CHAPTER 13 – Grace
The tension radiating off Fury made me feel twitchy. Blood flowed freely from a deep gash in his skull, and I was worried he might have a concussion. He didn’t try and wipe away the blood dripping down his face as he lumbered along beside me, three of Jebediah’s men at our backs, the heavy weight of their guns trained on us made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
When the soldiers had turned up at my cabin door to tell me Jebediah wished to see me, Fury had lost his shit. He’d gone ballistic and turned what little furniture I had to splintered wood. Two of Jebediah’s men were still back at my cabin, lying dead in the snow at the bottom of my steps. Fury’s reign of terror was brought to an end by a steel pole to the back of the head. It had knocked him out, if only for a moment, and when he came to, there was a gun shoved in my face and he was told to behave. Reluctantly, he’d fallen into line but refused to leave my side as I navigated the path leading from my cabin to Jebediah’s.
I was terrified something had gone wrong with the drop of NIM.
Had something happened to Ink? Is that why I was being summoned?
If that were the case, I now belonged to the psychotic white ghost. I’d rather be dead. If Ink was gone and I was to become Jebediah’s plaything, I’d take the gun from one of his men and shoot myself. It was a weakness to think that way, but I’d rather die than be bound to that man.
“He’s fine,” Fury murmured from beside me. I had no idea what he was talking about. “Ink… he’s fine. He’s too stubborn to let anythin’ happen to you or him. This is Jebediah breakin’ his word, which don’t surprise me in the fuckin’ least.”
Huffing out a frustrated breath of air I watched the fog before me. The winter air had a frigid snap to it, but the snow didn’t fall. Instead, the ground was slushy ice and the wind bitterly arctic. The heat radiating from Fury was actually comforting, and I stepped a little closer to soak up some of that warmth. He was furious, his temper barely in check. A vein on his temple throbbed, the tension in his body so tight I swear he’d crack if I so much as touched him.
“Maybe he just wants to chat.” Fury’s brow rose in disbelief. “Maybe he wants a haircut,” I continued, trying to find some kind of light in this darkness. Fury snorted but remained silent and sullen.
The path leading up the steps to Jebediah’s cabin was foreboding under the night sky which was filled with a full moon. That bright light made the world around me so pretty, but the fact I was walking into a lion’s den made the occasion far less appealing.
“Just her,” a soldier said, stepping away from the wide-open front door.
I didn’t think it was possible, but Fury became even more rigid, his massive meaty hands fisted at either side of his taut body.
“It’s okay, Fury. If Jebediah wants his NIM to continue to go out with Ink’s protection, he’ll keep his hands to himself.”
My words were filled with far more bravado than I actually felt. Walking through that door would inevitably not end with anything good. The feeling of apprehension was churning away in my stomach like a dark, oily sludge and it only intensified. Fury didn’t move, but as I walked forward, I felt his worry as if it were my own. Fury was called fury for a reason, and I couldn’t have him getting himself hurt any worse for me.
At the door, I glanced back over my shoulder and gave him sure nod with a smile. “I got this, Fury.” I hoped he would hear the belief in the words I didn’t at all trust.
He didn’t relax and still didn’t move, but he did offer me a single nod. Turning my attention back to the cabin before me, I stepped through the doorway and into the wide-open living area. To my right was an enormous fireplace, currently crackling away and snapping with the sound of fresh kindle. On my left was an enormous oval table in a heavy wood, with ten chairs surrounding it. From what Ink had once told me, this was where the Liberty officials would meet to help keep our community running like a perfectly oiled machine. There was a partial wall separating the large room on the opposite side of the living area, a kitchen with another sitting area beyond it. The entire space was much larger than anything I’d ever seen, even the home from my childhood. It felt opulent with exposed dark timber beams under the high ceiling, elegant furniture and elaborate rugs under my feet. Glancing down at my dirty wet boots, it almost felt sacrilegious to take another step into such finery while wearing such filth.
