Page 96 of The Hangman's Rope

“Would scare the shit out ofmewatching you come at my junk with a fillet knife.”

“Oh, this is going to take multiple knives, a whole lot of straps, and we better get a good gag on ‘em before we start. I don’t want to listen to high-pitched girly screams all night.”

“Whatever, just do what y’all are gonna do. I got my own problems,” I said and headed for the door. “You seen Grim or Reaper?”

“Check their room. Last I saw, Reap was staying friendly with that other Army boy or whatever.”

I paused at the door and turned with a feral grin splitting my face into something damn near rictus as it occurred to me – “Howfriendly?” I asked.

I was met with answering feral grins from my brothers.

“He didn’t strike me as the gay or bi type,” Torment said with a wicked glee. “So, I imagine he’s not having a real good time right now.”

“Good,” I said, letting myself out of the room and heading back down the hall for the room next door to Syn’s. I rapped on the heavy wood surface and Grim opened up.

“Come on in but hurry it up. It’s about to be my turn,” he said. I smiled and it wasn’t nice.

An eye for an eye… his suffering was just beginning.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lorelai…

“There we go.” Torment clipped the white swath of bandage around my hand and sat back.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

“It’s all good.” He got up, went around the counter, and pulled a jar toward himself out of the corner unlidding it and reaching inside. He came back around and held out a lollipop from around his back.

I smiled and laughed slightly and took it.

“I’m going to get you a bottle of water from the fridge, sealed. I want you to drink some.” I nodded a bit apprehensive, but that left me a little when he cracked the seal on the bottle in front of me and held it out.

I took it and drank… and drank, and drank, anddrankuntil over half of it was gone. I hadn’t realized how parched I’d let myself become.

“Yeah, I thought so,” he said.

I smiled a bit wanly and said, “Sorry. I feel like I’m being a pain in the ass.”

“All good,” he said, shaking his head. “You are most definitely allowed to do whatever makes you comfortable after shit like this. No one in this house is going to hold it over you.”

I started at him, silently critical and his lips turned up into a half smirk as he said, “Right, okay, you have a point – but Specter doesn’t count he’s like one out of all of us – quit breaking our balls.”

I laughed a little and he smiled encouragingly and nodded.

“That’s the ticket,” he declared, smacking his palm on the counter, and getting up to shut off the timer on the oven and take more appetizers out. He arranged them quickly on a tray and sent one of the catering servers bustling right back out into the busy house loaded for bear.

“Hey,” Corvus returned. “I’m going to take you home,” he told me. “You ready?”

“What about Hangman?” I asked apprehensively.

“Handling business?” Torment asked casually. Corvus shot a nod in his direction.

“He’ll be fine, sweetie,” Tor said. “Be along probably around dawn or something, don’t you worry.”

“Let’s get you out of all this hustle and bustle, yeah?” Corvus suggested. He liberated a ring of keys from his pocket and swung them around on his index finger, catching them in the palm of his hand.

I rubbed my lips together and nodded and he held out a hand taking the elbow gently on my good arms as I slid out of my seat and put my feet to the floor.

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