“Outside. Now.” I growled the words, anger reverberating in every syllable.
“Where are you going?” Fletcher asked immediately, trailing after me as I went to the door. He flinched when I turned back, the wildness in my eyes stopping him cold.
“Stay here. Watch Ivory.” Then I looked at Beau and Ethan, indicating the order was for them too.
Yes, we all deserved to know what Earth had done, but this felt so personal. I felt so raw. I wanted to look into his eyes and hear the truth.
I want none of what I’m thinking to be true. Just tell me I’m wrong.
Not waiting to see if Earth would follow, I stalked out into the hallway, the silent, sterile environment almost shocking in contrast to the loud chaos inside me. The VIP wing of a hospital was somewhere I’d never been before, but besides being larger, fancier, and less crowded, it wasn’t much different than any other hospital. Feeling Earth’s presence following me, I moved into an empty room across the hall, rotating as he stepped in behind me.
The collar of his black coat was turned up around his neck, its sharp edges framing his defined jawline and somehow accentuating his high cheekbones. His inky strands seemed wilder than usual as if he’d been tugging at them in anguish. His crescent-shaped onyx eyes were too dark to appear shadowed, instead appearing shuttered, not revealing a single answer.
Earth had always had a hard edge about him. He was intense and harsh from the day we met, but everything about him commanded respect. The truth was no one really liked him, and I always thought he liked it that way.
Except, of course, for me, Beau, and Fletch.
Actually, most days, we probably didn’t like him much either, but he was our family. He had a soft spot for animals and a soft spot for Fletcher. He worked endlessly at the Rotten Apple, and though he might deny it, he was surprisingly a good friend.
At least I’d thought he was.
I never asked much about his past or his private thoughts. None of us asked much about our lives before we all moved in together. All four of us had skeletons hanging in the closet, but it didn’t matter. There was an unspoken understanding that bonded us all together. A code we all lived by.
Brothers before others.
Because in the Grimms, if you didn’t have loyalty, you didn’t have anything.
The rips in his black jeans flashed the skin beneath when he shifted, his black shoes light on the floor.
“It was you,” I said, laying it all bare.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because her stepmother hired me to.”
“You kill people for hire?”
“Yes.”
Earth was a lot of things, but never had I thought he could be a killer.
And learning that was exactly who he was didn’t scare me. It enraged me.
When I shot across the room, my fist connected with tissue and bone, snapping his head to the side. With an angry yell, I shoved, his back colliding with the wall. I hit him again, this time drawing blood from his lip.
“You son of a bitch,” I growled, plowing my fist into him again.
Chest heaving, my breath wheezing, my arm wound back again, only to drop midway to his jaw.
He isn’t fighting.
He isn’t pushing me away.
He is letting me beat him.
The realization took all the steam out of my fist, and it fell to my side.
The hand gripping the front of his shirt shoved off, leaving behind a wrinkled mess of the black T-shirt covering his chest.
“Why aren’t you fighting back?” I yelled. My entire being itched for a fight. There was so much rage and worry pent up inside me. So much betrayal. I wanted to feel it explode from my knuckles against his skin.
Despite the strong desire and the rapid thumping of my heart, I couldn’t.
“I deserve it.”
Nostrils still flaring with every breath, I let out a harsh laugh. “No. No, you don’t get to act contrite. Like you’re somehow the victim.”
“I told you not to bring her into our house. I told you not to get involved.”
My eyes went wide, and I took a menacing step forward. “You’re blaming me now?” I spewed. “Like it’s my fault Ivory is lying in that bed!”
I swung again, but he caught my fist, squeezing my already sore knuckles. The sole of my boot connected with his middle, the force of the kick making him reel backward and let go of my hand.
Eyes burning like hot coals, he launched forward, and we locked together in a scuffle.
Blows were exchanged, but the only ones I felt were the ones I let loose on him. Grunts filled the air. High-pitched whines from shoes squeaking over the slick floor punctuated the fight.
Slipping from his hold, I slammed him into the floor, throwing my weight into his body, looming over him with a curled lip.
“Is this what you wanted?” he taunted, voice raspy and teeth stained with red. “You wanna fight?”
Straddling his waist, I let my shoulders slump, anger draining away. This wasn’t what I wanted. Not at all.
“You pulled me out of the water at the fish market,” I said.
“You were going to drown.”
“Yeah, because you knocked me in the back of the head.”
“I would never kill you.”
A rude sound erupted from my throat, and I hoped it masked the feelings of hurt swirling inside me. “Unless someone paid you to.”
“No,” he said, his voice taking on his familiar harsh tone. “Because you’re my family.”
I slid off him, sagging beside where he lay, resting my elbows on my knees. “Ivory is my family now too.”
“That’s why I didn’t do it. Why I warned you.”
“You’re a son of a bitch.” I wanted it to sound hot-headed and mean. Instead, it came out low and wounded.
“Yeah.”
“Neo?” Her timid, raspy voice reached across the room, evaporating everything else.
“Princess,” I called, jumping up the second I saw Ivory standing in the doorway. She was always pale, but the pallor of her skin wasn’t as it should be. “What are you doing out of bed?” I worried, rushing to close the distance between us.
