasping for the handle of the door. It flips up, cold air rushing in, and she jumps out of my car like I bit her.

I did that earlier and she didn’t run away like this.

“Go fuck yourself,Maverick.”

I roll my eyes, turning my head and groaning as I do. I didn’t mean to offend her but for fuck’s sake, the state of her house, her stomach grumbling, the way she dove headfirst into fucking processed cheese and noodles…

Whatever.

I don’t have time for this.

I close her door, wait until she lets herself inside—without a key, I realize with no small amount of horror—then I head to Council, turning upErasedby Essenger. Seems fucking fitting.

* * *

I lean against my car,a joint between my fingers as my brothers circle around me. Seems I wasn’t late after all.

Lucifer lights up a cigarette, his gloved hand around it to block out the bitter wind. It’s fucking dark out here, and it’s not even six yet. Lucifer’s lighter illuminates the pale planes of his face, the hollows of his cheeks as he inhales, getting the thing lit.

I saw him glance at the expansive lawn behind Sanctum when he got out of his BMW, but otherwise, he’s said nothing about his dead father. Not today, and not since he killed him.