Page 73 of The Cruelest Chaos

“Isaid,I live on adirt. Fucking. Road.”

I shake my head, so close I can smell her. She smells like vanilla and the detergent I use. I always want her to smell like some part of me. “No, no. Not that. What did you call me?”

She rolls her eyes. “Mavy.”

I dart my hands out, lift her over my shoulder. She beats her fists gently against my back, laughing and screaming for me to put her down.

I slap her ass so hard she actually yelps.

“I’m gonna carry you there, and I’m gonna make sure you’ve got a bruise of my handprint on this fat ass by the time we get there.”

She wallops her fist against my back and I tense with the pain over my still-healing wounds, my hands digging into her thighs.

Immediately, she stops. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she whispers, dropping her hands.

I adjust her over my shoulder. “Don’t be,” I grit out. And then I carry her to my brother’s house, wondering why he text me so goddamn early and what the fuck he wants to talk about.

It doesn’t takelong to find out.

He eyes Ella with interest as we walk into the living room side by side. She stiffens, but doesn’t say anything, and then his gaze shifts to me.

He’s got his bare feet propped up on the coffee table, hands behind his head, and there’re two lines of coke on the table, a goddamn bright blue coke straw beside them.Life is Goodby Future and Drake is playing way too loudly for eight in the morning, and I could not disagree more. Life is definitelynotfucking good right now. I know he does drugs, but not like this. At this time.

And staying while I fucked around with Ella two nights ago? I take partial responsibility, but after Sid’s visit the other night…I’m not sure I trust him anymore.

He’s shirtless, low slung black sweats on, the scars along his lower abs on full display.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I yell at him, gesturing to the table. Ella is quiet at my side and I already regret bringing her. I’m sure she’s no stranger to seeing drugs, not with what I saw of her mother, but this feels all wrong. Unsafe.

I have no idea where Sid is. The curtains are all thrown open, and I can’t hear shit over the music playing from his mounted speakers.

Lucifer grins at me, his pupils look nearly blown, black obscuring most of the deep blue of his eyes. “What’s it look like?” He nods toward the couch across from him. “Take a seat,bro.”

I flex my jaw, cross my arms. “It looks like you’re snorting coke at eight in the morning. Why the fuck did you want me over here?”

He ignores me completely and looks over Ella, his eyes raking over her body. I move to stand in front of her. “Don’t you have a fuckingwife?Or did you forget like you almost did,again, the other night?”

His entire demeanor changes. His dark brows draw together, and he sits up straighter in the chair, bringing his hands together, elbows on his knees as he glares up at me. “You know all about fucking my wife, don’t you?”

I hear Ella’s sharp intake of breath, and I want to break my fingers against his face, but I don’t move. “What do you want?And where is she, anyway?”

He smiles, dimples flashing in his pale face. “I was wondering how long it’d take you to ask about her. About two minutes. Longer than I thought, to be honest.” He sighs, cracks his neck and glances down at the lines. “Be my guest, Mav. Don’t you wanna join me?”

“No. I’m leaving.” I make to turn around and push Ella out of this room, but his next words stop me.

“Why did my wife go to your house in the middle of the night three nights ago?”

I freeze. Ella’s eyes lock with mine, and neither one of us move, my back still to Luce. “Did you ask her?” I manage to ask, still looking into Ella’s emerald green eyes. I wonder if the guards finally told him. If he questioned them. If he looked on the cameras he’s got outside of his house.

He laughs. “I’m asking you.”

Ella arches a brow, and she doesn’t say a word, doesn’t make a single sound, but it looks like she’s warning me.

“I think that’s between me and her,” I tell Lucifer.

Ella bites her lip and I want to grab her, carry her home, and fuck her right inside my house. But instead, I hold her gaze, let her keep me calm.

Lucifer is silent. Seconds tick by,Tapping Outby Issues starting up.