“Little bird,” Jebediah purred from a wide staircase which led down from a loft. “You are such a vision.”
He was once again dressed in a white suit, and he looked ridiculous, like a snowy cloud floating down the stairs. The sound of the door clicking closed behind me sounded so final and threatening. I was officially trapped with only a four-inch blade tucked into my boot to protect myself with. Holding my arms out wide at my sides, I waited for the customary searching, or rather ‘feeling up,’ from one of his guards. When no hands stroked my body, I almost sagged with relief.
“I’m sure you’re not dim-witted enough to bring a weapon into my home,” Jebediah said with a deranged smile as he approached me.
One of his soldiers handed him a fancy glass decanter filled with an amber liquid. Another man came forward and gave Jebediah two glasses.
“Come, come, come, sit… have a drink with me.” Turning his back, he pranced with an exaggerated flurry across the room to sit in one of the two giant, cozy sofas sitting before the fireplace. They faced each other with a large square coffee table separating them.
Forcing my feet to move was like pressing through thick mud. I didn’t want to be in his home let alone sitting and drinking with him, but I knew I had no choice in the matter. Jebediah would push and taunt until he broke me down, or at the very least would have one of his men force me. With the heavy thuds of my dirty boots, I trudged across the polished timber floors and over the pretty rugs, no longer caring of the dirt I might be leaving in my wake.
Sitting on the sofa opposite Jebediah, I ignored how soft the leather was, and how nice it might be to have one of my own. Instead, I forced my angry glare to meet that of the metal faced freak before me. Jebediah had already poured one glass of liquid and handed it to me before pouring his own, leaving the gleaming decanter on the table between us. Sniffing the pungent odor, I recognized the scent of alcohol—scotch maybe. I’d spent a summer helping Hal in the distillery when I was fifteen. He trusted me not to indulge in the spirits he spent so much time fussing over. It was possible Jebediah had spiked my drink, the underlying nuances of a drug could easily be hidden beneath the alcohol. Jebediah tsked me before reaching out and roughly taking the glass from me. He took a long drink then shoved the half-full glass back into my hands. Raising a brow, I gave him a challenging look.
“Do you honestly think I’m going to drink from anything your lips have been on?”
Jebediah doubled over with laughter. When he finally settled, his colorless gaze found mine. “If Ink does not return by midday tomorrow, my lips will touch a lot more than just your glass, little bird.”
The visible shudder was hard to disguise, and I knew Jebediah saw it, the pleasure at my discomfort alight in his eyes. With one leg crossed over the other, he rested back and ran a hand through his pure white, spiked hair.
“I like your hair, little bird,” he said matter-of-factly.
My hair was out. I hadn’t had a chance to do anything more than run a brush through it when Jebediah’s men turned up on my doorstep. It hung over my shoulders with a soft wave, well past my breasts, almost reaching my waist. Stretching out one arm along the back of the sofa, he regarded me with a curious gaze.
“Does it not bother you to know that Ink was attracted to you as a child?”
My shoulders straightened with indignation, but I didn’t answer him. He was trying to dig under my skin and find something which would set me off. He could dig all he liked, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a response.
“Are you not worried he might find other little girls attractive?”
I kept my face impassive and my body still.
Jebediah grinned. “You are a hard egg to crack.” Strumming his fingers on the back of the sofa, he was silent for only a moment before he began again. “Did you know Ink fucked Viv on that chair you’re currently sitting on?”
My fingers tightened on my glass, but otherwise, I didn’t respond. Ink had told me he hadn’t slept with Viviane and I believed him.
“He bent her over right there,” he continued, pointing to the end of the sofa. “Shoved her face into the leather under your sweet ass and he fucked her pussy like an animal.”
“Ink was never with Viviane like that. You’re either making it up to try and make me jealous, or someone has misinformed you.”
