Page 91 of Gluttony

Mickey’s a cunt.

“Kill him? Isn’t that a bit extreme?” Her head whips around to all three of us, with quick glances back toward Mickey, who has managed to stand up again.

“Useless bitch. You stay with the psychos, I’m gone.” Mickey begins to shuffle off, his second wind giving him false hope, so I’m not worried about him getting very far.

It’s impossible to escape this place. We made sure of it a long time ago.

“Andthatis exactly why he needs to die, Sweetheart.” Orion, our voice of reason when all else fails. And when he says this, Bowie really seems to pay attention.

“But why does he need to die?” She’s not arguing anymore, just questioning the why…

“You’re such a fucking good girl, Little Rabbit. I might even treat you to some more strawberries and cum-cream later.” I wag my brows, unable to keep the comment in. I’m fucking proud of the baby steps she’s taking here because yeah, the situation is pretty fucked up—for normal people, which we are not by any stretch of the imagination.

“Ugh, is this a thing? Cum in my food? First the cupcakes, and now breakfast, too? Actually, no. Stop being distracting and someone answer my question.” She pushes her fists into her hips, her presence demanding…and sexy as hell.

“Yes, cum in your food is a th—’

“Not that fucking question. I swear…” She takes a deep breath and tightens her jaw. “Why does Mickey need to die? He lookedpretty beat up already, which I’m assuming you’re responsible for.” After cutting me off, she looks me deep in the eyes, her tone accusing.

“Yes. I’m responsible. Orion and Hayes had a go when we were here last weekend, but it’s mostly me.” I grin because I know it disarms her when I do, and it works again. Some of her anger dissipates and she pinches the bridge of her nose the way Hayes does when he’s trying to calm down.

“Okay, so Mickey’s been here since last weekend? And you’ve been…torturing him?” Her voice is low, calm, steady, everything I know she isn’t feeling in this moment.

“Yes. Would’ve killed him a few days ago but thought it’d be a nice birthday gift for you to do it.”

Orion chuckles behind me, but he was on board with this whole plan, just as much as me and Hayes.

“And why would shoo—killingmy ex be a nice birthday present?”

“Oh, Little Rabbit.” I cup her cheeks with my palms and kiss her forehead. “I don’t know what happened before we came on the scene, but since we’ve known him, he hit you, and he arranged for someone to beat you up, hospitalizing you. Then, the motherfucker cleared out your accounts and left you with nothing. Nada. All before running away like a fucking weasel and leaving you to take the heat for a crime you planned to commit…because we had him here about a month ago, too, and you know what?”

She looks at me, confused, waiting for me to finish my little story, to answer the question.

“He sang like a fucking canary, Little Rabbit. He gave you up quicker than a pre-teen nutting in his pants when he sees his first pair of tits. He had no idea how we feel about you. For all he knew, we were ready to kill you, and he was happy for that to happen. So why do you care whether he dies?”

She looks down, but I pat her cheek and encourage her to give her eyes to me.

“I care because he’s a human being and murder is illegal.”

“Bullshit. You’ve been conning people all your life. You don’t give a fuck about legality. Try again.” I keep her face pinned toward me, we’re having this conversation.

“I care because…because…Oh God, I’m an awful person, aren’t I?” Tears begin to fill her eyes but she manages to blink them away.

“Sweetheart, no. You’re not an awful person.” Orion steps up to her left and begins rubbing soothing circles on her back.

“If you don’t want to do it, Diamond, we’ll happily do it for you. He’s lucky we let him live for this long after laying a hand on you.” Hayes moves to her right and we’re surrounding her, encasing her in all that is us.

“Stop trying to steal all the fun, Big Brother. This one’s for the newest member of our little pack.”

“Have I upgraded from Little Rabbit to part of the wolf pack now?” A light smile spreads across her pale, freckled face, and I tuck a stray red hair behind her ear. Though, the wind isn’t helping to keep it there.

“You’ll always be the rabbit, but you’reourrabbit, and not a being on Earth is going to be allowed to lay fucking hands on you and carry on living. So, are you going to shoot the fucker, or do I get to take ‘Arry out and slit his dirty fucking throat?” I pull my favorite switchblade from the pocket of my jeans and open it up, showing her what I’ve lovingly named ‘Arry. It was a gift from Hayes for our twenty-first birthday, and Orion had the steel engraved a few years later when he realized how much I loved it.

“We’ll circle back to ‘Arry the switchblade another time because I’m not even sure how to process that right now.” She blows out a big breath, raspberry style, through her lips. “Did he really give me up? He told you guys everything? Was this beforeor after my confession? I have so many questions I think my brain’s going to explode.” I let her head fall back onto Orion’s bicep, where she takes a small comfort and lightly sighs.

“Before the confession, and yeah. He told us everything, but managed to miss out the parts where he hit you or had you jumped in an alley. He promised to never see you or contact you again if we let him live.”

“Wow. I was as worthless to him as garbage.” Her eyes lower to the ground.

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