Page 49 of Kings & Carnage

"I'm not fucking anybody until I get my hands on that pizza." My mouth watered at the smell of warm dough and melted cheese.

"You're the boss." Oscar grinned. "For now.”

We opened the boxes right in our makeshift living room while Rock went to get plates.

Oscar poured a fresh round of champagne into the coffee mugs Daisy had brought with the dishes, and we spent the next hour demolishing three pizzas —sometimes I forgot how big the Kings were; they ate like they fucked, like ravenous beasts — and powering through two bottles of champagne.

Neo had long since cut the lights and the room felt cozy and warm, candles flickering from the floor and the dresser in the corner.

It had started to snow, but it was impossible to see the crystalline flakes falling from inside the dark house. The only sign of the weather was an occasional howl of the wind rattling the old windows.

"I wish we could watch a movie," Oscar said. "Or even just listen to music.”

"It's so quiet here," I said, leaning my head back against the sofa on the floor where I was sitting. "It feels like the rest of the world is a million miles away.”

"I wish it was," Rock said.

I knew what he meant. In between our peaceful moments together — moments like this — I was all too aware that Roberto was nipping at our heels.

And not just him. I knew in my bones that whatever he'd done to Emma and the other missing girls, he hadn't done alone.

We had other enemies. We just didn't know who they were yet.

"Let's play a game," Neo said.

There was something dark in his voice that sent a shiver through my body. Anticipation? Fear? Sometimes with Neo they felt like one and the same.

"What kind of game?" I asked.

He looked up at the high ceilings and scanned the room, his eyes unreadable in the dark. "We have this big house at our disposal and we haven't explored hardly any of it. What better place to play hide-and-seek?”

“Hide-and-seek?” I repeated.

"I like it.” Oscar's eyes glittered with excitement. “Willa can hide. Naked. We'll seek."

Chapter23

Willa

"Ican't believe I'm doing this," I said, standing naked and shivering in the drafty third-floor room.

Oscar flashed me a roguish smile. "I can't believe we’re actually telling you to hide from us looking like that.”

I looked them over. "This feels unfair. If I have to be naked, you should have to be naked too.”

"She has a point," Rock said. "It wouldn't be very feminist of us to expect Willa to be the only one playing naked.”

Neo rolled his eyes. "For fuck’s sake," he muttered, reaching for the button on the jeans he’d bought at the mall.

I watched with satisfaction as they stripped off their clothes, slowly revealing their magnificent bodies, somehow even more appealing in the candlelight, sculpted to perfection, their dicks hard between their thighs.

I knew what they felt like inside me — in my cunt, my ass, my mouth — and that made the sight of them even more of a turn-on.

They looked like naked gods, the candlelight exaggerating every shadow, every muscle, casting their faces in an evil glow that made me wet.

"Why do I have to hide?" I asked.

Neo crossed his bulging arms over his chest. "You've already negotiated to your limit. You run. We hunt.”

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