Liar (Madison Kate #2)(101)

When I woke again, the sun was up and Steele was gone. The bed was still warm, though, and my second pillow dented from his head, so I doubted he'd been gone for long.

I stretched and yawned, climbing out of my cozy nest and making my way to the bathroom. The fentanyl overdose had still left me with a range of side effects, which the doctor had listed several times before I was discharged from the hospital.

Dizziness, tick. Tiredness, tick. Headaches, tick.

I groaned, rubbing my pounding head, and hunted in my vanity for some nice, safe non-prescription painkillers.

Nausea, tick. Feeling cold, tick.

Drug overdoses fucking sucked. It was safe to say I wasn't likely to experiment with anything much harder than weed or alcohol anytime soon. I washed my headache pills down with water from my tap, then cranked my shower. I'd just showered before going to bed, but sleeping for almost twenty-four hours took a toll and I was confident the hot steam would make me feel a million times more human.

After I finished showering, I dressed warmly to try and combat the light shivers running through my muscles. Black jeans, long sleeve T-shirt, and a hoodie that I'd stolen from one of the boys. I didn't even know whose it was anymore, but I wasn't fussy. All boy-hoodies were good in my book.

Stuffing my feet into a pair of Ugg boots, I scuffed my way downstairs to find where Steele and Kody were at. Archer could go take a flying leap off a mountaintop for all I cared. The kitchen was empty, but my espresso machine was on and the intoxicating scent of freshly ground beans filled the air.

I shuffled over to it, but the faint sound of raised voices caught my attention before I could start making my coffee. Probably for the best as coffee on a seriously empty stomach wasn't going to go down amazingly well.

Moving closer to the window, the voices became louder, so I peered out to see what was going on. All I could see was the back of Steele's hoodie and fragments of Archer, but they were clearly arguing with someone in a seriously heated way. With Kody? Surely not.

Abandoning my search for food and caffeine, I headed back through the house and out the front door, pausing when I took in the scene before me. Kody was there, but it wasn't him that they'd been arguing with. And all of them fell silent when they saw me standing there. No points for guessing who they'd been talking about, I guessed.

"What's going on?" I asked, sliding my gaze over Steele, who wore his hood up and a cold, deadly expression on his face. Archer, I didn't bother looking at. He was already dead to me. But Kody had his gun out, aimed at Zane. The gang leader was the only one of the group of five—Cass was slouched against his motorbike with his hand loosely resting on a gun of his own—meeting my eyes.

On the white marble steps of the house, just two steps lower than where I stood, a bloody lump of meat sat. It took me a hot second to recognize it for what it was... A heart. Probably human.

"What... the fuck... is going on?" I repeated, staring at the blood-covered organ in horror.

"A gift," Zane replied when my boys all remained silent and stoic. "From your stalker. One of Charon's boys was found last night dumped outside the Laughing Clown and missing his heart... but I guess now we know where that went."

My already nauseated stomach roiled, and I swallowed the rapidly increasing saliva in my mouth. This wasn't the fucking time to vomit.

"Was this the Wraith from the recording?" I directed my question to Steele—the most levelheaded of my boys—and he jerked a short nod. Apparently my stalker hadn’t been satisfied with just taking out Drew for her premeditated drug-rape attempt.

I took a couple of steadying breaths, fighting back the looming panic clawing at my mind. But seriously, was it too much to ask for just one day of normalcy?

"So why are you here?" I asked Zane directly. "I get the feeling this violates whatever bullshit agreement you all have."

He gave me a tight smile and a head dip of acknowledgement. "It does," he replied, "but some things are too important to sit on for long. Especially when the correct channels of communication are being ignored." He shot this last part to his brother, who just scowled and folded his thickly muscled arms over his chest.

"This has nothing to do with you, Zane," Archer snapped, his voice like a thunder crack. "I won't tell you again. Get off my fucking property before you give Cass an instant promotion."

The Reapers’ second-in-command raised his hands in a mockery of surrender and barked a harsh laugh. "I'm good with my current position, thanks. Besides, I'm with Zane on this one. She deserves to know." He jerked his head toward me, and my brows shot up.

"Deserves to know what?" I demanded, parking my hands on my hips and doing everything possible to ignore the heart two steps below me.

Archer was ignoring me, though. So were Kody and Steele. That in itself filled me with near suffocating dread.

"Leave now," Archer ordered Zane. "This is between Madison Kate and me. No one else."

Zane's lips twisted in a cruel smile. "If that were the truth, I'd happily give my apologies and leave. But it's not. It can't be between the two of you when she knows nothing about it. 'Cause she doesn't, does she? It’s so fucking obvious it'd almost be funny—if it wasn't Deb's daughter you were hurting."

"Someone tell me what the fuck you're all talking about before I start shooting people myself," I snapped, glaring at anyone who'd look at me. Spoiler alert, none of them would, except Zane.