Jebediah chuckled. “You got me, little bird. I was trying to ruffle those feathers of yours. I simply assumed since he slept with so many of the women he’d fucked Viv, too.”
“You seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Ink’s sex life, Jebediah. Is it because you can’t get it up? You have to live vicariously through others?”
Jebediah’s eye ticked, the only indication I might have delivered some sort of blow. “Trust me, I can perform just fine, and one day soon you’ll find out first-hand how much of an animal a man can be when he fucks a woman.” Resting back into the sofa he finished his drink. “So, tell me about how you came to be thrown into the Underworld at twelve years of age.”
My hand shook as I raised the glass of scotch to my lips. The liquid was like fire as it slid down my throat and into my chest. My eyes watered with the desire to cough, but I held it back, barely burying the need to choke on the strong alcohol. Alcohol I required right now to simmer the tumultuous emotions this man was poking at. “You mean to tell me you don’t know? I thought you knew everything, Jebediah.”
He used his teeth to play with one of the rings in his lip as he considered me for a moment. “I know plenty, but your story is locked up tight in a deep, dark vault, and I want in, little bird. Give me the whole, sordid story.”
My story was definitely locked down tight. None of the innocents who escaped the Underworld knew how I came to be locked in with them, only Ink and Viviane were privy. The story was my own personal shame. I hated my father, he was a violent bastard who didn’t deserve my love, but he sure as hell didn’t deserve me killing him.
“What did you do?” Jebediah wondered out loud while I remained stone-faced and silent. “Hmmm, let me guess. You were probably a wild little bird. Did you experiment with drugs?” When I remained impassive, he giggled like a child. “I know, I know… you stole expensive lingerie.” Taking another sip of the scotch, I continued to ignore him. “Hmmm… maybe you killed your daddy.” His words slipped off his tongue like poison, each one chipping away at my composure and sanity.
“And we have a winner,” he yelled. “Daddy issues, I completely understand. It must twist your panties that Ink treats you like a child. I bet you’ve wanted to stick a knife under his ribs many times.”
“I find your company offensive. I would like to be excused if you don’t mind.” I’d had enough, the safety of my cabin was beckoning me. Fury was waiting right outside the front door, and I had no intention of allowing Jebediah to continue with his ridiculous games.
“I do mind,” Jebediah snapped.
Silence fell over us, the comfort from the blazing fire was a stark contradiction to the cold man before me.
“You know, right about now, I expect Ink to be balls deep in Jeze.”
My back stiffened, and of course, Jebediah noticed my reaction.
“He’s a man with a healthy sexual appetite. From what I hear, he’s gone without it for quite some time. Jeze will be willing, and I know she’s been dying for a taste. When Jeze sets her sights on something or someone, she takes it.”
“I’ll kill her.” The words, never truer, spilled from my lips without a conscious thought.
Jebediah smiled, but this time his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I believe you would,” he murmured.
Ink would never sleep with Jeze, it wasn’t a thought even worthy of my time.
Placing my empty glass on the coffee table, I leaned my elbows on my knees. “What are we doing here?” I asked, not interested in being coy.
“Enjoying a drink?” Jebediah raised his empty glass.
“Bullshit, you brought me here to try and make me doubt Ink, to stir feelings of jealousy. It’s pointless, so stop wasting your time. What are you doing in Liberty?”
His smile faltered. “The Arena,” he hissed out, rolling his neck as if to move away the tension sitting there. “I’m going places, bird.” Jebediah copied my stance, leaning forward once more with this elbows on his knees, his glass hanging between his long, thin fingers.
“Going where? When?” I asked, hopeful it was soon and far, far away.
Jebediah’s calculating grin poked at my temper. “The Arena is mine, it always will be. I need somewhere to manufacture my NIM, and you can’t get any more off the grid than in the wilderness with a village of wanted felons.”
“We are not felons.”
