Page 42 of Sinful

Church let out a grunt and released her, and I was quick to take her into my arms.

“Heaven,” I murmured before kissing her gently. “Are you OK?”

Her answer was to give me a tender kiss in return before going to Stitches. He didn’t say anything. He simply held her tightly before Church snagged her away from him and dragged her onto his lap.

“Sit,” he commanded to Asylum and Sin.

Both wordlessly picked their spots on the couch. I sat with Stitches on the L part of the wraparound while Church sat in his chair with Sirena.

“You made me dinner?” Asylum asked.

“I guess,” I muttered, taking my lighter out to open and close it five times. Flame. Close. Repeat.

He smirked at me. “Surprised you didn’t burn it.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Funny.”

He gave me a wink. “It’s all in good fun,Torch.”

“What’s going on with Sully and your old man?” Sin demanded, ending my conversation, if it could be called that, with Asylum.

“I will be leaving soon,” Church said, his voice a low rumble.

I tensed in my seat at the news, flipping my lighter open and closed faster. Sirena was quick to snap her focus to him, the worry evident on her face.

“It’s OK, specter. You’ll be safe. The guys will be here with you, and I’ll be in touch as much as possible.”

“What does he want you to do?” Stitches demanded, his leg bouncing while he stared Church down.

I glanced from Stitches to Church, knowing damn well Stitches was on the verge of freaking out. He’d practically grown up in the Underground with Church. He knew the atrocities better than Sin and I did. We’d heard the horror stories and had caught glimpses ourselves, but that was different than living in it. Hell, I wouldn’t even call it living. I’d call it surviving.

“Dante, man,” I started, but he held his hand up to stop me.

“It’s done. I’m going. It was part of the deal I made so Sirena wouldn’t be punished. Instead, I take the punishment.”

Sirena buried her face in his neck and held onto him. He turned his attention from us to her, whispering things we couldn’t hear.

“This is fucking stupid,” Stitches snarled, looking to me. “We should just kill all of them and be done with it.”

“We will,” Asylum said.

Stitches and I both turned to look at him.

“In time,” Asylum continued. “Now is not the time.”

“I say you’re wrong,” Stitches snapped, pounding his chest with his fist. “Now is the perfect fucking time. I’ll go there myself and hang Sully’s ass right now. I don’t need a fucking schedule to do it.”

“If you want to take down all of them, we wait. We aren’t in any position to do any of this shit,” Asylum snapped back.

I’d never seen him look so fierce.

“What have you seen, Seth?” I asked gently.

He looked to me. “My name is Asylum.”

“Asylum,” I corrected. “You always know things. Tell us what you know. We need a really good reason to not just end it now.”

“We simply aren’t ready. Firefly wants revenge. We won’t get it if we start mindlessly killing the players. The monster will run. Hide. He will not come out to die. This game has always been a long game. Taking shortcuts would fuck everything. Once we grab the little fucking snake who touched my forever girl, then we can move forward. Until then, we wait.”

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