Queen of The Reapers by Jessa Halliwell

Nineteen

I hearthe sound of approaching footsteps and my stomach dips. This is it. I'm coming face-to-face with the woman who nearly killed me and could be the one responsible for taking my sister. I flick my eyes up as she enters the room and see her mood shift the second she locks eyes with me.

“What the fuck is this?” She asks, glaring back at the sheriff who ushered her in.

“These two have a few questions for you.” He says, shoving her forward. “Don’t do anything stupid, and you’ll go back to your cell in one piece.” With that, the sheriff backs out of the room and shuts the door behind him.

Jessie stands in the corner of the room and stares at us. Her eyes flick from me to Dimitri, then back to me.

“My, my, my…” She says, slowly shaking her head. “Look who we have here. What an unexpected pairing.”

“Sit.” I order, glaring at her as I gesture to the empty chair. Time is of the essence, and I refuse to waste any of it playing into her mind games. She isn't the one in control here. I am.

Jessie slides the metal chair out and takes a seat across from us. She levels her eyes on us and it’s the first time I’m able to get a really good look at her. She looks like hell. Her once shiny, wavy hair is now wild and frayed. Her once vivid eyes are dull and lifeless, lacking all the emotion they used to have. Her skin is different too, bruised, sullen, and littered with fresh scars. Looks like she’s made some enemies here, too. For a second, I almost feel sorry for her. Fighting for your life in a cage is no way to live. Then I remember why we’re here, and just like that, my sympathy vanishes. She deserves everything she’s had to endure, and then some.

Jessie rests her hands on the table and my eyes flick to metal cuffs securely fastened around them. “Like what you see?” She taunts, noticing me staring. “They're on my ankles too, in case you're worried I'll finish what I started.”

“I doubt you'd be so stupid.” Dimitri notes, leaning back in his seat. “But if you try to hurt her, you won’t live very long to enjoy it.” Jessie's eyes flicker from him to me and a smug smile spreads across her face.

“Wow.” She says, stifling a laugh as she shakes her head. “You're fucking him.”

Heat rushes up my neck as I feel Jessie’s pointed glare burn into my skin. The accusation in her eyes is ridiculous. There’s nothing going on between me and Dimitri besides some weird mutual understanding. That’s it.

“Do The Reapers know?” She presses.

“What? No. I mean —” I hesitate and her green eyes light up. “No. There's nothing going on between us. Not that it’s any of your business.”

Jessie smirks at me. “Whatever you say, Pet.”

“Time is almost up.” Dimitri chimes in. “Get to the point.”

“Look, I came here to ask you about my sister.”

“Sweet little Alex?” She asks, flashing me a smile. “How is she, by the way?”

The way she asks the question feels off. Like she knows a lot more about Alex than she’s letting on.

“Why don’t you tell me?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at her.

She cocks her head and glares at me, but says nothing.

“Enough with the games Jessie.” I hiss, slamming my palm against the metal table. “I know you’re lying through you fucking teeth. I don’t know how you pulled it off, but I know you’re the one who took her.”

Jessie doesn’t deny the allegations, so I continue. “It’s never a crime to steal from a thief? I got the message you left loud and clear. I took your family, so you took mine.”

Jessie just stares at me.

“Look, it’s not too late to fix this.” I add. “If you end this now, I’ll talk to The Reapers and try to get them to forgive you. Just give her back to me.”

Jessie pauses for a moment and studies my face. Maybe my words are reaching her. Maybe she wants to make this right.

“It looks like we’re both shit out of luck.” She says, sitting up higher in her chair. “Because giving her back is the one thing I can’t do, not unless you have a time machine.”

My heart falls to the pit of my stomach as I stare at her unflinchingly. She took her. “What do you mean?” I ask, peering into her soulless green eyes. “Why can’t you give her back?”

“She’s dead.” She deadpans, smirking at me. “I killed her hours before I nearly killed you.”

All the air in my lungs rushes out as I stare at her in disbelief. “No.” I say, shaking my head. “You said you let her go. You said you broke her phone and let her leave.”

“God Stevie, you’re so fucking naïve.” She scoffs, sliding her hands to her lap. “I lied. I thought I was doing you a favor by sparing you the truth. You were going to die, anyway.”

“You’re lying.” I spit through my gritted teeth. She’s just trying to fuck with my head. The takeout containers were fresh. And what about the message on the glass?

“I wish I was.” She presses on, casually shrugging her shoulders. “It’s sad, really. It wasn’t a peaceful death and the poor thing never saw it coming. But you want to know what the saddest part was?” Jessie asks, leaning forward in her seat. “While I watched my men rape her over and over again, she never once cried out for help. Never begged for someone to make it stop. That was surprising, but I guess she knew no one would come to her rescue. I mean, even her own sister was too preoccupied to help.”

“Liar!” I scream, shooting up from my seat.

Dimitri wraps his hand around my elbow to stop me from moving any further. “Relax.” He says, trying to pull me back to my seat. “You’re playing right into her game.”

I shake my head indignantly and pull out of his grip. “No. I’m not. I know she’s lying. Everything she’s saying is impossible.”

