A miracle was taking place in Jamie’s tiny apartment just past midnight. Layla, being the bigger person, had gotten over Hendricks’s early assault on her. So when Jamie retired for the night and Hendricks did not follow him to his bed, Layla remained on the couch with him. Her blood had barely dried in his fur and he now sat so close to her, his fur brushed her leg whenever he breathed deeply in his sleep.
Now, Hendricks twisted onto his back, belly exposed, fully snuggling against Layla’s leg. Layla stiffened at first. Then when he started to purr, she relaxed. Okay. She thought, setting her book down so her hands were free. Let’s settle this right now.
The second Layla moved into place to pet him, Hendricks’s eyes flew open. They focused on her, the green luminescent in the moonlight coming through the window beside the couch. But he did not move away from her, nor did he hiss.
She reached down to let him sniff her hand. He gave her one sniff. And then the unthinkable happened. Hendricks rubbed his face against her knuckles. He wriggled on the couch to get closer to her, his purrs increasing.
Excitement spread through Layla like a drug. She grinned while Hendricks continued to purr and she returned his affection with gentle pets on his head and scratches behind his ears. Layla laughed to herself. This stupid little cat was the cause of the most joy she had experienced in weeks.
She opened her mouth to say something to the cat, and was interrupted by glass shattering. Hendricks leapt to his feet and hissed, beelining for Jamie’s bedroom. Layla stood, alarmed. She immediately noticed the rock on the rug among the scattered glass and the hole in the window.
Layla stepped over the glass and looked outside, expecting to scold a neighborhood kid for breaking windows. Shock stole her intended insults right from her mouth when she saw Elise Saint standing below the window, in a golden circle of streetlight.
“Can you please come down here?” she called.
“Are you insane?” Layla shrieked. “Why didn’t you knock like a normal person?”
Elise glared up at her. “Funny how I ask you that constantly, yet you don’t know the answer all of a sudden. Get down here.”
“You’re so demanding,” Layla hissed.
“Should I throw another rock?” Elise taunted her.
“Give me a minute.” Layla backed away from the window and winced when she saw Jamie emerging from his bedroom, his eyes on the glass covering the floor. “What the hell happened?” Jamie asked.
Layla stuffed her feet into her shoes and grumbled. “Some idiot threw a rock through your window. Don’t worry, she’ll pay for it.” Layla pushed past a perplexed Jamie. She stormed down the stairs so fast, she realized she had no idea what to say to Elise when she came face-to-face with her in the courtyard.
Rain plastered Elise’s curls to her head and her cheeks were wet, eyes red. She was breathing hard, but when she spoke, her voice was level. “Thank you. Can we please talk?”
Layla crossed her arms. “This couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”
“No. Because tomorrow is when everything changes, and I need your help to make sure it doesn’t.” Elise pulled a paper from her coat and thrust it toward Layla. “I think Stephen Wayne is responsible for the reaper incident at the Cotton Club. He used gangsters to distribute his products to Calhoun and they died. Theo and the dancers followed soon after. He’s been selling reaper venom and now he’s trying to cover his tracks.”
“Stephen Wayne didn’t kill the Dealers. Mei did,” Layla said quietly. She took the papers, but didn’t look at them. She remained focused on the Saint heiress and just how undone she looked. It wasn’t just the rain and her soaked clothes; there was a frayed look in her eyes, like she was on the verge of falling into the great unknown. “Why are you here?” Layla asked. She was sure Elise would bring up that day at the Cotton Club.
“Stephen Wayne is coming to your lair tomorrow to offer your clan a cure for reaperhood,” Elise said instead. “I don’t think you should take it.”
The mix of disappointment and hope Elise’s words stirred in Layla was the most confusing thing she might have ever experienced. Disappointment from Elise not acknowledging the pain that she had caused her the other day, hope aligned with her desire to be cured—Layla wasn’t sure what she should have clung on to more.
Her instinct chose for her. “You can’t help yourself, can you? I’ve had everything taken from me because of you and now you want more,” Layla said coldly. “Why are you still so hell-bent on trying to ruin everything for me? Was it not enough when I had to watch my parents die? And then when you left me alone to be preyed on by reapers?” Layla’s voice shook so hard she had to stop to take a breath and steady herself. Even after that, her emotions remained unstable. She stepped forward, coming out of the shelter of the building and into the downpour of rain. “Do you have any idea how cruel this is? Making me relive this all over again? You weren’t just my best friend, Saint, you were my best person, my best everything. And you threw that away for what? To impress your father?”
