Page 49 of Gluttony (Seven Deadly Sins #4)

“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 before or 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.

“Don’t let that prick get into your head, Sweetheart.”

“If anyone gave us the choice of dying or running away and never seeing you again, well, they’d all be having their own funerals because never seeing you is not an option.”

“Aw, Hayes. I think that was…sweet?” Raising her head, I note the small smile is back again.

“Are we gonna kill this motherfucker, or what? I know I’m all about the hunt but I wanna fuck our girl more.” I step back and clap my hands together, rubbing them in what can only be described as glee in anticipation of seeing Mickey’s blood fucking everywhere.

“I can’t kill him…I can’t even shoot him…I just…I can’t.” A lone tear falls from her right eye and it’s fucking beautiful.

I want to lick it. But I won’t because I can read a room…when I want to. Maybe I’ll make her cry tonight, just so I can taste her tears.

“What he did to me is unforgivable. I’m glad he ran away so I didn’t have to deal with leaving the only person I had left in this world.

He was a fucking coward and he did it for me.

He left. Ran the fuck away. Poof.” The single tear turns into more, and now they’re streaking down her cheeks, but they’re not sad tears.

They’re angry. Exactly what she needs to be.

This is how she lets out that pain we all know she locked away in the back of her mind.

“I thought if I ever saw him again, I’d want to shout and scream at him, tell him how much he hurt me, how much he betrayed me but now…

now he’s here and I don’t feel anything for him.

It’s just a whole lot of nothing and I’m afraid that makes me an awful person because I’ve moved on so quickly.

” Stepping away from our little circle around her, she faces us and angrily wipes away her tears.

“I’m happy, goddammit. Finally. So why do I feel like that’s such a bad thing?

” She throws her arms out to the side, exasperated, then lets them drop as if she’s reached her breaking point.

“Sweetheart, we hear you. It’s okay to feel nothing for him.”

“Fucking got that right.” My words are almost a growl, mostly because I’m so fucking proud of her. Okay, and a lot happy about the fact that she’s over him.

Orion turns his head to glare at me, silently telling me to shut the fuck up before giving his attention back to Bowie. “You’re not an awful person, either.”

“You’ve earned yourself a few spanks later for putting yourself down like that, Diamond. I’m reddening that arse.”

“For fuck sake, can I finish talking before we start swearing and threatening spank—”

Hayes and Orion can give Bowie the pep talk she needs right now, that’s not a me job. What is a me job, is finding and gutting Mickey.

After seeing Bowie’s reaction, I get that killing her ex isn’t going to make her feel better, but I also know that she won’t mind if he’s no longer alive. She doesn’t have to do the actual murdering. That’s what she has me for.

I head in the direction Mickey hobbled off in, noting the broken branches on the way so he’s easy as fuck to follow. It takes me all of five minutes to find him, leaning against a tree and trying to catch his breath.

Knew the motherfucker wouldn’t get very far in the state he’s in. His skin is mottled and gray, covered in marks, and now dirt, too.

“Enjoying your rest, Minging Mickey?” It’s immature to call him names, but I give zero shits.

“Because it’s about to become eternal. Although…

” I pause and slowly stalk toward him. “I do kinda hope that when you’re a piece of shit person, the pain you’re in when you die follows you into death.

So that agony you’re gonna feel should last for-fucking-ever. ”

“You’re fucking crazy, man. Just let me go. Please.”

Fuck me…he even begs like a fucking weasel.

He tries to move away from the tree but his hobble is worse than before, and he’s favoring his left leg. Shame…he seems to have hurt himself while trying to escape.

Another step closer.

“Hurt ya ankle, there? Why don’t you let me have a look at it?”

Another step closer…

“No…don’t come any closer. Please. Please let me go. I promise I’ll stay away.” He’s still attempting to hobble away, to no avail.

“I haven’t introduced you to ‘Arry yet, have I? I usually save him for this last part. The fun part.” I lunge forward, making him flinch and fall backward onto his skinny arse. Laughing, I crouch down beside him and grab his leg, slicing ‘Arry through Mickey’s Achilles tendon.

The scream he lets loose is worthy of its own record, but I’ll have to do with the artists we have on our books because Mickey won’t see another day after this one.

I grab his other leg and slice across the back of his knee, evoking yet another glorious howl from him as he starts to bleed out. His lame attempt at shuffling backward just makes him cry out again, which earns him another chuckle from me.

This has dragged out over the course of more than a week, and yeah, I like to play with my food, but I like to play with my woman more so a few more slices across his joints and I’m happy to call it a day. He’s not dead yet, but he is unconscious, surrounded by his own claret.

Exactly where he belongs.

In the fucking dirt.

I pull out the origami I prepared earlier and find an open wound on his chest to tuck in part of it, so the head is sticking out of his flesh.

“Oh my God. Is he…?” Bowie’s voice comes from behind me.

It didn’t take a brain surgeon to find us, considering Mickey screamed loud enough to wake the dead, so now here they are.

“Not yet, but he soon will be.” I stand and approach her, careful not to transfer any of his blood to her beautiful skin as I cup her cheek.

“I know you didn’t wanna do it, and that’s okay, but he had to die, Little Rabbit.

You’re ours now, you belong to us just as much as we belong to you.

And that means we take care of each other.

Nobody gets to touch you the way he did and continue living. ”

She’s blinking a lot, her forehead creased as though she’s trying to process what’s happening, or her own emotions, I don’t fucking know.

“I think I’m okay with him being dead. I couldn’t do it, but…yeah…I’m not mad that you did. Does that m—”

“We just had a whole conversation about you putting yourself down, Diamond.”

One corner of her mouth tips upward as she tilts her head and side-eyes Hayes. “I love your idea of a conversation.”

Tightening my hold on her face, I encourage her to look at me and allow my eyes to dance between hers before kissing her. She’s fucking stunning.

“Can we deal with this later and go back inside? It’s fucking cold.” Orion pats me on the back and he’s lucky I don’t stab him for interrupting the kiss.

“I should definitely be more bothered by this, shouldn’t I? Wait…is that…did you put an origami on his chest? Is that a vulture?”