Page 27 of Gravehouse

“It hurts, huh?” His grip tightens. “Probably not as painful as a bullet. So here’s what you can know. You will do as I say and live in my house. I don’t care who you fuck while you do it, but youwilldo it.”

His hand drops, as if touching me disgusts him.

“You won’t have to worry about feeling hurt for long,” he says, a smirk pulling at his mouth. “Because pretty soon, I’m gonna put a matching bullet right between those perfect tits.”

CHAPTER

SEVEN

IVY

It’s too quiet.Way too quiet for this time of the morning.

I snatch my laptop from the side of the bed, carrying it to the table and flipping the screen open to punch in my password.

Text after text floods the screen as I sip on my latte. The perfect morning is caffeine and cigarettes, but I’ll settle for caffeine and murder today.

No plays for you. Update me on the situation you’re in

“What!”

Hell no was he going to lay me off during a time I need it most. If anything, it could be the only way I can get time away from this damn house. Not that I think Asher would make my case easy to plead, but it’d be worth a shot. And anyway, I’ve already decided if he wanted to stick a spy on me while I was doing it, I’d accept Atlas.

I dig through my laptop bag for my phone and hit his number when I find it. He should probably ditch this number soon, since he’s had it for almost five years. Too bad he’s pissed me off, nowI’m not going to remind him that he’s about three years outside of what we were told was thesafe zone to keep a number.

It clicks over and I waste zero seconds.

“I need the distraction now more than ever!” Ew, that sounded too whinny.Deep breaths.“Let me try that again.”

My heart slows, muscles releasing. “Please explain why I can’t be of use.”

Three years. I put up with Parker for three years until Emeric finally gave me the killshot order. For whatever reason, Emeric wanted to be thorough. No point tearing the weed if you don’t get it out from the root, so I waited.

And waited.

I’m not waiting anymore for anything else.

“You will not partake in two jobs at the same time.” Emeric’s deep voice scrapes closer to the receiver. “You are simply bored and want a plaything.”

Silence weighs between us.

Something shuffles in the background before he finally sighs. “May I ask what’s wrong with your current one? You break it already?”

“I’m doing my best to not be offended by what you just said, but since we’re on this subject, how the fuck did this happen?”

Nothing. Zero words are spoken.

My eyes narrow. “Do you know?”

“Ivanya, that conversation is for Nonna. However, I would like to discuss said toy.”

Yeah, I bet he does. Only he’s not doing a hell of a lot of discussing, since I can hear the faint sound of Gulls squawking in his background.

“In what context?” I push my latte away, leaning back in my chair.

“In the context of I can’t find out a single thing about him online that you can’t already read about on TMZ.”

Valid, since I know this for a fact.