Page 77 of Wicked Believer (Original Sinner #2)

Chapter Sixty-Four

Charlotte

I’ve locked myself in the ladies’ room on the other side of the closed museum as I try to figure out what my next move is.

It’s not like I can make it out through the regular exits without anyone noticing me, and with the amount of paparazzi prowling around, that’d be asking for a whole different kind of trouble than I’m already going to be in.

Lucifer and Azrael are going to lose their shit over this.

But honestly, I don’t really care.

I’m in charge of my life.

Me.

And making my first act of independence saving my bestie from some radicalized asshat who betrayed us both seems like the perfect decision to me.

That’s my best guess as to why Ian’s doing this. He was so salty because I refused to date him, he turned into some kind of freaking incel or something. Or maybe he was one from the start? He had to be the one who drugged Jax at Az’s club. Just like I originally thought.

Ugh.

“Big Guy, when am I going to catch a break from all these unhinged men you keep throwing at me?” I grumble up at the ceiling as I pace the length of the bathroom.

Someone tries the handle a second later, and a loud shout follows.

Fuck. They’ve already found me.

It’s not like I made it that hard.

Even in a museum of this size, there are only so many places with a locking door that isn’t someone’s office.

I have a matter of minutes or seconds to get the hell out of here before one of the security guards comes along with the key, or Lucifer—or Azrael, considering Lucifer’s current celestial-dysfunction situation—manages to kick the door in.

“Think, Charlotte. Think,” I mutter, gripping both sides of the bathroom sink.

I can’t call Azmodeus for help, even though I’m sure he’d answer, because stripped of his powers or not, Lucifer would absolutely end Azmodeus if he and I were to get into trouble together again any time soon.

I may not be his full-time sub currently, but Lucifer is the head of our immortal family, and we’re likely still getting married for the sake of the press if not because we both clearly love each other.

And I haven’t mastered my own powers enough in mine and Greed’s training sessions in order to—

That’s it!

“Greed!” I practically shout, as if yelling her name into the empty marble bathroom of the Brooklyn Museum might somehow summon her.

I left my iPhone with Mia while I was onstage, so it’s not like I can pick up the damn thing and call Greed, where she’s sitting in the audience.

She likely doesn’t have her phone unmuted anyway.

An idea sparks, fast and furious.

I sigh. “Please, God, let this work.”

I draw Greed’s sigil on the bathroom mirror using my lipstick—another witchy trick Jax taught me—before I pull out what spare cash I have inside my clutch.

I have a few hundred-dollar bills along with the spare lighter I keep in there for when Lucifer’s run empty.

I hold up one of the bills and light it like it’s sacred sage or one of my fiancé’s cigarettes.

I fumble with the lighter, nearly burning myself.

Damn it, if this doesn’t work, I’m going to look ridiculous the moment Lucifer and whoever else is outside the door manages to burst in here.

“Greed. Greed,” I hiss under my breath.

It’s like I’m back in Sunday school or church, trying to get the attention of one of my friends from the other side of the aisle in the middle of my father’s preaching.

The fire on the edge of the bill sparks out.

Money doesn’t burn as easily as you’d expect it to.

Even with the supposedly trace amounts of cocaine.

I relight it just as another hefty round of fist-pounding starts outside the door, feverishly muttering to myself as if somehow Greed can hear me.

If Lucifer can summon an archangel like Michael by killing a whole megachurch full of evangelical assholes, then surely, I can summon my beloved future-sister-in-law, Greed, by illegally burning a few bank notes in her honor.

Right? Right?

The logic seems a bit sus, even to me.

The bill sparks out again, and now the lighter’s flint is also fucking with me, so I’m about to give up on that technique and desperately try another.

Would making it rain with this small of a bill stack work?

Maybe I need to celebrate Greed’s love of money rather than burning some like an offering to her—but then Greed pops into existence right beside me.

She lifts a brow at the sight of her sigil drawn in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. “You tried to summon me?”

I gape a little at the sight of her. “It actually worked?”

She makes an expression that’s full of pity. “No. Call it a big sister’s intuition.” She shrugs.

Another round of shouts come from outside the door as my eyes narrow on her.

“Oh all right, you and my brother were supposed to be onstage two minutes ago, and it’s clear to the entire guest list and half the country who’s watching the livestream that the real fun is happening backstage, so I thought I’d come looking for you. To help stir up a bit of sisterly trouble.”

“How much trouble are you hoping to get into?”

Greed’s red-painted lips twist wickedly.

Just as I hear someone fumbling with what sounds like a large ring of keys outside the bathroom door.

My heart races. “I’ll pay you everything in my current bank account to get me out of here.”

“Not enough.” Greed eyes me up and down. “Though I like a woman who knows how to negotiate.”

“I promise you’ll like me even better if you get us both out now .”

Greed bats her long, perfect lashes at me. “Money is my favorite, but offer me something else that interests me, little sister.”

“An exclusive first look at my powers.”

A crease forms between Greed’s brows.

“You wanted to see me angry? I’ll show you angry. I’m about to unleash all the power I’ve been holding in on some asshole who’s gotten hold of my friend. And I’ll let you livestream it.”

That piques her interest. “Tempting, but no. My followers would love it, but I’m your trainer. I’ll find out eventually, anyway.”

“Fine. Then I’ll come and work for you exclusively,” I say. “Three months.”

“You’ll quit Apollyon?”

“I think I was already planning to.”

Her brow furrows.

“Lucifer and I are ... It’s complicated. Though that may not be an option anymore if you don’t hurry the hell up and get me out of here.”

“Interesting,” Mimi purrs, smirking at me just as the door to the bathroom bursts open.

I turn, thinking we’ve run out of options, that I won’t be able to save Jax after all, or by the time I get to her it’ll be too late. Not to mention Lucifer and Azrael might both murder me.

But then I feel the soft, buttery grip of Greed’s plump hand wrap around my wrist, and suddenly I’m being sucked inside the ether, and everything fades to black.