“No,” Elise ground out. Her lips were pale. Layla couldn’t tell if it was from the cold, or her nerves, but she told herself she didn’t care; she couldn’t. Not while she was so close to getting what she wanted, with Elise being the only thing that stood in her way.
“Bullshit,” Layla snapped. “Everything you do is for him. You’re so blinded by your need to please him that you can’t see how sick and twisted he is. I told you in confidence about my parents’ plan to meet with Valeriya to finally have some peace in Harlem, and you violated that trust. Your father watched me bleed out after the rogue reapers left and he cruelly let me know that you were the one who told him about my parents’ plans. He said it was you who begged him to find a way to stop my parents. And he spread the lie that my parents were going to eliminate Valeriya’s clan. He had the reapers kill them because he cannot stand not being in control. And you had to tell him my family’s secret because you cannot stand not being Tobias’s pride and joy. You can’t see how he hurts everyone, including you. Why do you break yourself for him every day? Why did you kill me for him?” Layla demanded.
She was crying now. Tears rushed down her cheeks like a river funneling through a crack in a dam. She couldn’t stop the hurt coursing through her no matter how much she willed her heart to seal itself up. As intensely as she felt the rain pouring down her neck and into her shoes, she felt her heart breaking open again. Layla choked on her sobs when Elise said nothing. “You can’t even answer me? Five years after you left me to die, you won’t even give me the satisfaction of telling me why?”
Elise’s expression hardened then, as if Layla had struck a chord. “You know why,” she declared.
“No. I don’t,” Layla said through gritted teeth.
“I wrote it in every goddamn note I put in the song I composed for you. Which I know you stole. By the way,” Elise said.
Layla scoffed. Her throat burned from her tears, but she raised her voice anyway. “You want to talk about music right now? Really?” she nearly shouted.
“Yes. Because it’s the only way I know how to express myself anymore,” Elise yelled back. She stepped toward Layla until they were close enough that she could see the rising haze of ire covering her eyes. “You know what? You are right. I am blinded by my father. I did make a lot of mistakes in the past because of him. His fear after Charlotte died took over my life. It’s why I told him to stop your parents because I didn’t want them hurt by reapers too. He controlled a lot of me and my decisions, but the one thing he didn’t control were my feelings for you.”
Elise’s voice broke as she continued. “I forced myself to hate you for so long. I tried to hate myself, thinking because you’re such an integral part of me, maybe I should start picking myself apart piece by piece to get you out of my system. But nothing worked. I went halfway around the world and I still felt you in me. I felt you under all of my pain and I told myself it was better to hurt than to feel for you because my father sent me letters every day, cursing your name. I lost you. I couldn’t lose him too.” Elise sniffed.
Layla was unconvinced. The emotion in Elise’s voice was raw, but that didn’t change the fact that her own hard edges and the emptiness in her soul were because of her. She deepened her glare. “How dare you talk about loss. You had everything—you still do. Yet somehow, you have managed to pin this on me. How in the world are your feelings toward me my fault—”
“Because I fell in love with you!” Elise exploded.
Layla went still. If it was possible for time to stop, it would have in this moment. The rain seemed to fall more slowly around them, the air dropping several degrees. Layla willed herself to look away from the bright pain in Elise’s eyes, not wanting to fall into them, fall into her, but she couldn’t.
Elise wept. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was worried for you when your parents wanted to work with the reapers. I thought my father would convince them not to—he told me he would keep you safe. He lied to me. I didn’t want you to die.” Her voice broke and her sobs intensified. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to continue on with life when the person you love tried to kill you, but you still love them? You tried to rip my heart from my chest, but you’ve already had my heart; it’s always been yours—”
“Shut up,” Layla whispered. Her voice sounded unlike her own. She wasn’t even sure if she was still existing. Her body was numb to the rain, numb to the cold, numb to Elise’s storm of emotions.
“Don’t tell me to shut up. I’ve been sick without you for years. I’m going to say whatever the hell I want—” Elise tried to step toward Layla, but Layla backed away, stumbling a bit. Elise’s expression fell. “Layla—”
“Stop talking, Saint.” They were the only words Layla could get out before she started running.