Page 74 of Chaos

Sound narrows down.

“Smooth, tight, hot.”

My vision tunnels.

“Do you know?” he asks. “You guys into that?

I’m on my feet.

He keeps talking about her.

His words fade in and out, fighting to be heard over the roaring of my blood. I step around the table.

A face in the window draws my attention.

Frankie—eyes wide, hair in that eternal massive bun, lips in the shape of an O.

She shouts through the glass.

Ben follows my line of sight, sees them, and the glee on his face shifts. He takes her in for a second. “She’s already got that pregnancy glow, eh? Beautiful.” He smirks. “Inside and out.”

My hands drop to my sides.

The door opens so hard it slams into the wall.

He hurries to his feet, scrambling away, in the face of her enraged face, stumbling over the chair he pushed out. He narrowly avoids falling. “You never told hi—”

“Just shut your awful horrible mouth.” She shoves past me, backs him all the way up against the rear concrete wall of the space, face red and twisted up with anger like I’ve never seen before.

Pregnancy glow?

My heart feels like it’s pumping mud.

I’m vaguely aware of Shasta shouting—Church too, as he runs into the room.

Everyone’s yelling, but one sentence manages to penetrate the overwhelm of sound.

Ben’s voice raised in feral gaiety. “Welcome to fatherhood, Major Garrett. Hope it fucks you over even worse than it did me.”

Everyone falls silent after that, nothing but the sound of all of us breathing heavily in the small space.

I’d wonder if he was lying if it weren’t for the look on Frankie’s face.

Right before she punches him square in the nose. He tries to dodge, but he’s way too late.

Blood sprays out.

17 |Between my spine and his

FRANKIE

THIS ISN’T WHAT I WANTED.

At all.

I came down here to look at Ben’s cell, to get Tani to look in the window. I was going to ask how she got around the resort when she was pretending to be a ghost, and see if there was a way to get inside.

I expected to look in and see Ben in his cell and feel righteous, but I didn’t expect to get slapped with memories.

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