Page 222 of The Devil We Crave
“Achilles…” I choke, tears welling in my eyes.
I’m standing where I almost ended everything.
Where I looked down at the streets forty stories below, wondering if this was my only way out.
The night Kyle did what he did, when I couldn’t go home to face my family, I camehere, to the building my father had just bought. I came to this very roof and looked out over the edge and screamed my lungs out to no-one, hurling pure fury and rage at the world for putting me through all that.
I didn’t jump, obviously. I stepped back from the edge and left, and I haven’t been back since.
…Until now.
I turn to look at him, tears rolling down my face as I shake my head in horror.
“Achilles—this…this fucking place… This is where I almost ended!!” I scream.
His face is tight as he slowly shakes his head.
“No, little prey. This isn’t where you almost ended. This is wherewebegan.”
45
ACHILLES
Five months earlier:
“I gotta ask.”
I grin as I glance up from my phone. “Ask what?”
Dinner is cleared from the dining area outside on Ya-ya’s roof. Mom and Iris are inside with her, Uncle Hades, Aunt Elsa and Bella, making coffee and organizing dessert. Dad and I are still out here enjoying thedelightfulsummer weather.
“Is it hard?”
“Uhh…” I snicker. “Dad?”
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be a child,” he chuckles. “I was trying to pay you a compliment, you little shit,” he grins. “I was going to say is it hard being such a fucking great kid.”
It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “How’s that scotch, dad?” I chuckle, nodding at the glass in his hand.
“Twenty-five years old, making itliterallymore mature than the kid making boner jokes,” he fires back.
“Dude, come on, you walked right into that!” I smile when he laughs back, then shrug. “In any case, no, it’s not hard to be this awesome.”
He laughs again. “Normally I'd say something to at leastpartiallydeflate that ego. But fuck it, what can I say?” He winks. “Your mom and I made two pretty goddamn perfect kids.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I groan, dropping my gaze back to my phone, where Kyla Halbertson has just sent meanotherpicture of herself draped across her bed in her underwear.
Kyla doesn’t interest me at all, even though she probablyshould.She’s my age, “hot” by pretty much any standards, and comes from the same world I do. That’s weirdly important when it comes to dating. I’ve tried to go out with girls whodon’tcome from mafia families seeped in wealth and danger before.
It…never works.
Yes, there’s a distinct possibly that it never works becauseIdon’t work with most people. I have tastes I can’t and don’t share. There are parts of me that are always covered in this “perfect” fucking gold mask, one that I’ve never once been tempted to remove with anyone.
I mean, I don’t even take it off in front of myparents. Like fuck I’m letting it slip with a hookup, or even someone I’m dating.
Nope.
But Kyladoescome from my world. Her father, Joey, runs a pretty well-connected crime syndicate based in Chicago. Her grandfather, George Halbertson, teaches economics at Knightsblood, which Kyla just graduated from this past spring.
