Valkyrie’s shoulders lift and fall.“I’ll be okay once I’m not stuck in a house with him.I need to find a job and then a place to live.He thinks I’m just going to sit around playing house, but that dick has another thing coming.The way I see it, he had his chance in the past.He blew that the same night Pope did because he had his hands all over some other bitch and didn’t stick up for us like I thought he would.Then seeing the life he had while we were gone?I’m good, dude.”
“Did you all ever go there in the past?”
“A couple times, but Manic was good at pretending it didn’t happen and shoved us back into the friend zone the next day.”
Her eyes spark with happiness when the wonky smile crosses my face as I tilt my head.“Want me to cut off his dick with a rusty pair of scissors?I’m sure I can find some around here.”
“I see you,” she whispers, her eyes turning glossy.
“I’m here,” I reply in a low tone.
And I am.She and Pope are right.I’ve suppressed the fire within me for so long that rekindling it takes time.Frankie beat the person I was out of me so badly that I struggle to find the light in the darkness.Every day, it gets easier.But the more I heal those wounds, the closer I get to having to come to terms with the reason I left here in the first place.
And those wounds are harder for me to face.
Chapter Seventeen
Apersonwithmoralswouldn’t eavesdrop on a conversation he wasn’t meant to hear.Considering I find it fun to decorate myself with the guts of my enemies, I was excluded from that morality bullshit.
To hear Birdie say she was scared to trust any of us and that being here wasn’t good for her heart was a punch straight to my sacred nuts.
I walked out after that, not equipped to stomach hearing how much we broke her—how much I broke her.
I’ve avoided her as much as possible the last couple days, incapable of looking at the broken woman she is now and becoming enraged.
At her.
At myself.
At all the Steel Slayer corpses I pissed on after I cut off their ugly ass heads.
At that fucker Clink who dared come for my woman.
There’s so much rage inside me I could open my fucking mouth and set the damn world on fire.
Cypher calls at the perfect time because I was about to order Pretty Boy to get in the ring with me.I want to rearrange his pretty mug and make him ugly for being so good looking.That shit goes to his head too much.
“Talk to me,” I answer.
“Prez, Bugsy and I are on our way into town.Got some shit to go over.”
“How far out?”
“Got about thirty before we hit city limits.Just stopped to grab some gas and take a piss.”
“We’ll call church when you get here.Just you and Bugsy, or do we get to finally meet the reason you requested both those property kuttes?”
“That’s another thing we need to talk about while we’re in.”
“Heard.Ride safe, brother.”
“Always.”
I’m about to shove my phone back in my pocket when a text from an unknown number comes through.Usually, I’d ignore it, but the word kids in the notification bar catches my eye.A message thread opens when I click on it to read it fully.The first thing I see is the picture of Birdie, Lovelyn, and Legend smooshing their faces together.The twins are smiling, the twinkle in their eyes bright.Birdie has a sparkle she hasn’t had since she showed up here.She’s still missing that beautiful fucking smile, but there’s a hint of one, at least.
I consider what it’d take to get a full one from her.
Probably the heart of Frankie on a platter.
