Page 71 of Heartless Heathens

“She doesn’t stop him.” Felix snorted, shrugging when she looked up at him, her face flushed with embarrassment.

“That’s right, isn’t it Pet? You take it like a good girl, don’t you?” He glanced over at her, eyes still narrowed suspiciously like there was a secret between the two of them.

She bit her lip like she was holding back an answer.

Curious.

“You wanna learn how to get him where it hurts?” I asked her and she lifted her head up to look at me, eyes wide like I’d captured her interest.

“Take your pills,” Sonny said dryly without bothering to turn his head to look at me.

I clenched my molars hard enough that I could hear the bones squeaking in my mouth. I stood up, too fast and still tried to pretend like I wasn’t one wrong turn of my head away from my vision going white.

Standing up for the first time in over half a day was a bitch.

She rose up to meet me, holding on to the underneath of my forearms while she blinked up at me as if she’d be able to hold my size up if I went down. I got my bearings straight, taking a deep breath and bringing the oxygen back into my body before I clasped my hand around her wrist while she still held on to me.

I pulled her behind me, forcing a startled gasp from her but no other sign of protest as her feet padded along behind me.

“Where are we going?” she asked softly but I didn’t bother answering, she’d see soon enough.

I stopped in my room, grabbing the duffle bag and throwing it over my shoulder before dragging her through the busted steel door and up the attic steps. Her shoulders relaxed once we’d crossed the threshold. Like she felt safe up here.

Comfortable.

I dropped the bag with a heavy thud but she barely turned her neck to acknowledge it, walking in front of me like she was leadingme. I sat on the shitty little bed that had already collected an impressive amount of dust in her absence. Or maybe it had always been that dusty.

Hmm.

She’d turned around to face me again and when I looked back at her she quickly shifted her gaze down as if she had been reading the thoughts right out of my head. If what Felix said was true then this girl was a fucking tragedy.

She was the kind of beautiful that broke your fucking heart and now I knew why.

A girl like her was the kind of light that the world snuffed out the first chance it got.

That’s why we preferred the darkness anyway.

It didn’t discriminate.

Didn’t turn anyone away.

The best things grew in the dark.

“Why don’t you take your medicine?” she asked me and my upper lip peeled up instinctively.

“Don’t start that shit with me.” I flared my nostrils and she shrunk down a bit in size.

I ripped a paper target from the pad in the bag and pinned it up against a bare wall before pulling out the box of knives. Her eyes grew when she took in the size of my collection. I picked out an oak handled tactical blade and without sparing too much time looking at the paper I launched it at the bullseye.

It leaned left but was still damn close to the middle.

“You got the knife I got you?” I asked her and she nodded, pulling it free from the holster.

She did a lot of fucking nodding, unless Sonny was around. She seemed to save most of her words for him. I didn’t mind.

She didn’t seem anywhere near as scared of the bastard as I thought she should be. In fact, I’d almost say she somehow seemed almost enthralled by him, which only made me wonder what the fuck was wrong with this psychopath we were now apparently sharing a home with.

She handed the knife over to me and I examined it.