Page 23 of The Toy Maker (The Pink Cherrie #1)

“Give it a rest, Amy. We both know you’re not any kind of moral authority,” Jade snapped. She had remained remarkably quiet throughout the game, and I wondered if that had to do with her restraining herself from smacking Amy with the thirteen-inch dildo resting on the shelf beside her.

Not that I’d kink shame anyone that was interested in that… recreationally.

Amy rolled her eyes, and somehow, we were already moving on when Kitty walked back into the room.

“Kitty, come play with us!” Wendy pulled Kitty down to where we sat on the ground, probably hoping her presence would force us to keep things friendly. “You’re just in time for Tara’s turn.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Kitty elbowed me, but I was too busy focusing on the devil sitting in front of me. Red horns poked out of Amy’s auburn hair and matched the pointed tail flowing out her backside. She was aptly dressed.

My tongue clicked before I delivered my question, “Amy, who’s the father?”

Amy laughed, confident and not at all ashamed. “I pick dare.”

“Fine.” I folded my hands and placed them inside my lap. “I dare you to tell us who knocked you up.”

Naydine shifted uncomfortably but still spoke up, “It’s the game, Amy.”

Amy’s jaw locked, and homicidal rage flashed through her dark green eyes. “Lucas,” she gritted out.

The other Cherries exchanged wide glances. They didn’t know, apparently. “Sarah’s boyfriend?” one girl exclaimed.

“Ex-boyfriend, if I remember correctly,” Amy quipped.

“You say it as if you didn’t have anything to do with that,” I said.

Amy leaned in so I could smell her bubblegum-laced breath. “Oh, I had everything to do with it,” she sneered.

My eyes narrowed at her. “Why?”

Amy rested her hands back on the floor and made her growing bump more obvious. “He just looked so fine whenever he brought Sarah coffee in the morning. I’m hotter than her. And what can I say?” She shrugged. “He agreed.”

The group of Cherries sucked in a collective gasp. A familiar feeling ran down my spine. It was hot and relentless, urging me to make good use of the plastic pitchfork lying next to her.

“You’re such a bitch,” I growled despite Kitty’s warning grip on my upper arm.

“Maybe.” Amy laid her hands on her bump. “But I’m the one having Lucas’s kid.”

The frustration in my veins boiled over until I had no choice but to lurch at the smirking harpy in front of me.

But before I made contact, someone grabbed me by the waist and carried me from the whole treacherous scene, plus life in prison.

Amy scoffed in the distance as I jerked in the stubborn arms wrapped around me. “Let me go!” I shouted. My feet dangled above the floor as the person moved me away from the crowd.

“Not until you calm down.” Jason’s arms tightened around me as I twisted against him, the heat of his body seeping through my dress, making it impossible to ignore how close we were. “You’re acting like a child,” he said firmly, his breath warm against my ear.

“I am not!” When my feet finally touched the ground, I stumbled backward, putting as much distance between us as I could. My back hit the rough, exposed brick of the wall, and I glared up at him, furious that he’d grabbed me like that, especially in front of the Cherries.

Jason blocked my escape, his broad shoulders cutting off any path I might’ve had to slip away. His expression was calm, and annoyingly composed, considering the limited space between us.

“You don’t know what she did,” I accused, my voice shaking with anger.

Jason cocked an eyebrow at my statement. “Nothing Luke didn’t let her do.”

I preferred not to listen to his logic.

“That’s not an excuse,” I snapped while the anger still burned through me. I didn’t expect him to understand, not when he spent all his time tucked away in his workshop, tinkering on the newest way to drive me into taking his offer.

He couldn’t understand what it was like to feel disposable.

Still, he pretended he could. “Why are you taking this so hard?” Jason watched my explosive reactions with an unfounded amount of concern. I was fine.

I shook my head with a scoff, turning away from him. “Doesn’t matter.”

I tried to walk away, desperate to put some distance between us, but Jason’s hand closed around my arm. His touch made my pulse race, which only deepened my irritation.

“Fine, don’t tell me, but I hope you understand that no one can make someone do anything that they didn’t already want to do.” His eyes locked onto mine as he continued to try and decipher my outburst. “At least, not in this case.”

His words hung in the air, challenging me to argue, but the anger bubbling inside me refused to let me form a coherent response. My jaw tightened as I glared at him, my fists clenched at my sides.

“Maybe,” I said finally, “but that doesn’t mean she should get away with it.”

I jerked my arm free from his grasp and for a brief second, I caught a flicker of something in his eyes—regret, maybe, or confusion—but I couldn’t bring myself to care. The last thing I wanted was his pity.

Without another word, I turned on my heel and stormed off toward the dressing room, knowing I could kill both time and my memories of the night there.

Kitty and Jade found me finishing off Sarah's abandoned bottle of rum in the back room. Less than an hour had passed while I drowned my sharp edges in the most questionable way.

“Not you, too.” Jade joined me by the vanities while I polished off the bottle. “At this rate, our next girl’s night out is going to have to be at an AA meeting,” she groaned.

Kitty handed me another half-empty bottle, and Jade glared at her.

“So, why’d you freak out?” Kitty asked kindly.

I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth and tried to remember the source of my anger. Amy's blatant bitchiness infuriated me, but seeing Sarah hurt reminded me of a time in my life I worked hard to ignore.

I stopped trying to make sense of the rage and retreated into myself. Kitty's reasonable question hung in the air.

Why did I lose it?

I tugged at the snug corset; any tighter and I'd be unable to breathe, but that didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. Sighing, I took another long sip of rum.

"My dad cheated on my mom." The words didn't burn as much as I assumed they would. The more time that passed, the further away the memories seemed. "He cheated and moved on while my mom…"

I squeezed my eyes shut. Mom shut down, refusing to get out of bed for weeks, forcing Tristan and I to fend for ourselves. My heart squeezed in my chest, warning me to back off from the memory or take a deep breath, but it was too late.

Jade took my hands as I tried to stabilize myself.

The pressure from the corset and mixture of punch and rum sent black spots over my vision.

She wasn’t kind before, but after , I could never please her.

My life was just one big failure after another through her eyes.

I was destined to be her if I didn’t listen. I’d be left behind.

As my eyes fell back into my head, a familiar sensation tingled over me.

Someone caught me in their arms before I could tumble to the ground.