“Which means,” Dex says, leaning forward in his chair, “that we don’t need Rose at all. We have Ada.”
“No.” The word automatically falls from my mouth, my hackles rising. “No, no, no.”
Dex turns to me, incredulous. “Why not?”
“Because she’s my sister!”
“You were going to have Rose do it.”
“Rose isn’t my sister. I barely know her,” I tell him. I look at Maximus. “And you trained Rose, right? She knows what she’s doing.”
He nods but Dex keeps talking. “Ada knows what she’s doing. She got your mother out of Hell. That’s not nothing.”
“She had Jay and Jacob,” I tell him. “And now Jay is gone.”
“So she has Jacob.”
“Jacob won’t do it. Or he can’t do it.”
“Did you ask him?”
“As a matter of fact, I did ask him. He said that he’s not able to and that Ada isn’t ready.”
Dex looks at Maximus. “She’s ready.”
I punch Dex on the shoulder. “She’s not. Stop volunteering my sister for a suicide mission.”
“How is this a suicide mission?” Dex cries out. “It should be a fuckton easier than what she did for your mother. She’s not going to Hell, she’s coming into this house, into this very spot where we’re all sitting and having a fucking grand old time, and she’s going to do something to the Veil and pull him out.”
“May I say something?” Maximus says, raising his hand like he’s in school. “First of all, I just want to say that it might not be as simple as all of that. What does Ada have that the two of you don’t?”
“A nicer handbag collection,” Dex says.
“She can do things,” I tell him. “She was being trained by, well, one of your kind, and then I guess things got complicated between them and he was sent off.”
“So she’s like Rose, then,” Maximus says. “If we’re not guarding, then we’re training. Sounds like she’s shaping up to be the same. Which means she should be able to do this just fine.”
I clamp my mouth shut. I don’t want to tell Maximus that I don’t want my sister to get him out of here, but I hate that she’s been brought into this at all. She’s already going through so damn much with Jay leaving her.
“However,” he goes on, coming over to us and sitting his big frame down on the leather couch. “Just because she can doesn’t mean she’ll be able to. You said that Jacob sounded against it?” I nod. “You have to wonder why that is.”
“Exactly,” I tell him.
We all lapse into silence for a few moments.
Dex then says, “So it sounds like the plan is, we bring Ada here and we don’t let Jacob know.”
“Dex,” I growl at him. “Stop it. And what makes you think she’ll want to do this? She’s barely even talking to me.”
“That doesn’t mean she won’t want to help Maximus. She was his friend, too.”
Maximus looks pleased at that. It’s almost adorable.
“Perry,” Dex says, grabbing my thigh. “Come on, kiddo, you know this is the only way.”
“Not if Rose gets back to me,” I grumble.
“Then Rose will get back to you and it will all be fine. But if she doesn’t…”
I sigh, rubbing the heel of my palm into my eye, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. “I can’t ask her over the phone. I’ll have to ask her in person.”
“We’re going there for Christmas,” Dex points out.
“That’s like three weeks away.”
“But Big Red here said time doesn’t pass the same.”
I look at Maximus, and he nods. “It won’t make much difference to me. I promise.” He grins. “Would make a mighty fine Christmas present, though.”
“Then it’s settled,” Dex says, getting to his feet. “We’ll come back here bearing tidings and joy.”
“Going so soon?” Maximus asks.
Dex pulls me to my feet. “Unfortunately, there’s that crazy witch lady in this house and I don’t want to tempt our fate a minute longer.”
“Understandable,” Max says, also getting up. “I think I need to escort you again, just in case Victor is making the rounds.”
“You know what happened to him, right?” I say to Max as we head to the door.
He nods. “Oh yes. The fella likes to follow me around the house, telling me all the things his wife did to him. Just my kind of luck that I get stuck in a house with a bickering married couple.” He looks at us over his shoulder. “Though you guys have given me plenty of practice.”
“Hey, you knew us before we were married,” I remind him.
“And you acted like a damn married couple from the very start,” he says. “Now shush.”
He opens the door and looks around the hall.
Just like before, we follow him up the stairs and leave without incident.
No more Victor.
And no Samantha.
I hate that twinge of disappointment I feel for not seeing her. It makes no sense, and I don’t dare voice it to Dex because then he’s really going to worry about my mental health.
I suppose I should be worrying too. I know I should.
So then why is there a part of me that thinks I just need to give her a chance to explain herself?
And why, when I finally crawl into bed that night, do I spend a few minutes staring up at the ceiling, her name whispering over and over in my head, inviting her back into my life?
I have questions.
She has answers.
I want to see her.
Just once.
Three a.m.
I sit up in bed, breathing hard.
I don’t even have to look at my phone to know the time.
I just know.
I take in a deep breath, trying to shake the doom from my heart. I had a nightmare. I know that much. I think I was back in the house, hiding in different rooms from Victor. Maximus was nowhere to be found, so I was calling for Samantha to help me.
She never came.
And then Victor opened the door.
Crawled toward me.
I screamed and screamed.
And here I am, awake.
It’s raining again, the clouds having moved in while we were sleeping, smothering the stars. The light in the room seems more shadowy than normal and I keep thinking I’m seeing people standing in the corners of the room, watching me.
I am very, very afraid, and I can’t tell if it’s because of the nightmare clinging to me, or because I have reason to be.
I glance at Dex sleeping so peacefully beside me. I’m so envious that he doesn’t have to put up with this shit. I know he has in the past, but right now he’s just able to disconnect and let go and I…I have this horrible, dark feeling inside me that this is now a game I’m in and I’m never going to be able to escape. Like a trap has been set and I gladly walked into it.
I need to get up.
I need to use the toilet, get a glass of water.
I’m about to swing my legs out of bed and go, but I remember what Dex made me promise. That I would wake him up next time.
I stare at him for a moment, having an internal debate with myself.