Page 35 of Soulless Deeds

Then, the mistress of Vice dropped the bombshell, her final request. “How about one of you?” Aster asked, her prissy voice bouncing off the tomb walls, as cold as the atmosphere.

Micah’s body tensed, fucking seething, and Psycho approached her back, making his presence known. Emerson scoffed, and Tanner folded his arms in an unrelenting stance.

Echo shook his head like the whole notion was ridiculous, which tipped me over the edge. I’d just found the best kindling to pay the motherfucker back.

Before the idea even took fruition, I bounced off the marble grave of some random Kelly and pronounced the commencement of our alliance.

“Deal.” That one word sealed my fate.

“Deal,” Aster snapped back before anyone else could get a word in, her mouth lifting into a winning grin.

“Cut the fuckin?—”

“Shit, Spenc?—”

“This is stupi?—”

All three Kings interrupted.

Micah turned full-bodied to me, exposing her back for the split second it took Psycho to cover it. His frame was remorseless as he stood front and centre to protect us while my siblings crowded closer and quite literally cussed me out.

Aster piped up, her shrill voice refusing not to be heard. “You will live in my apartment building. Prime real estate in Junction City. You will be kept safe, and all your needs will be catered for.”

Stars literally shone in my eyes.“Now I’m definitely not refusing,” I whispered to my sisters and brother.

Tanner stood beside me, fingers digging into his forehead as if to rid himself of a deep-seated headache. “We can’t guarantee your safety there, Spence.”

Echo pulled on Aster’s arm, aggressively convincing her otherwise, denying my presence in his precious Serpents Row. That coward had another thing coming if he thought he could dictate my fateever again.

With dramatic flair, I laid a palm over my lower abdomen, attention only spared for the man who tried to kill me. “Where else would I be safer? Besides being with my baby’s father?Congrats, Daddy.”

All eyes succinctly lowered to my hand, and Psycho released a disbelieving laugh. “Oh, fu?—”

Triumph warmed my very being as I watched absolute terror take over Echo’s features. Then, the whole fucking place imploded with technicoloured madness.

ECHO

All manner of thought and reason flitted down to my gut, which was about to fall out of my ass all over the fucking floor.

I was dizzy, damn light-headed.

I’d well and truly lost the plot. First step to psychosis: Hallucinate the ghost of your greatest desire. Second step: That same ghost tells you they’re pregnant.

No doubt about it. My mind finally fractured over all the bullshit I’d put it through, turning me insane.

Daddy?

That one disastrous word echoed through my brain before I could process a solid fist aimed for my face. The handsome stranger didn’t quite make contact as Psycho intervened, dragging him back while he cackled. “There’sthe dangerous Pretty Boy I missed. I thought you’d lost your mojo, Tanner.”

Tanner’s unassuming persona had disappeared, an air of dangerous peril permeating from his pores. If I were anyone else, his expression alone would have had me whimpering on my knees.

I raised my gun, aiming directly between his eyes. “Back the fuck up,Pretty Boy.” I tried to infuse my Variant into the statement…which failed to trigger.

My skin prickled with caution as my ability withered alongside my ego. Tanner gave a sinister smirk, realising just as fast as me that I was entirely useless. He shook Psycho off, and his legs tensed, ready to strike.

Why waste my time on fighting when one gunshot from me could end all this in an instant?

My tunnel vision faltered when a beacon of seductress red and black pulled on Tanner’s shoulder, positioning herself in front of him, directly in line to receive my bullet.

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