Page 21 of Lessons In Grey

I pulled her bag over and slid my hand in, my fingers brushing by something soft of all things.

I pulled it out. A small white teddy bear with a name stitched into the foot.Charlie.

Emily Glass, last heiress to the Glass family fortune. Old money. Last year on December 3rd, she had lost her twin sister and mother in a drunk driving accident. Jack had found the information for me on the first day of school. A tragedy like that was bound to shift some vital part of how the human mind worked, but Emily had always been different.

She stopped seeing her therapist in June. Her father, who had been having an affair for two years prior to the accident, had moved in his little plaything three months after the accident. Helen and her son Jordan.

The therapist, Rachel Fellows, had been prescribing her medication most of her life, but after the accident, she had upped the dosages. I couldn’t be sure if Emily was actually taking them, but she did refill them every month.

My eyes lifted to hers as she breathed softly, drool dripping down from the corner of her lips. She had MDD and a low form of anxiety. Her twin sister had held no problems, none whatsoever. She was perfect.

Emily Belle Glass, the girl who shattered over and over again, trying her best to walk through a world that was so unforgiving to her.

She spoke in such a way that reflected the ghosts that lived in her eyes. I called her a mystery, my mysterious girl.

Fuck, she was so beautiful. All I wanted to do was fuck her,touch her, until every dark thought in her mind shifted from self-destruction to ruination because I wanted to ruin her in every possible way. I wanted to slip into her thoughts like a fucking parasite, growing until I consumed every piece of her. Even the thought of living in her mind like that had my cock hardening, growing painful against my pants.

I snarled, shoved the bear back into the bag, and grabbed the empty notebook out instead.

I tore a piece out and called Malachi, balancing the phone between my shoulder and ear with ease.

“Greyson, how is everything going?”

A gunshot sounded through the phone just before I answered. My eyes lifted back to Emily, wondering how she would react when she found out the truth about me.

Our darkest parts were the same, but they came to be for entirely different reasons. My darkness and her darkness would ebb and flow just like the collapsing galaxies and fates of this world, I just had to help her see that.

“What are you doing?” I asked, turning back to the paper.

“Oh, Azrael and Everett are taking care of some men for me while I take this call.”

He would never ignore a call from his boys. He had certainly left me in some sticky situations because one of them had interrupted us. I carefully folded the paper. “What happened?”

“A miscommunication that needed to be corrected,” he answered as another shot rang out. “I guess there are still some people out there who think they can cross me.”

“Tragic,” I mumbled, careful of the creases.

“Yes, well, they won’t have the ability to make the mistake anymore. How can I help you?”

“I wanted to check in,” I answered evenly. “The woman has given me the address to a party this weekend. Diamond will be there.” Remi, who had made Emily uncomfortable with her touch and silent words. I had seen it. Seen the way her eyes hadhardened when she saw Remi touch me.

It was all I needed to confirm my suspicions. I had reached her, and maybe she hadn’t realized that yet, maybe she was denying it, but on some level, I had reached her.

“Good, it sounds like it’ll be an open and shut case.”

“That’s the plan.” Open and shut so I could focus on my new vice. I was trying to quit smoking, but I couldn’t, not until I had her completely within my grasp. Something else to focus on besides that high I got from nicotine.

“I have a few other things I want you to look into when you’re done.”

I worked my jaw, eyes lifting to Emily. “I live here now, Malachi.”

“I know,” he sighed. “Small jobs, easily taken care of, all within that city. Everyone else is busy for the time being.”

We were always busy, it was part of this job. Part of the world that had submerged me into the deepest, darkest parts of my own mind.

I rolled my eyes. “Send me the details.” I hung up and held up the little paper rose, admiring it. I’d deal with it. I’d deal with Diamond, all while figuring her out. Finding out what truly made her tick outside of her poems, tragedies,Harry Potter, andDoctor Who.

I’d show her that her mind wasn’t just where the ghosts lived, it was beautiful, brilliant, savage, broken, and observant. It was something to be worshipped.