“You’re right.” Jessie taunts, inching her face closer to mine. “Someone is lying, but it isn’t me. Why would I lie? I have nothing left to lose. I watched her die. Saw her take her last fucking breaths. It was kind of pathetic, really.”

“Stop fucking lying!” I scream, pressing my hands against my head. This is all too much. There’s no way Alex died that night. There’s just no fucking way. Tears well in my eyes and I don’t even bother trying to stop them. Alex can’t be dead. She just fucking can’t be.

Jessie laughs, and the sound of her heartless cackle causes something inside of me to snap.

I leap across the table and pounce on her. My body slams against hers and we both fall to the floor with a loud thud. Wasting no time, I climb on her chest and wrap my hands around her throat, stopping her laugh in its tracks. Jessie smiles at me, and it only makes me want to squeeze her throat tighter. This is all a fucking game to her.

Squeezing her throat tighter, I jerk her head up and slam it back down. If she doesn’t want to tell me the truth, maybe I can beat it out of her. With her arms and legs still cuffed, Jessie is powerless to fight back. “Tell me the truth!” I scream, smashing her head against the floor again. She winces, but the gurgling laugh doesn’t stop. It only grows louder.

“I have.” Jessie croaks, flashing me a mocking smile even as her face is turning bright red. “You just refuse to accept it.” I release her throat and Jessie gasps, greedily pulling more air into her lungs. This bitch is absolutely unhinged.

Dimitri steps forward and crouches down beside me. “She isn’t scared, Kroshka.” He says, gripping her chin in his hand. “Look at her. Mocking you. Openly laughing about killing your sister.”

“She’s lying.” I hiss, staring back at him. “Alex is alive, and she knows something. She’s covering for someone.”

“Get the truth out of her.” He says, pulling a knife from his pocket and sliding it to me. “Make her tell you everything.”

I look down at Jessie and for the first time tonight; I see the look of fear in her eyes. He’s right. She wasn’t scared of me, that’s why she didn’t take my threat seriously, but thanks to the knife in my hand, she is now.

I dig my knees into her shoulders and press the icy blade against her throat. She whimpers and tries to wiggle out of my hold, but Dimitri grabs a hold of her legs and the fight within her dies. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t slit your fucking throat right now.” I hiss, looming over her.

“I didn’t kill her!” She exclaims, her chest heaving as tears well in her eyes. “I swear. I didn’t. I was fucking with you.”

Her words reek of desperation, but I finally feel the sincerity in them. Tears stream down her face as her desperate sob turns hysterical.

As pathetic as she looks, I don’t feel bad for her. She caused this, caused all of this. She lied to get a rise out of me and she should suffer for it.

“Where the fuck is she?” I hiss, digging the blade into her neck. It would be so easy to kill her. The knife is insanely sharp and even slight pressure will make it slide through her skin like butter.

Jessie flinches, and a trickle of blood seeps down her neck. “I don’t know.” She wails, trembling underneath me. “I swear to god, I don’t know anything.”

“Liar! You know something.” I scream, sinking the blade even deeper into her skin. More blood is seeping down her neck, but I don’t care. Even if she doesn’t know anything. I want her pain, I want her blood, and I want her fear. “Tell me what you know or so help me god —”

My words get cut short as the door crashes open and I see at least three sets of legs enter the room. Fuck. Time’s up.

I move to climb off of her, but before I can, I feel someone behind me yank me to my feet and painfully twist my wrist, forcing my knife to fall to the floor. Everything turns into chaos around me as the other voices around me rise, but it isn’t until I hear one distinct voice call out from the chaos that I realize just how fucked I am.

“Get her the fuck out of here.” Cyrus yells, glaring at me as he tends to Jessie’s throat. “Now.”

I assume he’s talking to Dimitri and I lock eyes with him for a brief second before a large chest blocks my view. Tristan. Tristan picks me up and roughly throws me over his shoulder. I don’t want to leave yet, but I can feel the anger radiating off of him, and I can’t bring myself to say anything to him. There’s nothing I can say.

As he pulls me from the room, my eyes linger on Jessie. She’s not moving, and the blood pooling underneath her is only growing larger. Shit. What did I do? This is bad. This is really fucking bad.

* * *

Tristan throwsme into the backseat of his Maserati and firmly slams the door. He refused to say a word to me as he escorted me out and, as he slips into the driver’s seat and shuts the door, it’s clear he still has nothing to say.

“How did you know where I was?” I ask, numbly staring at my stained hands. There’s blood all over them. Jessie’s blood.

Tristan clenches his jaw and lets out an exasperated sigh. “A t… tracker.” He says, glaring at me through his rearview mirror. “All of our cars have them.”

I say nothing in response. If I was thinking clearly, I would’ve figured as much, but everything happened so fast.

The passenger door opens, and Cyrus slides himself in before slamming the door shut behind him. He ignores my presence all together and looks at Tristan. “Did you get the text?” He asks, pulling out his cellphone.

Tristan gives him a quick nod.

