“You did?” she asked, her big blues brightening at the thought and I nodded, hooking it up to the TV so that she could get an eyeful of her victorious moment on the big screen.
I started it playing from the point where Brooklyn got the upper hand, knowing I couldn’t bear looking at that motherfucker hurting her again without losing my shit and watching her face light up like a kid in a candy store as she re-lived their deaths with a moan of satisfaction escaping her that made my fucking cock pulse with pain once more.
She kept making those noises while their screams filled the air and I couldn’t tear my attention from her, my heart thumping, blood heating and so many unspoken words tying my tongue in knots. But there was only one thing left to say that really mattered anyway.
“Will you stay?” I asked her softly, drawing her attention back to me once more and she nodded slowly, making the tightness in my chest ease at last as I took in her answer and tried not to grin like a kid smashing pumpkins on Halloween.
“Yes, Hellfire. I’ll stay.”
“R ight, Spider, where can I find this armadillo that wronged you?” Niall asked over the breakfast island.
After last night’s gift, he was back to hoarding the Coco Pops, serving me pancakes instead. I liked pancakes, but if he thought I’d forget about those delicious Pops anytime soon, he was kidding himself. I was a Pops expert and I’d sniff them out eventually, then I’d hide them somewhere he’d never ever think of and hoard the Pops all for myself. Then he’d see who the real Coco Pops master was. He’d come begging me for them and I’d make him kiss my feet in payment for them. One kiss would equal one Pop. I’d get him to kiss his way up my legs, spread them wide and call me the Pop queen as he rolled his tongue all the way over my—wait a second, what did he just say??
“What armadillo?” I asked through a mouthful of pancake and syrupy goodness.
Mateo sat beside me with a bowl of oatmeal in front of him that Niall hadn’t even put extra milk or sugar on. It looked overbaked too, like a gloop made of poop.
I made a point of feeding Mateo pieces of my pancake and he sucked the syrup off my fingers too. His teeth dug into the pads of my fingers every time he accepted a bite, and the small pain made my skin all tingly while the warning look in his eyes reminded me that I was toying with a monster. But that was my favourite kind of playtime.
Niall watched with the fury of a madman on his features. But I didn’t know why he cared what I did with Mateo, he was getting married to his flouncy titted bride. Not that I cared about her or her giant beluga tits either. He could marry them too if he liked and shove them up his butt on their honeymoon. Whatever Trevor.
I looked down at my perky boobs, pushing my arms together a little to try and get some cleavage going within my hot pink strappy bodysuit. I’d paired it with a ripped denim skirt that had two skeleton hands stitched over my ass cheeks. It looked cute. Or at least I had thought it did until I let thoughts of tall, blonde, Russian, big-titted women push into my mind and couldn’t help but think about the way I was just a tiny, ebony-haired, plain old American, perky tits girl who was ‘too young’, though I hadn’t quite figured out what the numbers had to do with anything. I was as mature as an old cheese and as worldly as a goat on a hill. I’d seen things. Done things. Just like that goat. So who cared if I didn’t have any butt wrinkles yet – were butt wrinkles even all that desirable anyway?
“The one on yer kill list.” Niall took my kill rock from his pocket, sliding it across the table and I gasped, grabbing it and hugging it to my chest. Rocksie.
“You kept it?” I breathed and Niall shrugged one shoulder.
“Sure I did. Why would I throw away a perfectly good rock?”
Mateo gave him a dry look then turned his attention back to me, every crime he’d ever committed written into his features. He was danger lurking in the forest, death riding a black tide, and hell did it give me the flutters.
“You got some of them?” I breathed as I stared at my murder rock, my eyes going all wide and adoring as I looked at the names which had now been struck out. I looked up and found Niall smirking back at me like the cat who’d gotten the bean.
“He helped,” Mateo said, his hand moving to grasp my chin and drawing me around to look at him as his fingertips dug in. “Do you want me to tell you about the way their blood felt as it speckled my skin?”
A moan escaped me, all filthy and sexual and full of desire, and I nodded as I stared up at this dark creature of mine who had wetted himself in the blood of my enemies.
“Tell me about the crunchy bones and the stabby stabs, Dead Man,” I begged breathlessly, heat burning between my thighs. “Tell me about when the screams were hushed and the blood turned cool against your skin.”
Niall took the remote for the shock collar from his pocket and zapped my Dead Man good, making his hand fall from my face as he fell from his stool, and I pouted as I turned my glare on him.
“I want a turn with the zappy,” I demanded and Niall gave me a heated look which made my toes curl.
“Later,” he promised and I swallowed as I considered that, nodding my agreement and hoping he gave me a good one when the time came. The kind that sent the zips and zaps right to my clit and had me writhing like a snake in the sun on the ground. “I think you said something about killing the Lucille bitch earlier?” he added, offering me a Sharpie, and I smirked like a hell cat as I took it.
“I did,” I agreed, striking her name from the rock with a flourish before twisting it and marking off Small Willy Norman too. “And Jack snapped Small Willy’s neck for me with his bare hands. It was so hot, Hellfire, you should have seen it.”
“I’ve snapped plenty of necks with my bare hands,” he replied with a scoff as Mateo managed to get to his hands and knees on the floor beside me. “Ain’t nothing fancy about that.”
“Yeah, but AJ did it with pizazz,” I protested. “It was something special.”
“I have pizazz,” Niall growled. “And dramatic flair. And I can speak in full sentences.”
“Yeah, but Jack can convey full speeches with a single word,” I pointed out. “It’s beautiful in its simplicity. He’s a deep soul.”
“About as deep as a puddle,” Niall grumbled.
“Yeah, the ocean puddle,” I shot back. “Besides, he killed someone on my list and he did it for me, so you can’t be mean to him. It’s the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The club rules,” I growled, knowing he knew that and was just trying to spite me by pretending he didn’t.
“We ain’t no club.”
“We are, and Jack is in it now too.”
“He absolutely isn’t,” Niall snarled just as the sound of Jack breaking something in the basement reached our ears.
Mateo cursed as he hauled himself back up onto his stool, saying something in his language which most definitely threatened violence and made my muscles clench in a yummy kind of way. But he must have liked it a little because he said the word ‘coño’ and that definitely meant thank you.
“Enough about non-existent clubs,” Niall barked. “Tell me more about this armadillo.”
I frowned, shaking my head fiercely. “There’s no armadillo, Hellfire. And even if one chewed my legs off and called me a flat tit bitch, I wouldn’t want to hurt it.”
“So why’d ya put one on your list, woman?” Niall demanded, pointing at Rocksie which was now down to only two names, and I had to admit the knowledge of all that bloodshed happening on my behalf and by my hands was making me flustered.
“I didn’t,” I growled, having no idea what he was talking about. Sometimes he really was a riddler on a hot tin roof. “Would you contradict the armadillo if it said that, Niall?”