“I thought you left.”
I couldn’t even blame her for worrying about me disappearing. I’d made her like this, and it was my responsibility to teach her I wouldn’t do it ever again.
“I didn’t leave. I’m right here.” I spoke gently, lifting her off her feet, cradling her against my chest.
Small arms loosely looped around my neck, and a small sigh left her lips when she cuddled closer. Possessiveness roared through my veins, and the need to protect nearly blinded me, which was why I probably didn’t notice when she lifted her head to look at me.
“You’re bleeding!” She gasped, the pad of her thumb swiping over my lower lip, concern darkening her tired eyes. “What happened?” Gazing across the room, she saw Earth still sitting on the floor. “Are you fighting?”
“You should be in bed.” I tried to distract her.
“Why are you in here? What’s going on?” she demanded as if I hadn’t spoken at all. Leaning around me, she gazed at the man who literally tried to kill her. “Earth?” she questioned, completely in the dark.
Look, we all know I’m a bit of a liar. Fine. I’m a raging lie-aholic.
But there are lines even I will not cross.
So here I stood, stuck in the middle of my brother and the woman I loved, willing to overlook skeletons from the past but unable to overlook the fact he’d tried to turn Ivory into one.
“You gonna tell her, or am I?” I asked.
“Tell me what?” Ivory probed, dividing her stare between us.
There was a long, charged silence where I waited. I waited for him to do the right thing… to be even just a fraction of the man I thought he was.
Disappointment washed through me the longer he didn’t speak, and I began to ask myself yet again how I could be so wron
g about someone.
But then Earth unfolded from the floor, lifting his chin to settle his unwavering gaze on Ivory.
“I’m the huntsman. I’m the one who tried to kill you.”
63
Ivory
* * *
I felt drowsy, muddled, and hopped up on antihistamine.
But I was not delirious.
Or maybe I was.
“Did you just say you’re the huntsman?” I whispered, nearly choking on the words.
Earth nodded, not an ounce of sarcasm in his stare.
“No,” I said, struggling to believe. “It was Audra. She’s the one. She hired someone…” My voice trailed away, eyes settling on Earth.
“It was me she hired. I was there in the park that day. In the tunnel. I slammed you into the wall and cut your hair. I told you to run and never come back.”
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head in disbelief. “No. You wouldn’t.”
“I attacked you in the alley, and I threw you in the river.”
Under me, Neo’s body stiffened, rippling with emotion I couldn’t process. Trying to process my own was overwhelming enough. Arms shaking, I tightened my grip on him, burying my face in his neck.
A thought struck me. So horrible it made my stomach heave.
I pulled back so violently Neo had to react quickly so I didn’t fall from his arms. “Did you… did you know about this?” I asked, feeling like my entire heart depended on his reply.
“No,” he said surely, lifting me a little higher in his arms. “I didn’t know until today.”
His eyes mirrored the shock I felt. The betrayal.
Eyes filling, I hugged against his neck, burying my face under his ear. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, princess? You’re the one who almost died,” he whispered against my ear.
“Because he’s your friend.”
“You need to be in bed,” Neo said, not responding to what I said, carrying me and my IV pole from the room.
“Wait!”
His feet halted at my cry.
Peeking over his shoulder, I spoke to Earth. “I want to speak with you.”
He followed along. I kept my eyes on him the entire time, making sure he wasn’t planning to run off while I was trying to think of the questions I wanted to ask. But I could only come up with one.
“Why?” I asked when I was back in bed with a white blanket pulled up to my waist.
Neo sat on the side of the mattress, one arm draped around me so I could use his body as my pillow. The IV in the back of my hand pinched, and my skin felt tight and burned.
“I told you your stepmother hired me.”
Beau, Fletcher, and Ethan all reacted, mouths dropping open in shock.
“No way,” Beau swore, staring at Earth as if he were a stranger.
“What’s going on?” Ethan looked at me for some type of explanation.
So I told everyone. “Earth is the huntsman Audra hired to kill me.”
“Earth would never do that!” Fletch demanded, chin lifting, stubborn determination in his eyes. Turning to Earth, his gaze softened just a bit. “Right?”
The huntsman’s jaw clenched, and then his eyes dropped toward the floor. “Sorry, kid.”
Fletcher’s lower lip wobbled, and he spun away from the room, going to a nearby window to try and disappear behind the sheer white curtain. It didn’t do a good job of concealing him or the soft sniffling sounds he made.
Earth gazed after him but didn’t say a word.
Beau stood there in stony silence, and Ethan shook his head. “I can’t believe she would go this far.”
“I had trouble believing it at first too. Until she handed me a poisoned apple and outright tried to kill me.”
“That’s my fault too,” Earth said quietly.
“What do you mean?” Neo asked.
“Audra came to see me earlier today. It’s the first time a, ah… client has ever been able to figure out my identity. She walked right into the bar and told me to finish the job.”
“But she’s the one that came to my penthouse,” I said.
He shook his head. “I told her I was done, that I wouldn’t do it.”
