Page 73 of Gluttony

“Oh my God!” She flings her head backward and her body follows as she throws her arms into the air. Then her attention is on Orion, who is now standing.

We make a nice little triangle surrounding her, not that I think she’s realized, yet.

“Orion, you seem to be the most logical one here. Sorry about kind of shooting you, by the way.” She’s not standing quite so close to Orion, and her tone is a lot kinder, sweeter, as she places a hand on her hip. “Could you explain to me what the point in all this was, please?”

“Oh, come on! He gets a please? Come back, let me try again, but only if you say please this time.” Still grinning, I beckon hertoward me by tilting my head as I mirror Hayes’s stance with my hands in my pockets.

A quick glance and an eye roll is all I get in response, only making me laugh once more.

“Orion?” She doesn’t need to say anything else, he knows this is a very polite reminder that she’s waiting for his answer.

He looks to each of us first, then sighs. “To be fair, this was arranged before your big confession…”

“Nah ah, no. Nope. There’s no ‘to be fair’, there’s no ‘fair’ in this, at all. I only planned to rob you, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t follow through with it. But you three didthis. You made me think I was being arrested, to then think I was going to be killed by the fucking mob. So no ‘to be fair’, but carry on. I can’t wait to hear this.” She folds her arms across her chest and all the sweetness she allowed Orion has disappeared.

“The whole idea was to make you confess, to see if you’d give Mickey and the con u—”

“I already fucking confessed!” She throws her arms out to the sides again like she’s just really done with this whole conversation.

“Listen, Diamond. You have to understand a few things before you judge this.” Hayes speaks up and Bowie swings her attention on him with narrowed eyes. “We’re a unit, have been for over twenty years, and it’s my job to make sure we’re all safe. From the moment you walked into my office, or more like from the moment we met you in that club, that safety I built around us felt like it was crumbling. I can’t say why, or how, but it was happening. And slowly but surely, you’ve wound your way so fucking deep into each of us that it’s been impossible to tell my arse from my elbow.”

Bowie frowns a little at that, but Hayes continues.

“When that foster brother of yours confessed to everything, told us all about your plans to rob us, we were understandablyfucking mad about it. I had suspected something underhand, but shit me, that was a lot.”

“Wait. When my foster brother confessed to what now? And when?” Bowie’s brows are furrowed, and her top lip curled in disbelief and confusion.

“I grabbed him on the way out of your apartment, the afternoon you went home for some clothes. I didn’t like the way he threatened you so I thought I’d teach him a lesson. Kidnapped him a little, some light torture, he pissed himself, shat himself too, and squawked like a fucking baby about what you’d both been up to. He omitted a few things, though, like the hitting you and having you attacked things. There’s no way he would’ve walked out of that room if he had mentioned those.” Reminding myself of the fact that I allowed that fucking weasel his freedom makes me clench my fists in anger before pulling out a box of Tic Tacs and crunching on some mints.

Bowie’s expression is almost comical, her mouth is slightly open and I think she might actually be speechless.

“There are so many things wrong with what you just said, but I think…thank you?”

Okay, so not speechless.

“You’re very welcome, Little Rabbit.”

“No, I’m still angry with you. Don’t look at me like that, Hadley.”

I blow her a kiss, just for good measure.

“Ugh, you’re so frustrating. Why do you three think you can keep teaching people lessons? Were you professors in another life?” As if she’s now thinking about that, her cheeks flush a little. Dirty little minx. “Forget I even asked. So what happened after Mickey told you everything like…fuck, that must have been two weeks ago?” She shakes her head.

“Hayes came up with the idea to scare a confession out of you. We wanted to see if you’d come clean or if you’d protect thatslimy fuck. I suggested The Reapers, admittedly, as a joke, or a real cop we could pay off, then Hadley said we should combine the two ideas. The Reapers were—”

“I’m gonna stop you again there, Orion, because what? TheReapers?You sent Death to kidnap me and what? Sit in a room and watch me?”

“If you keep interrupting, Little Rabbit, you’re never gonna hear the full story. Can we at least all do this naked? It’d be so much more interesting naked.”

“Such a fucking wanker.” Hayes sighs deeply.

“Yes, he is. But so are you,” she points to Hayes. Next she points to Orion, “And you too. All of you are wankers.”

“You’re so fucking cute when you say that word. It never sounds right with an American accent, but you, you’re fucking adorable.” I laugh, thoroughly enjoying this whole thing. It’s like foreplay and I’m counting on some angry sex by the time we’re done here.

“I am not adorable, Hadley. Orion, please continue.”

“Anotherplease? Seriously? You’re just handing them out like sweets. Why does Orion get all the sweets?”

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