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Another bang shot out. It was louder, closer.
Her breaths came hard and fast, each one a painful wheezing struggle.
Birds squawked above, screaming in terror as they fled their homes.
“That sounds like Rothbart’s gun,” she panted.
“Well, the hag must have it because Rothbart is dead.”
“Rothbart isn’t here. His wife and sons watch us when he picks up new girls.”
“The man at the house—”
“Llewrehtom?”
Was it my ears, or did that name just sound fucking wrong to everyone? Good thing I wouldn’t be arranging the fucker’s gravestone, as I’d never be able to fucking spell it.
“Rothbart will be so mad that he’s gone.”
“Where have you gone, sluts?” shouted the woman who I’d called the same thing when she barged in on me gutting her son and plucked a knife from the table and forced it through my abdomen.
Blood dripped from a gash on her cheekbone that my fist had created. Tough old broad hadn’t stayed down as long as I’d hoped.
She waved a gun around, which was almost as big as her. Her ugly feet, showcased by the floppy slippers she kept falling out of, stopped just before our tree, and she reloaded.
Cat gripped me tighter, stepping closer until there was nothing between us but the layers of clothes pressed into every bone and muscle. The gift I’d collected from the house and kept safe in my pocket pushed into us both—her bruises and my bleeding abdomen.
She pulled it from my hoodie, and tears sprang to her eyes. One hand felt its fuzzy face, and the other stayed on me, stealing the comfort I’d have gifted from the softness of my dark T-shirt.
She squeezed the little panda’s head, and a memory flashed in my mind.
Cat and I were on her bed at Cedric’s place. My eyes on the panda and its pink tie as we talked. Cat’s eyes moved around the room, hating each of its delicate features
“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” I straightened. “I know you’re playing me. Telling me what you think I want to hear. Because you think I want more than an hour with more than your tight cunt.”
A tear rolled from her eye. She’d been caught out.
“I don’t believe you mean that. You could have anyone’s tight cunt,” she sneered, her voice full of hate. “And one day, you’ll come here, and someone else will be in this bed because I’ll be replaced if…when I die.”
“You won’t die.”
“I could, and we both know it. Will you replace me, too?”
“Never. You’re the only one for me.”
“Then, buy me, Remi. Own me. In my heart, you always have anyway.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Because you put that shit in your system and chose it over me again. Tell me something, would I even see you if you weren’t high?”
“I wish I could take you home.”
“Then do it. He’ll do it for a price.”
“He won’t.”
“Try.”