Waving away my outburst, Jebediah spun the glass around in his fingers, his gaze dipping to watch the action. “I’m going to be someone, little bird, someone important. You see, the government has been restructured, and things are changing. States are growing, politicians are moving their chess pieces on the board, and I’m right there in the thick of it…” He paused and stared at me for a moment, his insipid gaze making me feel uncomfortable. “I’ve put in an offer to purchase the Underworld, and from what my people have told me that offer will be accepted once I grease a few greedy fingers, hence the NIM.”
I jerked upright. “You’re going to buy the Underworld? Why?”
“Why not? Power, money, status, pick any one of them because they’re all on my bucket list.”
This was so much bigger than what I had anticipated. If Jebediah took control of the Underworld, that meant he could send us back there whenever he felt like it.
“I know what you’re thinking, you’re afraid I’ll kick your sexy ass back down that hole,” Jebediah said with a chuckle. “If you follow my rules and keep out of trouble, I won’t send you back.”
What about the rest of Liberty? What about Ink?
Jebediah would have such power over us, forever.
“There’s another way you can assure your safety, and Ink’s.” The words were spoken through a sinister whisper that made me shiver. “Be mine, little bird. Willingly… be mine. And I will make sure you are the queen you were destined to be.”
The thought horrified me, and my stomach rolled, my head throbbed, and the walls began to close in. It felt as though all the air was being sucked out of this room, and my vision swam as Jebediah tilted his head to one side with a look of displeasure.
“What’s so bad about being mine?” he spat out. “Is it because I'm so pale? My piercings? What offends you so greatly?”
“You might be all white on the outside, Jebediah, but your heart is black. I’d rather spend eternity in the Underworld than ever willingly give myself to you.”
His calm façade cracked as he stood and threw his glass against the stone wall above the fireplace. Glass shattered and with it so did my hope we would ever survive Jebediah’s rule. Catching me by surprise, he lunged across the wide, wooden table between us, wrapping his fingers around my neck. Forgetting everything Ink had ever taught me, I flailed like a fish out of water, my hands scratching at his grip as I squirmed beneath his onslaught.
“If being caged is what you long for, then caged is what you shall have. I look forward to the day you crawl at my feet and beg me to make you mine.”
“Never,” I growled as his grip tightened, my airway thoroughly blocked.
This wasn’t how I envisioned my end, but at least I’d go out defiant and fighting.
Black spots danced across my vision, as Jebediah watched from a teasing breath away, a fascinated look in his insipid eyes. He leaned forward and with that mutilated lizard-like tongue, he licked my face from jaw to temple. There was no room in my mind to be offended by the unwanted touch, as my life slowly inched further and further away. As abruptly as his attack started, it finished with Jebediah releasing my throat and sliding off the table, straightening his ridiculous white jacket as he did so. Air was hauled into my lungs too fast, causing my head to spin and the world around me began to fade out for just a moment.
“Take her out to the field and have her wait on her knees for the truck to arrive tomorrow. If she moves, shoot her.” Jebediah stormed toward the stairs, his movements lacking his usual lithe grace. Both of my arms were grabbed in a tight grip before I was ruthlessly dragged off the sofa. “But don’t fucking kill her,” he shouted before leaving the room.
His men paused, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Jebediah halfway up the stairs.
“If you kill her, I kill you. Understand?”
“Yes, boss,” both the men mumbled.
Tears threatened to spill, but I held them back with a painful swallow as I was hauled toward the front door. A sob was wrenched from my throat as I watched them beat the shit out of Fury. Of course, he was still waiting for me, and as I was lugged down the stairs and dragged toward the field, he fought like a wild man.
There was no stopping Jebediah, though. He and his men had this place locked down tight. He would soon own the Underworld, and that kind of power in the hands of a crazy lunatic would be devastating. Thoughts of Ink filled my mind as I was shoved to my knees on the freezing sleet. Two men stood either side of me, guns pointed at my head.
God, I needed Ink right now, because we didn’t have this. I needed him to make me believe we did, I needed him to make this right. I just needed him.