Page 48 of Gluttony (Seven Deadly Sins #4)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Hadley

“What in the actual fuck is Mickey doing here?” Bowie spins to face us, clasping at her chest as though she’s struggling to breathe.

“Like I said, happy birthday.” I give my best version of a boyish grin, knowing it looks far more devilish than boyish, and I’m not sad about that.

“Hap—happy birthday?” Her breaths are coming thick and fast, but she’s not quite at panic attack level yet. “…The fuck?”

“It’s okay, Sweetheart. We’re here.” Orion wraps his thick arms around her and pulls her into his chest. She gives in for a moment, relaxing into him before pushing away.

“B-Bo?” The coughing sound from Mickey brings all the attention back to him, fucking cockroach . “Oh, thank God, Bo. These men are fucking crazy, baby. Help me?”

“Mickey? Why are you here?” With slow, tentative steps, she gets closer to him. Twenty feet…fifteen…ten.

“That’s close enough!” It’s like Hayes and I are twins with how well he knows me… ha . He said exactly what I was about to say, because I don’t want our Little Rabbit getting any closer to that scum than she needs to.

She turns and glares at us with annoyance, and I just know that a, “really?” was implied with the look.

“Bo…Bo, come on, get away from them. We’ll run together.

I just need…” He has another coughing fit and I can see that Bowie wants to go to him but she holds herself back.

That kind, sweet, caring part of her wants to help him, and I fucking love that about her, but this is not the time.

I’m on high alert, ready to run and grab her away from him if it comes to it because he is not safe for her.

“I just need your help, my leg…” He gestures to his bare leg, covered in cuts and bruises.

He’s not completely naked this time. We allowed him a pair of boxers, mainly because we didn’t want Bowie to have to look at his flaccid, thin cock ever again. The only cocks she ever needs to see are ours.

“They kidnapped me, Bo. They’re fucking demented.” His furrowed, sad, sorry-for-himself brows become more angry and his top lip curls in a snarl.

It’s laughable, to be fair.

The three of us continue to stand and watch this play out, because while Bowie may not know she needs this, we do.

There’s a darkness inside our woman, it’s only small and mostly surrounded by a lot more nice stuff, but we’re not afraid to let it thrive.

She’ll need it because we aren’t exactly light and fluffy men.

“They kidnapped you?” She turns to look at us again, and her breathing has evened out now. “You kidnapped Mickey?”

My shrug is mirrored by my twin, but Orion holds his palms up.

“If we’re going to be technical, Hadley kidnapped Mickey. We just agreed to it.”

“Technical?” She blinks several times, her head wobbling from side to side in quick succession. “And you all thought this was a wonderful birthday present? To have me shoot my ex?”

More shrugging…

“We have cake and jewelry too, but we’re saving those for later.”

“Are you trying to be funny, Hayes?” She tilts her head, her eyes even wider than before.

“Rarely, and definitely not right now.” Hayes raises his brows in a silent challenge toward her and surprisingly, she huffs a small chuckle.

“Oh my God, this is so fucked up. What happened to him? You know I can’t shoot him, right?”

“Bo? Why are you laughing? Bo? For fuck sake, come and help me.” Mickey slides to the ground and is now on his arse.

Over the last week and a half, I’ve been keeping him alive with the bare minimum of food and water, just enough to have him last for this little birthday hunt, so he’s weak as fuck and in no state to even attempt a real escape at this point. Although, it was fun to let him think he could try.

“If you don’t shoot him, one of us will, because that sack of flesh and bones doesn’t deserve to be breathing the same fucking oxygen as you anymore.

Okay?” I pick the rifle up from the ground and place it back in her soft hands.

“Now, turn that gun around, Little Rabbit, because we aren’t your prey today. ”

I step into her, gripping the barrel of the rifle with one hand and her chin with the other. Bringing my face millimeters away, I press my lips against hers before pushing a Tic Tac into her mouth from mine. She doesn’t resist, easily accepting my small gift, but she does sigh.

“Mickey isn’t prey, either. Are you seriously expecting me to shoot him?” Her cute face is all scrunched up, and the way she’s sucking on the mint is making her lips purse.

“No, we don’t expect you to just shoot him. We’re here to kill him, Diamond.”

Her head spins toward Hayes, behind me, and she glares at him with wider eyes than usual, like she’s horrified at the suggestion.

I don’t know why.

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.

“And that is 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 looked pretty 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— killing my 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’re our rabbit, 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.