“You’re done, Grandma. I’m serious. No more doing things behind my back. All of these things you and Reece did complicated everything else. If I’d known about you cutting the body parts and having Reece store them, she would not be in jail right now and maybe those three women from today would still be alive—”
Grandma stabbed the air with her finger. “Don’t you dare blame their deaths on me.”
“End these ridiculous activities behind my back. End it now. Women have died. The wrong people are being blamed due to me being kept in the dark. I won’t have this anymore.”
Grandma finished putting the items away. “I came to the states to help you, and never do you ask for my help. Things are happening that you can’t deal with and you never seek my guidance. What am I supposed to do? I sat back once long ago and let that evil man come near my daughter and grandson. I won’t let more evil come around you. No more.”
Am I being too hard on her? No one could have anticipated these deaths.
Grandma would do what she wanted whether I allowed it or not. She was a grown women who’d raised ten kids with just the tiny amount of money Grandpa had given her. And when he was off working two jobs, she stayed home cleaning, cooking, helping with homework, healing, and doing all the millions of things one parent did with ten kids of many ages. Who was I to tell her she couldn’t do something after all she’d achieved? Who was I to spend my time trying to stop her from saving her daughter when she thought she could?
“Okay, Grandma. This is our deal. I’ll seek your counsel more and help you get rid of this curse, but I won’t do anything illegal. In the meantime, you notify me of everything, and I mean everything. You don’t work behind the scene with anyone. If there is anything odd happening, you let me know. No more sneaking around.”
“No more.”
“And whatever items you need, write it down and leave it on my desk.”
“Will Reece still be your assistant?”
“No. This situation and her feelings for me have damaged our working relationship. She was my assistant, not yours. I didn’t pay her to run around at night mishandling body parts so you could get me to fall in love with her.”
Grandma formed her lips into a frown. “That is not right. She’s a sweet girl.”
“I’ll give her a nice severance package, something that will take care of her until she finds another job, but it will be too uncomfortable if she remains my assistant.”
“And what will you do about the bad man coming to see Elle? I have protective charms. I have things that could help her.”
I almost said no and to let me handle it, but then I wouldn’t be making good on what I’d just promised. “Okay. Go ahead and make the protective charms. I’ll tell her about them and give it to her later.”
Grandma transformed her frown into a huge smile. “Thank you.”
“I’ll see you later. For now, let me talk to the detective and notify him of the entire situation. We’ll need to tell the police as much as we can. I’ll make sure my legal team is informed first so they can tell us what we can withhold in order to protect you and Reece.”
“Okay.” She stopped my walking out with a big hug to my back. “I know you work hard. You are our foundation, but make sure you get help from others.”
“I will.” I held the hand she had around my stomach. “I promise you. I will.”
“And no more lying to Hex. He knows about the first two girls now.”
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “I didn’t want him to have to deal with this.”
“It’s too late, and he’s stronger than you give him credit for.”
“Mr. Stewson, the head of housekeeping, said that he’s still wetting the bed.”
“Well, give him time.” She let me go and patted my back. “But he won’t get stronger if we don’t treat him like he’s strong.”
I sighed. “Okay. No more lying to him.”
“And I’ll give you the list of items I’ll need to stop this curse. I’ve tried giving many tributes to Donalito. I believe that my new tribute on the next full moon may be stronger than all the others. I think this time it will work. We have three weeks for the next night.”
“Well, hopefully women aren’t still being killed in three weeks.”
Chapter 23
Elle
I went to sleep last night with only my confused thoughts to keep me company. Alvarez never came by my bedroom. Surely, he had things to do, many things. Around six in the morning, the bustling crowd of nude and bloody people went away. When I woke up in the afternoon, I wasted no time grabbing my one suitcase and filling my items into it.