“No, it ain’t. It’s swung in my favour every time, love. I always win, see? Life is like that too. I’m the master of it, not you. You live in my house, you play by my rules, and if you’re a good girl, I’ll grant you the gift of my never-ending fortune. But if you ever try to bewitch me, Spider…” He tutted, shaking his head and taking hold of my chin as he pinched the skin. His eyes were the darkest of nights and a coldness fell across his face like frost. “I will personally drag ya to the stake and burn ya.”
My throat bobbed and I pushed out my lips indignantly as I realised what this was really about. The one thing he cared about above all others, the thing that he hoarded like treasure and guarded with the might of a beast bound to protect it. Coco Pops. The real power in this house. And he knew, the moment I got my hands on them, I’d be in charge.
If he thought he could scare me off, he was underestimating me. I’d been hunting for them every chance I got, and I wasn’t going to back down ever. One day soon, I’d be the queen of the Pops, and he’d be giving me that shiny little unfair penny too when I took a seat on my throne.
“Game on, Niall,” I said with a grin and his brows pinched in confusion.
“That ain’t a challenge.”
“Game. On.” I brushed past him, heading off to find my Dead Man and AJ, the sound of a commotion carrying from the basement.
I hurried to the open door, jogging down the steps, finding AJ there smashing up the bed I used to sleep in. I gasped as a huge piece of it hit the wall and Jack swiped up a leg of it, using it as a hammer to smash the rest of the bed. Mateo stood close to him with an assessing look on his face, but didn’t intervene.
I’d tried to come see AJ a banana bunch of times in the last couple of days, but I kept being Mateo blocked, my Dead Man telling me it wasn’t safe. But I trusted Angry Jack with my life. He was my big boulder man, he’d never hurt me.
Mateo caught my arm as I went to step past him towards Jack. “Go back upstairs, chica loca,” he commanded, but I wasn’t going anywhere.
“He’ll listen to me,” I said firmly. “Let me go.”
Mateo’s mouth twitched like he wanted to force me to obey him and return upstairs and my clit tingled from the beastly look on his face.
Niall appeared out of nowhere, barrelling between us and forcing Mateo’s hand off of me as he ran at Jack, whacking him over the head with a saucepan. Jack whipped around with a bellow of rage, his face twisted with some horrors playing out in his head and I knew they were fuelling his angries. I’d seen him like this when we were in Eden Heights a load of times, seeming quiet for days then snap, crackle, pop, he went on a rage spree, destroying everything around him like he wanted to break the whole world.
He was gone, gone, gone to a pit of fury that lived within him and his eyes were almost red with it, his monster fully awake. He swung a fist at Niall which forced the breath from his lungs and Niall coughed a laugh, swinging the saucepan again, the dong ringing off of Jack’s head.
“Come on then, big fella. Let’s dance.” Niall ducked another deadly punch from Jack and I ran forward as Niall hit him over the head again. One too many of those head bangs were gonna make Jack’s brain go splat. And I didn’t want that. Not at all.
Niall took another punch that sent him sprawling onto the ground, and he leapt back up with another chuckle, his clown’s makeup giving him the look of a true demon.
Niall swung the saucepan and I leapt forward to grab it, locking my hands around his arm and digging my teeth into his wrist.
“Stay outa this, Spider,” Niall growled, trying to push me aside, but I grabbed onto the saucepan and yanked with all my strength. My hands slipped off of it and I went flying back onto my ass at Jack’s feet. I got back up before the fight could break out again, turning to Jack and leaping onto him, scrambling up his body like a monkey and wrapping myself around him, looking back at Niall and baring my teeth.
“Spider,” Niall warned. “Get down and lemme knock the rage outa this fella.”
Jack’s arm slid around me, locking tight as I clutched his neck for support and shook my head at Niall in refusal.
“He’s mine. I won him fair and square. And you’re not allowed to bash him over the head,” I growled.
Niall spun the saucepan in his hand, considering my words. “But I like bashing fellas over the head.”
“Not this one.” I rubbed the back of Jack’s head where Niall had struck him, finding a bump growing there.
Niall turned to Mateo with a grin, pointing his saucepan at him. “How about that one?”
“No,” I hissed, tugging on Jack’s shirt and he seemed to know what I meant, walking me over to stand beside Mateo, his angries slipping away on the wind somewhere.
“You can bash some potatoes over the head if you have to – but only the ugly ones,” I said firmly and Niall scowled.
“This is my house, woman,” he barked. “What did I just tell ya about tryna bewitch me?”
“Alexa, play C’est La Vie by B*witched,” I called and the song blasted out from the Alexa device in Niall’s torture room.
Niall narrowed his eyes at me as I gave him my middle finger then tugged on Jack’s shirt and prodded Mateo into action. Jack carried me upstairs with Mateo walking with us, glancing back at me in Jack’s arms with a sneer drawing his lips down.
Niall was hot on our heels as we stepped out of the basement and he shoved past Mateo, spitting swear words as he went.
“Fine, you wanna play happy families?” Niall called back to us.
“Yep,” I said keenly.
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do, Spider,” Niall said lightly, striding into the kitchen. “We’ll be the happiest family in the fuckin’ state.”
Oh good, he’s finally coming around to the idea.
Jack carried me through to the lounge, sitting down on the couch and hugging me to his chest. Mateo took up his favourite position in the big grey armchair to the side of the room, watching us closely as I caressed the ouchies on the back of Jack’s head.
“Rook,” Jack growled, that deep voice of his setting off an earthquake in my bones. I smiled at him, booping him on the nose.
“I know why you get the angries,” I said and his muscles bunched. “It’s because something in your past makes you ragey. I get ragey sometimes too.”
He gazed at me, saying nothing and I took that as a confirmation.
“Everyone in this house is full of noxious secrets. Sometimes the poison slips out and makes us go a little cuckoo. But that’s okay, AJ. We’re different. And that’s so much better than being normal.”
He held me tighter and we stayed like that as a clattering sound came from the kitchen, pots banging and curses coming from Niall. Eventually the smell of tomatoes and cheese carried to me and I sniffed the air like a kitten on the scent of catnip as Niall walked into the room, his shirt splashed with red sauce and four bowls of pasta on a tray in his hands.
“Now, here we are. Dinner time for the happy family,” he said and I grinned. “Ain’t that what ya wanted, Spider?”
I nodded keenly, climbing out of Jack’s lap and moving to grab a bowl from the tray. Niall shoved one into my hands before I could grab my own, placing the tray down on the table then claiming his own bowl too.
“Eat if ya wanna eat,” he snarled at the guys and I moved to perch on the arm of the chair Niall was in.
I chomped through my pasta, eating bite after bite after bite. Niall ate just as savagely, consuming it all like we were in a race. And maybe we were. So I ate faster, inhaling every piece of pasta more than chewing it and half choking on a piece before I managed to get it down my throat.
Jack and Mateo grabbed a bowl each for themselves and Jack ate almost as fast as the two of us, making my heart squish with worry. Had he not eaten these whole three days? I’d thought Mateo had been feeding him but the way he was ravenously eating made me fear I’d been wrong about that. Mateo couldn’t go in the kitchen after all, so how had I thought he’d been doing it? Stupid brain. Now look what you’ve done! You almost let Jack’s stomach get so small that it slid right out of his butt. How could you be so careless? It’s like the matchstick man all over again.