Page 8 of Gluttony

Tomorrow was another day.

Grabbing his cell, he sent a text to Val, which was part of their familiar pre-bedtime routine.

Redtube: Goodnight, my Daisy. Sweet dreams.

After brushing his teeth, and covering his tatts in moisturizer to keep the ink bright and camera ready, he pulled back the covers and slipped between the crisp, clean sheets. Hitting the lights, Red dropped off to sleep, only vaguely realizing…Val hadn’t responded.

FOUR

Val hit send onan email to the project manager in charge of her assignment for the state treasury. She’d been tasked with finding out who’d slipped through the back door into their servers and was helping themselves to money the governor had set aside for Children and Youth services.

Those fuckers were going to get their asses raped in prison for what they were doing; stealing from at risk and abused kids—they fucking deserved everything they got in retribution.

Pushing her hair back over her head, she pulled the hair tie from the messy mop of a bun, and redid the whole thing to recapture the hair that had slipped from its confines throughout the day.

Nope. Don’t think of hair ties.

She couldn’t, not when, if she did, the tears would come again.

She decided to give Red a chance to explain, to tell her that what she thought wasn’t true, that he really was just filming the steamy stuff for his fans, and then escorting those women to the door.

You’re such a fucking idiot—that man is banging them, and you’re the desperate dumbass that thinks he’s saving himself for you.

God! That voice was such a bitch!

But I ain’t wrong!

Grunting, she peered at the time on her monitor and groaned. It was just after 8 PM, and she hadn’t stopped to eat all day, which was probably why her stomach was gnawing on her uterus. She felt like shit, her heart and mind in turmoil all night, and so sleeping or eating hadn’t even registered. On the upside, she’d finished her assignment two days early, which meant she had two days to kill.

And I can spend that whole time eating my weight in chocolate croissants, and bawling at episodes ofThis is Us, just to feel something other than my own personal despair.

Her chest squeezed, making her breath hitch.

God, she just needed to get this over with.

Her mouth dry, a lump in her throat no amount of swallowing could defeat, and her hands shaking, she picked up her cell.

Five missed calls. Eight missed texts. Two missed video calls through their private Discord-like chat room. She’d built that room using her own code so that she could keep things locked down tight. She knew Red was an incredible cyber warrior, so she worked especially hard at making sure he couldn’t crack through the system and reveal things she didn’t want revealed.

Like her face.

Shaking her head at her own foolishness, she opened the recent text string. The first one was sent the night before.

MyHeartisRed: Goodnight, my Daisy. Sweet dreams.

She’d turned her phone off, so she hadn’t seen it; she’d known he would text, and as battered as her mind and heart was, she knew the temptation to fall right back into old habits would be too strong. So, she turned off her cell, loaded up Crunchyroll, and spent the endless night bingingBlack Clover. Asta was an adorable OP badass, but Val preferred his guild captain, Yami—dark, jacked, brooding, and powerful as hell.

Yum.

Val had turned her phone back on that morning because she was expecting calls from her associates regarding her assignment.

There was another text from that morning at 7 AM.

MyHeartisRed: Good morning, my Daisy. I hope you slept well.

She hadn’t answered that one, though the urge to write “fuck you” in all caps rose with a vengeance. After that, she’d wrapped herself in work and tried to ignore the successive pings throughout the day. Thankfully, when she got into something for work, something that required loads of data, she could put on mental blinders. That meant she hadn’t been tempted to check her phone until now.

There was another text sent two hours after the good morning text.

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