Page 21 of Ruthless Angel

Cash had helped bring me back to myself. Although it hadn’t been the version of myself that I’d known all these years. Something angry and demanding had exploded out of me. I’d shoved Cash down and ridden his cock like it was my lifeline to reality. In so many ways, it had been.

He’d helped to ground me. To keep my guilty thoughts from running away with me.

“Fine. Whatever.” My appetite was non-existent. I dropped my fork back into the salad bowl, giving up on my attempt to eat.

Maybe some time with Raina would be good for me. She’d been through this kind of thing before. A pep talk from my best friend might help clear my head.

I sat there watching the guys eat, wondering how they were able to stuff their faces at a time like this. Tonight was do or die. If they didn’t find Blaze, the countdown clock to his death would soon run out.

Daire pointed at my salad bowl. “Eat. We can’t have you wasting away on us.”

“I’m not hungry.” I sipped from my mug of herbal tea instead. The guys didn’t have things like that in the house. I’d added it to the most recent grocery pick up.

“Eat anyway. You need to keep up your strength if you’re going to keep taking all this cock.” The wicked wink Daire shot me shouldn’t have been so hot. He was such a dipshit sometimes, but I guess he was my dipshit.

“Oh, wow, and here I thought you may actually care about my health.” Picking up my fork, I made a halfhearted attempt at eating a few bites.

Daire snickered, chugging back some coffee. “Of course I care about your health. I need you to stay healthy so I’m not fucking a corpse.”

“Jesus, dude, that’s vile. Shut the hell up.” Cash held his fork like a knife, swiping at Daire in a stabbing motion.

Daire evaded the first stab. On Cash’s second attempt, he caught Cash’s wrist, twisting until he dropped the fork. I shook my head in wonder. Of all the guys for me to end up with, it had to be these degenerates.

I was in a real mood tonight. Nervous about Blaze. Irate from lack of sleep. Tortured by the recent memory of killing Dan.

Propping my chin in my hand, I eyed Daire with a tight frown. “You probably would too, wouldn’t you? Fuck my corpse.”

He sat back in his chair, taking another drink of coffee. Eyeing me over the rim of his mug, he grinned. “You think I’m that messed up, Angel?”

“Sometimes,” I admitted. Again I gave up on my salad. Nope. Not happening.

Green eyes gleaming with mischief, Daire shrugged. “Maybe I am. I guess you’ll never know for sure. None of us are squeaky clean. Not even your precious Blaze. One time he let this chick peg him on video in exchange for a threesome with her and her friend. Oh wait, no, that was Cash.”

“Cut it out, Daire. We’re all tense today. No need to make things worse.” As Cash rose from the table with his empty platein hand, he smacked Daire upside the head on his way by. “And she didn’t peg me. It was a butt plug.”

Daire took a swing at him and missed. His energy felt darker today than usual. Like he was gearing up for something terrible to happen.

I tried and failed to suppress my giggle. My energy was off today too. “Wow, Cash, I’d never have guessed you were the butt plug type.”

He stuck his plate in the dishwasher, flashing me a toothy grin. “I learned that day that I’m not. I prefer to pitch rather than catch, although I’m willing to try almost anything once.”

Affecting a saucy expression, I said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

No doubt these guys were far more daring than I’d ever been. Still, it was nice to lighten the mood for a few minutes.

Once we’d cleaned up our dinner mess, we left to go to the Gods’ house. That’s when the mood grew heavy again.

“We have a few places to check out.” Daire glanced over at me as he drove. “I suspect they’re keeping him in the closed down restaurant. There’s no way of knowing how long we’ll be. Stay with Raina. Don’t get into trouble.”

“Trouble?” I hit him with an offended glare. “That’s not really my style. You guys are far more likely to get into trouble than we are.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t trust you with Raina. She’s definitely the type to get into trouble.”

“Don’t even talk about Raina,” I admonished. “Every time you say her name, I think about what you did to her. It makes me sick.”

I fully expected Daire to come back at me with something snarky and filled with attitude. To my surprise, he remained quiet for a minute before saying, “I wish that never happened. I hate that you’ll hold it against me forever.”

There was nothing for me to say to that. He wasn’t wrong. Raina claimed to be over it. She’d moved on and put it out of her mind, refusing to give Daire any power over her. I wished I could forget about it too.

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