No one has ever done anything like this for me. Not ever. I couldn’t even get my chair pulled out on a date. And then I went and threw a molotov cocktail into his ego, which would normally fill me with delight, but somehow…somehow right now, it just doesn’t. I set my bag on the table, and an obnoxious vase of about two dozen blood-orange roses sat between me and Malek’s baby sister.
Deep orange…
“Hey. I saw you had a thing for plants, so I got you these as a thank you. For all you’re doing. I’m also trying to cook, but…I’m known to burn fuckingwater, so…I don’t really know how this is gonna turn out.”
“Bridget…these are stunning. I—thank you.”
“Don’t get soft and shit. I’m cutting onions.” She sniffled and wiped her eye with the back of her wrist. “I’m not used to all this happiness. It’s disgusting.”
I walked around the island and bumped my hip against hers, kissing her on the temple and taking the knife out of her hand. “What are we burning? Lemme help.”
“Well, I saw this thing on Malek’s phone for some sort of vegetable lasagna? It seemed easier than it is.”
The door opened, and he stepped through it—two pizza boxes in one hand.
“If she hasn’t already cremated our dinner, I’ve already decided I’m not eatin’ that shite. Pizza?” Bridget’s mouth dropped open and her brows knotted.
“You know what? I take back everything I ever said about loving you, Malek Byrne. I hope they gave you anchovies. I hope somebody’s toenail is in that pizza. I hope it gets stuck in your windpipe, and you need a stoma to speak for the rest of your life.”
“So…no to the pizza, then?” I tried to cover my mouth and keep from laughing. Bridget shoved the vegetables aside and reached over the counter.
“Gimme that. Fucker.”
I ate in silence, listening to them bicker back and forth for a while, and if I’d really put a dent in Malek’s swag, he wasn’t letting it show. At least not in front of his sister. We started a slasher movie, and I was laying next to Bridget, who was snoring, watching the undead murderer chase an idiot with obviously fake tits through a slaughterhouse.
“I hope her boobs are the first thing to go,” I said through a mouthful of popcorn. Malek snorted from his spot in the coffin.
“I don’t like her face. I’d probly take care of that first.” I turned my head in surprise.
“Really?”
He glanced at me and grinned, chewing. “I mean, yeah. I don’t have a particular order to the madness. If I’m carvin’ somebody up like a Christmas ham, then I start with whatever feels right.”
To be inside the mind of a butcher…I’m perplexed.
“Can I ask you something?”
He was about to shove another handful of popcorn into his gourd, but he dropped his hand back into the bowl and turned his body to face me, propping his head up on his hand. “Anything.”
I gnawed on my lip and thought hard about whether or not I really wanted to know the answer to this question. Normally, this is exactly what Idon’tdo. But this situation is a bit different. “The man that was missing the finger. He was way worse off than the other three. You carved a name into his head.”
The green in his eyes seemed ten times as fierce. Like I’d just set fire to a pile of jade. “I did. I told you. He took somethin’ that didn’t belong to him. Honestly, I don’t even remember what I did first with the bastard.”
“You loved her.”
His mouth tightened and I saw his jaw feather…but he looked down and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I did.”
“I shouldn’t have said that to you. I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t know, Seven. It’s not like you’re wrong about anything else, either. I was just hopin’ you saw the rest by now. I don’t blame you for not wanting to bring me home to Mommy and Daddy. I do get it.”
I turned myself towards him and tossed a kernel at his face. “Hey…” He smirked, picking it up and eating it. “It’s not because I’m ashamed of you. I don’t want you to think that was the reason.”
“Educate me.”
“You’re part of a dangerous group, Malek. We’re hiding your sister from bad people. Bringing you around my folks is a risk. It’s not really a secret that I’m an outcast, and I’m cool with it…but they’re all I have. I’m just trying to keep them safe.”
He got quiet, but a slow smile crept across his face. Like I’d just taken any scarred pride and shined it up like a penny. “Thank you…”
