Oaths and Omissions (Monsters & Muses #3)(56)

It’s low and throaty, probably not audible to Jonas in the car, but it slaps me across the face regardless. Steals the air from my lungs, making me feel like I’m drowning all over again.

“Do you really think you can stop me? Nothing’s changed, except now you have a rabid guard dog. But you’re still mine, and if I want to touch you, I will.”

“Put your hands on me and I will bite them off.”

Another laugh, and this time he leans in, turning so Jonas can’t see him cup my jaw. I push him away, but his hand returns, fingers digging into my cheek.

“God, I miss your fire. Sure made holding you down while my friends made you their bitch a lot more fun.” Sighing, he releases me. “Mark my fucking words, you stupid slut. I am not letting you go.”

Bile teases the back of my throat as he walks away, getting into his truck and taking off. I cradle my stomach as I make my way to Jonas, yanking the door open and hiking my leg up over the threshold.

He takes off as soon as I’ve cleared the vehicle, before I’ve even closed myself fully inside. As I buckle, I stare at his knuckles, bleached white as he grips the steering wheel, whipping the Range Rover in a U-turn and heading away from Preston and town.

We don’t turn down the road to the beach house, though, instead continuing on when it forks and heading even deeper to the other side of the island. My cheeks are warm, hot with embarrassment, and the silence doesn’t help.

“I didn’t call him, you know.”

Jonas doesn’t look over at me or acknowledge my words. His tongue runs over his bottom lip, and I wonder how bad the cut is there, considering the small one on my forehead.

My eyes roll over his face, then up around the back of his head, and my heart sinks further into my body, like an anchor falling to the ocean floor.

I’m not sure how much time passes, but eventually he pulls up to an iron gate with a huge, Gothic-style house behind it. One I’ve only seen in pictures before.

With a frown, I glance at the Asphodel and back, my brows creasing in the middle.

Shutting off the ignition, Jonas steels me with a heavy, hooded gaze that I feel down to my toes. It burns so hot as it sears through me that it leaves me feeling cold, eliminating the oxygen from my body.

“The next time I find you alone with him,” Jonas rumbles, “he’s dead.”





26





“A babysitter? Are you serious?”

Elena juts her hip out to the side, adjusting the hold she has on her infant daughter, Noelle. The baby tugs at the ends of her mother’s hair, babbling softly before sucking on her fist.

Crossing his ankles, Kal leans back in his leather armchair, swirling the ice around in his tumbler. His four-year-old, Quincy, is snuggled into his side and sound asleep, her dark curls plastered to her head with sweat.

“You’ll have to excuse my wife,” he says, taking a drink. “She’s very passionate about being watched.”

Setting my old-fashioned aside, I drop my face into my hands and groan. “I feel like I’m way out of my element here.”

“Your element is murder for hire. Of course, you’re not comfortable supporting your fiancée,” Elena points out, walking over to her husband. She snatches the glass from his hand and deposits their baby in the free space on his lap, who immediately reaches for his face.

“I’m trying to support her, but she won’t tell me what’s going on. All I know is she has issues with her parents, and she hates her ex.”

“Preston Covington is an asshole.” Elena downs the rest of Kal’s alcohol, leaning against the stone fireplace.

Most of the Asphodel has been changed over the years, renovated to reflect a residence rather than the hotel it used to be, but certain aspects like the massive fireplace and the ancient Greek art hanging on the walls remain the same.

Since his marriage and subsequent children, the bloke’s put a bit more effort into making it homey, adding colorful throw pillows and toys neatly lining the corners of almost every room. I find it endlessly entertaining based on how staunchly against putting down roots he once was.

The man used to be worse about keeping personal effects than me, yet now there’s a family photo of them posing with puppies at the county fair sitting on the mantel.

Funny how everything changes so swiftly when you’re in love.

“How do you know Preston?” I ask, pausing to retrieve my phone from my pocket. A message from Alistair sits on the lock screen, right below one from Lenny, whom I haven’t spoken to in the days since the incident.

After showing up here with her in tow, I’d gotten out and she’d refused, perhaps thrown by the threat I made regarding her ex.

Perhaps I wouldn’t have made such an extreme claim had she not nearly gone off with him. After everything else that transpired that night, finding them together felt the most agonizing, like she’d reached into my throat and attempted to thread my intestines through my esophagus.

“My sisters know his people because of sorority connections.” Elena gives the tumbler back to Kal, who places it on the end table, using his free hand to wrestle Noelle’s fingers off his nose. “His parents are big donors at Boston U, and I guess because he’s also an alumnus, he’s a big shot on campus. Guys like that are always trouble.”

“Weren’t there also rumors about how he treated Lenny?” Kal muses, lifting his daughter up to blow a raspberry on her cheek. “I don’t keep up with the tabloids, but I do recall being asked about the breakup at some city council meeting months ago.”