Page 66 of Deviants
“I can’t believe this place still exists,” Grimm commented, rubbing his beard.
Jericho was supposed to have been torn down before I’d ever been born. The church was more like a fortress. It looked ancient.
There were heavy padlocked chains in the shape of an X across the large double doors, and the windows were barred.
“I think they learned their lesson about windows,” I mused, thinking back on how easy the acolytes had broken out the windows from the last church we showed up at.
Speaking of acolytes, I could see a few of the ones Romero had called on the other side of the property, which meant somewhere behind us were more.
“Where do they go when they’re not with you?” Arlen asked him.
“I have the entire Badlands to keep track of. Who do you think helps shit stay in running order? Contrary to what you believe, I usually don’t run around after fucking bishops or spend my every waking moment thinking of David. I do have an actual life. All three of us do.”
“Not to mention this small thing called war that’s going on. Who do you think’s been dropping delegates and outliers left and right as we speak?” Cobra added when no one said anything.
“So they’re like your employees.”
“Close, but no,” Grimm cut in, stealing a handful of chips from my bag.
Cobra sighed and waved his hand at Romero. “The devil is king here. The Badlands is his kingdom. The crazy as fuck blonde beside him is his queen, andall the insane fuckers wearing masks? They’re hell’s army.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. And you’re the greatest, his best friend, and simply just fuckin amazing, while Grimm’s the dark and broody as hell Reaper, collector of souls,” she deadpanned.
“I don’t fucking brood,” Grimm scoffed at the same time Cobra said, “You think I’m amazing?”
He grinned, placing a hand over his heart. I half-listened to their conversation, eyeing Jericho for another entrance.
“The back of the church has a crawlspace that leads to the wine cellar right by the rear doors,” Bryce said out of the blue.
I’d almost forgotten he was with us. The man didn’t go out of his way to say anything to anyone.
“He’s right, there is,” Romero confirmed, running a hand over his chin. He didn’t question how Bryce could possibly know that, so I assumed there was another untold story there.
“And if this door is chained up, the rear isn’t,” I concluded, staring in that direction with a frown. This place was old as dirt; I could only begin to imagine what underneath it looked like. Dhal chose that moment to open her fucking mouth. I hadn’t forgotten she was standing there but I was petty enough not to acknowledge her.
“If this crawlspace is limited on size, we should probably send the smallest person here in there.” She made it sound as if that idea wasn’t appealing to her.
“You could have just said send Cali in. None of you are smaller than me.”Bitch. I added in my head. Romero glanced at me and smirked like I’d said it aloud.
“You know she’s right, baby.”
I pouted for a full ten seconds. On one hand, I was overjoyed he wasn’t trying to wrap me in bubble wrap and treat me like glass because I was pregnant. On the other, I would have liked a little more resistance on his end about me crawling around under a church. The damn thing would probably crush me just for being on holy ground.
“Let’s just figure out how we need to do this,” I sighed.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
This was the epitome of bullshit.
Cobra had snuck up first, finding the crawlspace and removing the grate. He’d returned and the first words out of his mouth were,“It’s dark as shit under there.”
That wasn’t an issue. I liked the dark; it had always made me feel safer than the light.
I was given a mini flashlight, a knife, and a swat on the ass as my send off. “No bullshitting,” Romero had warned.
There was an acolyte named Jeremy coming me with me. We were the same damn size, so him fitting wasn’t an issue ,either.
We’d made it to the crawl space without being spotted, and were now crawling in what I hoped was the right direction.
