Page 47 of Gluttony

“I’m supposed to thank you for getting my face fifty shades of bruises and my ribs all fucked? Yeah, I don’t think so.” I don’t hesitate, I push through the pain and walk past him to get to the door. I don’t even care if he stays behind. Grabbing my suitcase, I figure I may as well go back to the guys’ place with it as my excuse for leaving. I open the door and stop only when he speaks.

“Where the fuck you think you’re goin’?” This time I wheel around and point an angry finger at him.

“Far from you, that’s where. Don’t fucking come near me again, you hear me?” My voice holds no trace of fear, not a shake could be heard, but inside, I’m a leaf in a summer storm.

“Unless you want me to expose you, Bowie, I suggest you get shit done. Do not fucking cross me. You know you’ll regret it.”

Chapter Eighteen

Orion

“I did a thing. Notthething, butathing. I’m in the basement of the Brooklyn studio. You should probably come before I dothething because I’ve run out of Tic Tacs.”

“Seriously, Hads? What the fuck, man? We thought you were still in Cali?” I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes. This really is not something I’m prepared for this evening. Hayes is going to hit the fucking roof when I wake him up with the news.

I can’t not tell him, though. We made a pact a long-ass time ago that we’d always be in this together. The urge to dole out justice in a way that is generally frowned upon sits deep within me and Hayes, and we’re content with our one day a year. For Hadley, it rides him a lot harder so he usually finds things to occupy his mind between times. It’s almost a full-time job trying to keep him in check.

“Flew back. See ya soon.” The line goes dead and I shake my head.

I guess we’re doing this.

Heading to Hayes’s room, I open the door without knocking. He’s sitting up and pointing a gun at me before I have time to blink, but I don’t flinch because Hayes is more calculated than that. He always checks before shooting. His twin, on the other hand, not so much.

“Why are you in my room at”—he leans over to look at his phone on the bedside table—“one-thirty in the fucking morning? Has she done another runner?”

“No.” I huff a laugh. “Don’t pretend you’d be so cool about it either. I saw how worried you were earlier when you thought she’d gone.” We were both worried, to be fair. After what happened to her, being attacked outside her own apartment building, and the fucker didn’t even mug her, my suspicions have been on high alert along with Hayes’s. This happening to our executive assistant, just one month after our regular executive assistant was put in the hospital, really makes the pattern something we want to keep an eye on.

“It’s just best that we know where she is. Keep your enemies close and all that. Anyway, if it’s not our diamond in the rough, I repeat, why the fuck are you in my room in the early hours of the morning?” Then, as if it suddenly comes to him, he sighs heavily. “Hadley?” His brows are raised as he stares at me and waits for a confirmation.

Pushing my hands into the pockets of my jeans, I nod.

“Okay, give me five minutes. You’re on coffee duty.”

“Heard.” I tilt my head before leaving, heading straight for the kitchen and flicking on the machine.

While I’m waiting, I open our emergency Hadley supply cupboard and pull out a fresh box of Tic Tacs along with a clean pair of gloves for each of us because…well, fingerprints. Hadley hasn’t exactly given me a lot to go on, but anything else we could need will be in the Jersey basement.

“He give you a name?” Buttoning up his black shirt, Hayes sits on one of the barstools and slams down a manilla folder full of papers. “‘Cause I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and say it’s got something to do with our newest little housemate and her foster brother.”

“Her foster brother?” The PI I hired has finally found something then. Probably based on some of those messages Hayes saw when he swiped her phone briefly on Friday night. I wasn’t surprised that he left hiring the PI to me, it’s in Hayes’s nature to be cautious and make sure we’re all protected, but he likes to be the one in control and would never have done it himself.

What did surprise me was yet another lie from Bowie. Although, finding out it’s a foster brother and not a real sibling makes sense. So really, has she been caught in another lie?

“Name’s Mickey Martin, a whizz on the computer but my guy’s better. I’m just gonna leave this here, though. We’ll see how this thing with Hads plays out and I’ll do the wholeI told ya sowhen we get back.” Patting the folder, Hayes smirks before grabbing the travel coffee I prepared. “Which car we taking?”

“How are you so okay with leaving Bowie here alone?” I thought he’d put up more of a fight and we’d have to draw straws on who was staying.

“I hit up that tech genius from the Reapers. He reached out a while back for some VIP tickets to one of the ROK shows. Said I’d get him tickets for life if he’d owe us a favor and voilà. Favor complete. We have cameras ineveryroom,zeroblind spots, and it’s all on an app on my phone.” He waves his phone in the air with a smug-as-fuck grin on his face.

“When the fuck did you do th…you know what? I don’t care.” I laugh because I really don’t. I’m surprised it’s taken him this long to get cameras in the penthouse, to be honest. “We’re takingthe Honda.” Grabbing the keys from the hook, I head toward the front door with Hayes in tow.

“Fuckin’ hate that car.” His grumble is almost funny.

“We need discreet, because there’s no way your Porsche is going unnoticed, H. And Hadley would kill us if we touched his spare truck.”

“Not if he’s already quenched his thirst with whoever he has in the basement.”

Just under two hours later, I park the Honda in the underground garage we had built into our Jersey studios.

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