“Good.” Cy replies. “I spoke with Winston. He said it’s fine if I leave the jeep here overnight, so we’re all good. Atlas is waiting. Let’s move.”

Tristan throws the car in reverse and pulls us out onto the main road. We drift past the lively streets of downtown and even though I’m shuffling around in my seat, neither of them bother to give me a second glance. I’m sitting behind them, but with how distant they’re acting, I may as well be on the other side of the planet.

After a few minutes of driving, I muster up the courage to speak again. “How is she?” I ask, hesitation coating every word.

“Alive.” Cyrus deadpans. “Barely. No thanks to you.”

“That’s not fair.” I say, shaking my head. “You guys weren’t there. You didn’t hear all the things she was saying. She was taunting me.”

“Drop it, S… Stevie.” Tristan orders, “just be grateful we got there in t… time.”

“In time for what?” I snap, glaring at the two of them. “To stop me from getting the truth? She was about to break.”

“She was about to die.” Cyrus retorts, looking out at the road ahead. “She was baiting you, and it fucking worked. If you had bothered to ask us,” he adds, “we would've told you questioning her was a waste of time. We’ve been monitoring her since her arrest. You're the only person from the outside world she's spoken to. She played no part in your sister's kidnapping.”

“I d… don’t get it. We ruled her out weeks ago.” Tristan huffs, glaring at me through his rearview mirror. “What the f… fuck were you thinking?”

“Dimitri offered to help me with something I knew none of you would. He thought it was a good idea to question her, and I agreed.”

“Don’t even start trying to defend Dimitri now.” Cyrus snarls, shaking his head. “He is just as in the wrong as you are.”

“How?” I snap, glaring at the back of his head. “All he did was help me.”

Cyrus lets out a mocking laugh before turning in his chair to stare back at me. “You honestly believe he didn’t want that interaction with you and Jessie to play out just like it did? That he was only there to help you?”

“I don’t know what to believe.” I retort, cocking my head. “It’s not like you guys keep me in the loop with anything.”

“Let me give you a crash course.” Cy spits, narrowing his eyes at me. “Dimitri Evanoff is the worst kind of monster. A liar and a manipulator. He preys on people’s insecurities and toys with their heads for his own sick satisfaction. Assuming he’s a friend is one of the stupidest things anyone can do.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “You say it like you’ve experienced it yourself.” I mumble.

“Maybe I have!” He yells, letting all the anger and frustration explode out of him. “You don’t know shit about my life or what I’ve been through. But this is typical Stevie behavior. Quick to decide without thinking about the fucking consequences. You could’ve murdered someone tonight in the middle of a fucking prison. Do you not get how stupid that was?”

“At least I’m doing something to save my sister. You guys aren't doing anything! I get you don’t like Dimitri, I don’t either, but at least he’s being proactive. The four of you could give two fucks about Alex.”

“What the hell else are we supposed to do, huh?” Cyrus asks, glaring at me. “We have jobs to do, people that depend on us. We can't just stop living and throw everything aside to make you happy. We've hired the best men for the job, and have redirected a lot of our resources towards finding your sister, but you're still not happy. No. You’d rather have us out there on the streets chasing a fucking ghost.”

The word ghost hits me in the center of my chest and I audibly gasp. A ghost. Is that how they see Alex?

“That’s enough.” Tristan warns, placing a hand on Cy’s shoulder.

“No.” Cyrus says, shaking his head as he lowers his voice. “It’s been long enough. She needs to hear this.” Cyrus reaches for my hand and squeezes it tight. “Princess, I know you’ve been through a lot,” He says, locking eyes with me, “but these last few weeks it's like you’ve become a different person. Your need for violence is only getting worse, and it all circles around this idea that if you fight hard enough, you’ll get your sister back. But P, no amount of bloodshed will bring her back. You almost killed Jessie back there, and to what end? Killing her wouldn't have brought your sister back. Nothing will. It’s time for you to accept that Alex is gone and there’s a good chance she may never come home.”

“She’s not gone.” I say, shaking my head in denial.

“She is.” He says, his voice taking on an even softer tone. “We all know it. The Mercenaries know it. Hell, even Dimitri knows it. It’s why it was so easy for him to prey on you. The only person in the world who hasn’t accepted that she’s gone is you.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. How could he say that? How could they all think that? Then I realize, with startling clarity, what's really going on. They’re giving up. On Alex, and on a search that they never really wanted to be a part of.

“Dimitri was right.” I say, blinking back the tears welling in my eyes. “You guys don’t give a shit about Alex and you never have. God, why didn’t I see it? It was never in your best interest to find her. She’d take me away from you, and let’s be honest, the only thing the four of you have ever cared about is yourselves.”

Cyrus sighs as he runs his hands down his face. “You’re wrong.” He says, before moistening his lips. “We care about you, but I’m starting to see just how stupid that is. I thought I could reason with you. That if I just talked to you, you’d wake up and see how far you’ve fallen from grace. But I was wrong about you. You’re just another one of Dimitri’s fucking puppets. Only this time, you might succeed in what the other one couldn’t. All the bullshit you’ve pulled and all the damage you caused might actually be enough to rip this family apart.”