“And so she decided to,” I whispered, remembering how she cackled about getting it done herself.
Silence descended, laying like a thick blanket over the room.
Glancing back up at Earth, I repeated my single question. “Why?”
“I told you,” he growled, prickly as ever. “Audra—”
“No.” I cut him off. “Not why you tried to kill me. Why didn’t you?”
The curtain Fletcher was unsuccessfully hiding behind rippled with his movement. He didn’t turn around, but his head tilted and I knew he was listening to everything being said.
“I broke the rules.” Earth finally spoke.
“What rules?”
“I let it get personal.”
“So you’ve done this before?” I asked, my voice quaking.
He didn’t answer, but really, he didn’t need to. We all knew he had.
“Are you saying you, ah, like her, and that’s why you didn’t…?” Ethan implied, dividing his stare between me and Earth.
Neo reacted instantly, a rough sound ripping from somewhere inside him. Like a sleeping tiger, he jolted up, lunging toward Earth.
Shrieking, I grabbed the back of his shirt, my tired arms unable to do much in the way of keeping him back. “Neo, no. Please.”
He stopped, but his shoulders were tense and his body vibrated with anger.
Or was it jealousy?
“Neo,” I beckoned softly, calling him back.
His eyes were soft when they turned, and I patted the empty space beside me. Once he was seated, I reclined, giving all my weight to him, hoping it might hold him in place.
Earth stood silently waiting, and when I looked up again, he dropped another bomb. “I knew your father.”
This one was more explosive to me than even his murderous side job.
“Y-you knew my father?” I whispered, forgetting I was holding Neo down to lean forward toward Earth.
At the back of my hand, the IV tugged, and I let out a small involuntary whine of discomfort. Reaching around, Neo pulled the stand, tugging it closer to the bed so it wouldn’t create so much pull.
“I—” Earth started but stopped almost immediately. Under his clothes, his shoulders moved restlessly, and his eyes trailed toward the floor. Whatever he wanted to say was clearly difficult for him, or maybe it was just private.
I wasn’t sure how to offer comfort or even if I should. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to hear how he knew my father.
Fletcher appeared, sliding up to Earth’s side, snaking his arm through his. Surprised, Earth looked at Fletch holding on to him, receiving a timid smile in return.
“You can tell us.” He encouraged, looking like a giant puppy.
In a surprising action, Earth ruffled Fletch’s floppy hair, fondness echoing silently around the room.
With a great exhale, Earth spoke. “I ran away from my life in Asia when I was very young. With a little bit of help, I was able to make it here. I thought things would be easier here. Better. But it turns out life is hard no matter where you go, and when you’re a kid with no support, no money, and no green card… life sucks.”
I thought about a smaller version of Earth, maybe a softer version, running through the Grimms, hungry and with no one to care for him. It made my heart ache.
Neo turned restless, shifting where he sat more than once, and I knew beneath his anger, he ached too.
“I couldn’t get a job, so I stole everything. Pickpocketing became a way to live.” Earth looked up, avoiding the stare of his brothers but looking at me instead.
Nodding, I silently asked him to go on.
“One day, I got cocky, and I thought I could prove how good I was. So I went to the Upper East Side… and I snatched a wallet.”
; My breath caught, and tears already began pushing at the backs of my eyes.
Nodding, Earth continued. “Your father caught me red-handed. His bodyguards snatched me off the street and put me in the back of his car with him.”
“Then what happened?” I asked, imagining my father dressed in a tailored suit and sitting in the back of his car. I missed him. I missed him so much.
Earth cracked a small smile, and it made me wonder what he would look like if he smiled with all his face. “He told me if I was going to steal, I needed to do a better job.”
I giggled.
“I thought he was going to take me to the police station, but he didn’t. He asked me how old I was, where I lived, and he listened to my answers. He didn’t turn me in. Instead, he drove me to some old building he said he’d just bought and hadn’t had time to do anything with. He told me I could stay there, and he helped me get a green card. I got a crappy job and didn’t steal… as much. A year later, your father showed up at the building. I thought I was going to get kicked out.”
“What happened?” I asked, totally invested in every detail.
“He signed the building over to me, told me that he wouldn’t have gotten where he was if no one had helped him. He said to make something of myself and told me not to steal.”
“The building…” Neo began.
“Is the Rotten Apple.” Earth confirmed. “And our apartment. I own the entire building because Ivory’s father gave it to me.”
“But if you own that place, then why do you make us pay rent?” Fletch wondered.
Beau rolled his eyes.
“My father helped you,” I repeated, love swelling in my heart. “He was a kind man. It’s why my mother fell in love with him.” The story that Earth told was completely believable because it was exactly the kind of man my father was.
“Yes. He did. He was the only person in my entire life who ever gave me a chance.”
“And you repaid him by trying to kill his daughter,” Neo growled.
“No.” Earth’s eyes flashed, cold enveloping the room. When they came back to me, I shivered. Suddenly, I recognized the aura permeating the room. The familiar chill to the air, the way my skin hummed with danger.
His roughness, his strong build.
Ivory White : A House of Misfits Standalone Page 32