“Next time Mickey touches you, I’m taking a pound of flesh.” Ryder chuckles and tucks an escaped lock of hair behind my ear. He cocks his head as he looks me over, searching for moreinjuries Mickey may have caused. “Next time someone bothers you, scream.”
“Scream?”
Ryder drags his knuckles along my cheekbone and catches my chin between his fingers. “Scream, little sister, and I’ll silence them all for you.”
My heart beats faster as his words sink in.
Ryder lets go of me, and his features smooth out to the familiar blank expression. He turns and walks away like he didn’t just give off confusing signals.
He talked to me.
For once in a long time, he didn’t treat me like the pesky ghost he’s mad at.
Maybe Minnie was right the whole time. Patience. He’ll eventually come around.
The butterflies in my stomach return, along with the confusing feelings I’ve had toward him for some time now. I shake my head before my thoughts steer in an unwanted direction.
I need to keep my promise. No boyfriends. No kissing. No marriage.
Especially with my stepbrother.
Present day (October 11th)
One hour after Hellfire Night
“A GOOD DAY TO DI3” ARANKAI
“If I can go one day without smelling the stench of burned flesh, I’ll die a happy man,” Aiden says. He tosses an arm into the bonfire we built in the large front yard of our makeshifthome base in an abandoned neighborhood. The flames lick at the flesh, eating away at it until it melts from the bones.
Hawk points at Aiden with a cigarette tucked between his fingers. “Quit lying, bro. You live for this shit.”
“What?” Aiden gasps and lays his palm over his chest in mock disbelief. “That’s a bald-faced lie!”
I roll my eyes and light a cigarette.
It’s always an argument between these two. I get it. It’s friendly banter, but Jesus, they go at each other’s throats every hour about something. Whether it’s who’s chopping up the body, who gets the first kill, or who has to stay at the mansion to watch the captives. Now it’s about the cleanup.
I scoff.
Typical.
“I call bullshit,” Hawk says. He inhales a drag of the smoke, then releases it with a heavy breath. “If you don’t want to discard the bodies, then why do you keep going on about wanting to kill people?”
Aiden picks up another bloody arm and points it at Hawk. It’s almost comical as the stiff fingers jab in Hawk’s direction, like it’s an extension of Aiden. “It’s the killing that’s fun. Smelling cooking dead bodies is another thing, ya ass.”
“That’s enough, guys,” I say. I knock my black combat boot against Kyle’s dismembered torso and take a long drag from my cigarette as I mentally prepare myself for lifting the body part. “Someone help me with this fucker.”
Aiden clicks his tongue, tosses the arm into the fire, then meanders to me. He shoves tendrils of his silver hair off his forehead, not giving a shit about smearing blood and whatever other grime into the locks. “Why isn’t Jaxon here helping us, anyway?”
“Because he’s busy fucking his wife. That’s why,” Hawk says from the side of the bonfire.
I shoot a warning look in his direction as I prop my cigarette between my pierced lips. Then I softly count to three before Aiden and I pick up the heavy torso.
I never knew how heavy a dead body was until my friends and I started going down our list of people to kill. No matter how many times we do this, the deadweight is still a surprise.
It’s not like we’re killing every day, anyway. Hellfire Night happens once every five years. Last night was our first time experiencing it as adults. My stepfather made the whole experience a living hell when I was a teen—fitting, considering the name of the event. Jerry kept calling me a worthless pussy because I vomited after seeing a dead body for the first time.
But as adults? I’d say it was a little more enjoyable.
