“I thought we were in a truce, lad?” I questioned, the corner of my lips lifting as Brooklyn remained in my arms, squeezing me tight between her thighs and letting tears fall on my neck.
“That ended when Brooklyn got back to safety,” he replied in that thick accent of his.
I nodded slowly, letting Brooklyn drop from my arms as she turned her attention to the violence simmering in the room.
“Fair enough,” I agreed.
I kept my gun aimed at him and pulled my cell phone out of my back pocket with my other hand and casually opened up the app which controlled the perimeter sensor on that fancy collar he was wearing.
“You might wanna move into the lounge there, lad,” I warned him, my thumb hovering over the accept button for the new boundary I’d just set.
“Why?” he barked.
“Because I am officially rescinding your invitation to the kitchen and the upstairs portion of the house too. I don’t need you getting easy access to any weapons, and I don’t wanna have to sleep with one eye open neither. You’ll also find you can’t get into my tool shed or the garage, just in case you were inclined to look there for something murderous. We can’t have too much bloodshed in the house after all – it’s murder on the carpet cleaning bills.”
“What the fuck are you-”
I cut him off by hitting accept on my phone, a bark of laughter escaping me as he went rigid right away, his body twitching and jerking from the shock of the collar before he collapsed to the kitchen floor and the knife fell from his hand, skittering away across the tiles.
“Oooh, zappy,” Brooklyn purred before turning and pulling the closest cupboard open as she searched for Coco Pops.
I left her to that as I crossed the room, taking hold of Mateo’s ankle and dragging him away from the kitchen before that collar got too excited and fried his brains or some shit, hauling him along into the front room and past the grey couch which marked the line of his new boundary.
He kicked out at me before I could release him, his foot clipping me in the jaw and making me stumble back as pain blossomed through my face. I roared a laugh as I backed up, rubbing at it and admitting to myself that the man had a damn good kick on him. Like a donkey some might say.
I left him there to jerk and twitch himself back to normal while I made a quick sweep of the room, grabbing a couple of hidden knives and a gun from their hidey holes before striding down the hall towards the front of the house and gathering up a few more.
There were a couple of guest rooms on the ground floor beyond the front door, and I was feeling generous enough to let him have his pick between them for his new prison.
“You earned yourself a comfy bed with your help out there, el burro,” I called to him as I made my way back to the kitchen and dumped the weapons well away from him.
Mateo hurled a bunch of Mexican cursing my way and I chuckled as I leaned my shoulder against the door jamb and watched Brooklyn continue her hunt.
She ignored me as she pulled cupboard after cupboard open, hunting ravenously and putting on a show for me while I let my heart settle back into a normal rhythm at last.
She was here. Safe.
The screaming which had been taking place in my head ever since she’d left me had fallen quiet at last and I just soaked in her company while she focused on her task.
“You liar,” she hissed suddenly, whirling on me and pointing a spoon my way like she fully intended to do me bodily harm with the thing. “There’s not a Pop in this place!”
“Calm down, little psycho,” I replied, moving towards her and letting her press the spoon to my heart as I reached beyond her to one of the open cupboards and retrieved a bowl from it before grabbing the milk from the fridge. “I’m a man of my word. Come, you’ll have your Pops.”
I turned away from her narrow-eyed stare and strode out into the living room again, my gaze sweeping over the fire damage to the wall on the other side of the fireplace before I led the way up the stairs to the walkway above us, guiding her into the master suite.
Mateo had recovered enough to call after her, demanding she return to him, but she just looked down at him from the walkway and shook her head.
“Go have a rest, Dead Man. I have a prize to claim.”
“You shouldn’t be alone with him, chica loca,” he insisted, shooting me a venomous glare as I looked back at him from my doorway.
“And you shouldn’t be such a wet Wanda, Mateo. Now stop trying to Pop block me and go get some sleep.” Brooklyn flicked her long, black hair and strode towards me without another word.
I met Mateo’s gaze and gave him a taunting smile as I tugged the door closed behind her, enjoying his yell of rage as he was left all alone downstairs with no one but his own hand to keep him warm tonight. Or this morning. I had no fucking idea what time it was actually, but I knew I was feeling dog tired after all that running about.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Brooklyn said and I turned to look at the room, remembering the way I’d hurled my bed over in a rage after finding out that she’d been arrested.
“I mighta gotten a bit upset when I saw the news report about them capturing you,” I admitted, crossing the space and shoving the bed back down onto its legs again before realising she deserved better than to sit in my self-pity sheets which hadn’t been changed since before the start of my dark spell. I quickly stripped the bedding from it, walking back out of my room and tossing the dirty stuff onto the walkway and flipping Mateo off as I found him still down there, glaring up at me like some kind of grumpy little ghost. Would he just stand there until the two of us came back downstairs? What if we slept for hours? What if we killed one another and never came down? Would he stand there until he died, his eyeballs drying out in his face in an eternal glare because his little feelings were all messed up by our girl picking my company over his? It was damn tempting to kill the two of us to find out. Then again, if I was dead and there was no afterlife, I’d never get my answer. And I didn’t much like the idea of killing my little psycho even if I was planning to follow her into oblivion moments after the act was complete. Nah. Not today.
Brooklyn had spotted the bags of her new clothes which I’d tossed into the open closet and was thumbing through them, so I headed into my bathroom and quickly filled the bowl I’d brought with me using the stash of Coco Pops I kept hidden in the secret panel behind the towel warmer. Mateo had kept weapons and cash in there when he’d owned this place, but I’d quickly thrown those out in favour of the Pops. There were far more valuable things in this world than money after all.
I returned to the room, finding Brooklyn pouting as she held some pink and blue fabric in her fist, and I cocked my head at her in question.
“I’m still all river stinky,” she complained, plucking at the jumpsuit she’d changed into like she was annoyed she’d dirtied it.
“Have a wash then,” I replied, bobbing my chin towards the bathroom. “I’ll get everything set up in here for when you’re done.”
I set the bowl of cereal down on the nightstand and she eyed it like a ravenous beast, seeming to decide she wanted to be clean before claiming her prize and scurrying towards the bathroom door.
I placed my arm across the doorway just before she could cross the threshold and leaned down to speak into her ear.
“You and I have things to say to one another, Spider,” I said seriously, and I couldn’t help but notice the little shiver which tracked down her body in reply to my words.
She turned her head to look up at me, devouring the space between our mouths until I could almost taste her. “I know, Hellfire. I haven’t forgotten the way you hurt me. And Glenda.”
“Who’s Glenda?” I frowned.
“The tiny duck who lives in my heart,” she whispered.