Page 180 of Sinful

“So where is Tony’s body?” Church asked.

“Oh. Yeah. That.” Mirage started to eat again. He swallowed before answering. “We cut him up and fed him to the wolves.”

I grimaced at his words, my stomach twisting. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but the image of him hacking up a body and feeding it to the wolves like a treat made me a little ill.

“Were you ill when you helped dispose of Bells?” Mirage leveled his gaze on me and cocked his head to the right.

I let out a huff of laughter. “No, I suppose I wasn’t.”

“Then this would have been no different. The wolves are my friends. They chase me.” He pointed to his white rabbit mask. “We like to play these games. I always reward them.”

I shivered at his words, not even wanting to know how many people he’d fed to the wolves.

“Not as many as I’d like,” he answered my thoughts.

“I hate that you do that,” I muttered to him.

He shrugged. “Me too, Asher. Me too.”

Stitches came back in and lit the joint before taking a big inhale of it and passing it to Mirage, who finished his spaghetti. I watched him take a hit before blowing it out. He handed it off to me.

Sighing, I took it, wishing I wasn’t out of my vape because counting smoke rings right then seemed like maybe a nice stress reliever. I inhaled before passing it off to Church.

“So count your blessings instead,” Mirage said softly to me. “They matter more than smoke rings. Now eat. We need to be strong. This next part may hurt.”

Chills raced over my skin at his words, but I didn’t press him for more answers. I wasn’t quite sure I could handle them right then, anyway.

CHURCH

She wasn’t better.

She was still just a shell, lying in my bed with her eyes wide.

Her pretty, lifeless eyes.

I’d fucked into her body when I’d brought her upstairs, weeping over her with each thrust. Begging her to return to me. To us. I needed her like I needed my next breath.

“OK,” I said into the phone later that morning as I spoke to O’Brien. “I’ll be there soon. Sully is off campus?”

“Yes. He left this morning. Atkins is still here.”

“He’s not an issue,” I said, staring at Sirena, who lay like a perfect doll in my bed. I hadn’t slept last night. Mirage had gone back to sleep on the L of the couch while Sin and Bryce curled up on the other side. Ashes and Stitches had sat in my room with me. We’d watched Sirena all night and talked about nothing and everything.

Now, it was time to get her some help since my brand of help wasn’t cutting it.

Gently, we washed and dressed her before Ashes went downstairs and started my Bronco.

“Dante?” Stitches asked after whispering something into her ear I couldn’t hear.

“Yeah?”

“Will you promise she’ll be OK?” The note of fear in his voice made me look at him.

“She’s going to be fine. She has been before. When things are too much, she checks out. She always comes back,” I said thickly. “She always comes back to us.”

He nodded and didn’t say anything. Instead, he followed me downstairs as I lifted her into my arms.

Sin came out of his bedroom wearing different clothes, his hair a mess, and his eyes rimmed in dark circles from having a shitty night of sleep.

---