Page 65 of Natural-Born Cullers

“Kids.” It drifted over a moment later. “Just in case you were curious if I had any.” Martin looked over his shoulder. He pointed at the note. “Names of the people I slept with that I can remember, female anyway.”

Oh… fuck. Gray started reading off names. One in particular made him frown.

“Thing is….” Martin scratched at his head. “I never did really care too much about names, so they might not be accurate.”

Gray snorted a smile and flicked him a look, although, yeah…. He slipped the note into his pocket. He’d make the checks on them, if only to put… minds at ease.

Although he didn’t know how he’d put Jan’s mind at ease with telling him about pulling a gun on Light and—

“Fuck… shit.” Martin tripped over the tent peg, and that only got Gray frowning. Martin wasn’t one for not knowing what path he walked, even if it was just across the green.

Giving a smile down to his feet at the confusion playing out ahead of him, Gray went over. “Hey there, stunner.” Because it had to be Jack now.

Jack picked up the peg, giving it a scowl. “Right.” He looked at his watch. “Bastard really hates getting his hands dirty, don’t he?”

Gray cocked him a brow as he took the peg off him and put it back in the ground.

“Martin,” said Jack, giving a rough sigh. “One of these days, he’ll switch when I want him too and he’ll do my bloody shift at work.”

“You’d let him do your shift of work at the garage?”

Jack grinned. “Maybe. It’d scare the shit out of Sam if nowt else.”

Gray laughed softly as they headed back for the manor. Christ, he needed Jack and his obliviousness to the darker side of life now….

Sat at the table, Light didn’t take his look off Gray as he made his way across the green after Martin. His ear throbbed, and as Ray came over to collect the breakfast things up, Light got up, barely glancing at Simon. He made it into the bathroom a moment later and set the cold water running. He had two painkillers in hand, and, holding his hair back, he took them in his mouth before taking a mouthful of water from the tap.

The bitter taste of the pills hit his throat, and he briefly closed his eyes as he straightened, then set the hot water running to wash his hands despite there being no blood on them.

“Light.” That came off Ray, like an owner calling his dog to heel, and Light flat-out ignored it.

Yeah, looking down the barrel of a silencer had scared the life out of Light, but the fact Gray had fired it?

Hot water ran over his hands, and he turned them over, more scared with how they didn’t shake.

A part of him had known Gray would cock it back and pull the trigger.

He really wasn’t playing either.

Steam misted the mirror, but as more and more water hit the cooled surface, Light stilled with the writing that started to appear.

Setting his jaw tensing and reaching up, he crossed out the strings of chemical names, leaving just behind their chemical symbols.

Still here for you, son.

Light went to slam a fist into the mirror, then instantly pulled back, refusing Gray his anger. Because it had been Gray who had come in here just after they’d come out of the hall.

“Don’t pull the fucking trigger, then write that. Bastard.”

“Yeah? You done with talking to no one yet?”

It took a moment to bury the hurt and register Simon stood leaning against the bathroom door, arms folded. A bandage wrapped his hand, and the bruise to his jaw told tales on how Light’s first hit that sent him to the floor didn’t just bruise the back of his knees.

Simon glanced at the mirror, then as he looked Light’s way—Light went over, stopping so bloody close.

“You—”

Whatever Simon went to say, Light cut it off with a grip at his throat—then he went in, his kiss brutal, tasting him in every way, breaching personal space in every way Simon always seemed to try and breach his.

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