Page 82 of The Cruelest Chaos

He laughs, smoothing back my hair but keeping me to his chest. “To my house, baby.My house.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Salvete.”Elijah doesn’t wait for us to return the greeting. He gestures around the room to Adam, Cal and my father. “We need to discuss a matter that doesn’t concern the five of you.” He turns to Ezra. “Give us the room.”

I glance around the table, my eyes finding Lucifer. But he’s got his head in his hands. He came in later than the rest of us, shadows under his eyes finally rivaling Sid’s own.

Ezra gets up first, nods toward his father, and walks out.

Fuck it.I get up, too. Atlas, Cain, and finally Lucifer walk out ahead of me, and just as I’m about to leave, too, my father calls my name.

I don’t look back, but I stop in the doorway.

“I hope you’re not getting too attached to the redhead,” he says smoothly. He sighs, as if he gives a damn about what he’s going to say next. “You’re already likely going to be responsible for one girl’s death. Don’t add to the body count,Maverick.”

I still don’t look back, and I don’t say a word. The entire room has gone silent, and beyond the doorway, I think my brothers are listening, too.

I close my eyes, resisting the urge to turn around and fucking upturn the table in the middle of the room. But it’s made of stone and bolted into the floor, so there’s like, zero chance I could actually do that.

Instead, I just walk out. I’m not even surprised he knows. Especially not after last night.

The door closes behind me, and me and my brothers move down the dark corridor, lined with guards.

No one says anything until we’re in the sanctuary. Ezra takes a seat at the first pew, hooking both arms around the back of the seat, his legs crossed at the ankle. Cain takes a seat on the stairs leading up to the podium; the steps I took Sid from right before I found out she was my sister.

Atlas sits beside Ezra, adjusting the cap on his head, and Lucifer sits on the fucking floor.

“I hope you took her to her house last night,” Lucifer says to me without looking up. He’s got his knees up, elbows propped on them. He’s wearing all black like I am; like we all are, save for Cain, who, as usual, looks like he’s in the mafia with his fitted slacks, tailored coat over his sweater.

I take a seat in the pew behind Atlas and Ezra, kick my feet up on the back of theirs, a few feet down from them.

The smell of the old church is strange; comforting and sickening all at once.

I think about burning it the fuck down myself, and not just for Lucifer. For all of us. But would it matter? We’d just end up right back here, in a different church.

“Everything good with you and Sid?” I counter to Luce.

Atlas turns around in his pew to glare at me.

I shrug, mouthingWhat?

He turns back around, doesn’t say shit.

Ezra pulls something out of his hoodie pocket. A flask, I see. He tips it up to his lips. “Anyone want any?” he asks the group.

Cain snorts, staring at his hands. I notice his knuckles are busted up. Between Lucifer’s bad attitude, Cain’s fucking and fighting problem, Ezra’s alcoholism and Atlas’s nerves, I’m suddenly ready to get the fuck out of here.

“I’ll take some,” I say to Ezra.

He twists around in his seat and hands me the silver flask with a grin. I tip it up, and nearly choke on the straight vodka. But I swallow it down, relishing the burn, and hand it back to him.

“You alright, man?” I ask him.

He puts the flask back in his hoodie pocket, turns away from me, flexing his jaw. “None of us arealright, Maverick,” he says in that deep voice of his, no longer smiling.

No one speaks about Jeremiah Rain. About his right-hand cock suck, Nicolas. About how close Jeremiah was to Sid. How he had his mouth on Ella.

How Ella saved me from getting cracked over the head with a fucking baseball bat. How Lucifer and the rest of my brothers missed it because they were too busy with their own addictions; nicotine, fucking, drinking. For Atlas, a girl he’s probably going to fuck over.