As I looked around the wreck of the room, the satisfaction of her departure fell away under a wave of dread. I’d seen enough to know Anthea was capable of making good on her promise.
But nothing she could do would drive me out of here. Giving up on getting the Nobles on my side would mean giving up on justice for my family, on getting back the only home I’d ever known… on everything.
I sighed and turned to my bed, yanking the sheets off to take them to the wash. Thankfully, a few days ago one of the cleaning women had shown me the linen closet that held the spares as well as things like towels. But, damn, all I wanted to do was flop down on that mattress and let sleep take me over.
While I was staring at it, contemplating doing just that and cleaning properly in the morning, a knock sounded on the door, which Anthea hadn’t bothered to close. Gideon leaned against the frame. His eyebrows arched when he took in the state of the room. “Christ, what happened in here?”
“Ask Anthea Noble,” I said. “I’m sure she’ll have a great story about it. What doyouwant?”
“I’m simply informing you that based on the GPS information we got from the car and Rowan’s report, you can consider today’s work done.”
“Halle-fucking-lujah.” Seeing him, hearing him speak so matter-of-factly about the job they’d sent me on, sparked a renewed fury in me. It burned through my exhaustion enough for me to start snatching up my soiled clothes, heaping them on top of the stripped sheets. I pummeled them into a tighter ball for good measure, imagining it was one of the guys’ heads I was punching. Wylder, Kaige, Rowan, the jerk in front of me—really, any of them would do at this point.
When I hefted the heap of fabric in my arms and turned to the door again, Gideon was gone. Would Wylder be stopping by next to make some of his ever-so-insightful commentary?
I didn’t know who I was angrier at—them or myself. No, make it neither. It was Colt’s fault I was going through all this shit, Colt’s fault I had nowhere else to turn. Which only made it that much more important that I rammed his head on a pike ASAP.
The fresh wave of anger gave me the energy to march to the laundry room, rub detergent furiously into the grease stains in the hopes they’d come out, and toss everything into the massive machines that serviced the mansion. Then I stomped back to the bathroom with my one clean change of clothes that remained and let scalding water beat down on me until every particle of dirt and blood was gone.
After I’d pulled my clothes on and gone to collect clean sheets, my lack of sleep was catching up with me again. I trudged back to my room to discover a mouthwatering scent drifting out.
Someone had left a dinner plate on the bedside table. It was heaped with thick slices of pork roast and mashed potatoes, both slathered in gravy, and a pile of buttered green beans on the side.
Any sense of hunger in me had been swallowed up in my fatigue. Now it came roaring to the surface. I grabbed the fork next to the plate and started shoveling food into my mouth.
I polished off the entire meal in a matter of minutes and sat back with satisfaction warming my stomach. Okay, there might be a few minor benefits to staying under the Nobles’ roof.
Ignoring the groaning of the rest of my body, I forced myself to stay on my feet long enough to tuck the sheets properly onto the bed. Then I tumbled onto it, lost to the world almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Wavering dreams chased me through the night, but I didn’t wake up until bright sunlight was glaring through my bedroom window. I blinked, rubbing my eyes, wondering just how late I’d slept after going without the night before. My mouth tasted like ash and my head felt stuffed full of wool.
At least the room around me looked back to normal. Someone had even brought by the clothes I’d chucked in the washer, neatly folded in a pile beside the door. I’d have to figure out which of the staff was feeling friendly toward me and pass them a little of my remaining cash in thank you.
There was an odd shadow streaked across the floor, a blotch in the middle of the mid-day brightness. I looked up at the window, frowning. The glare was harsh enough that I couldn’t make out more than a blurred shape pasted against the glass.
I got up, stepped toward it, and the bottom of my stomach dropped out.
It was a tail. A severed, bloody-ended cat’s tail, black fur jutting all along its dangling length. Who the fuck— Why would anyone—?
My mind shot to the stray cat Kaige had talked about so fondly the other night.Her name’s Mittens.Acid seared up my throat.
I stumbled backward, still trying to process the horrific image, and the door burst open behind me. Kaige barged inside. “Slack-off time is over,” he declared, wrenching me off my feet before I could so much as take a breath and whipping me around to face my doom.