Page 91 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

I’m in their bedroom. This should alarm me. Terrify me, in fact, but I can barely think straight through the sullenthud-thud-thudof my head.

Orange light slices a line across the myriad blankets and pillows scattered about. I blink at the silhouette a few times before I recognize it.

Apollo comes over to me, stepping in and around the mattresses like he’s walking a minefield. He crouches beside me and holds out a steaming cup. “Coffee,” he explains. “Cream, two sugars. That right, pretty thing?”

I can’t even.

I nod at him and accept the cup. Thankfully, my ass barely hurts anymore, so I can sit up in a cross-legged seat as soon as he disappears out of the room.

After a quick check to make sure there are in fact no snakes around, I drag a blanket over my shoulders. It’s absolutely freezing in this place, and no surprise—it’s not as if the library has heat.

The guys talk in hushed voices for a few seconds, and then there’s utter quiet.

I spill coffee into my lap when Zachary calls out my name.

“Trinity? Join us.”

I consider ignoring him.

Then I remember his warning. I don’t need another hiding, thank you very fucking much. Juggling the coffee cup, I somehow manage to drag a blanket over my shoulders without spilling a drop. Then I make my way to the other side of the man cave.

They’re all seated, Reuben and Cassius on the same couch I was on, Zachary still in his chair—although it’s been pushed back closer to the bookshelf now—and Apollo on a badly worn armchair on the other side.

They all look up when I enter, making me freeze.

“Are you hungry?” Reuben asks.

Am I?—?

I glare at him.

Do these freaks think they hit some kind of reset button when I went to sleep? What the hell is wrong with them? They’ve assaulted me, kidnapped me,andinterrogated me, all in a matter of hours.

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

I still don’t even know why. It has something to do with Gabriel, but Lord knows what.

Something inside me snaps. I storm forward, coffee sloshing dangerously close to the rim of my cup. “No, you sick fuck, I’m not hungry!”

I expect one of them to say something, maybe to calm me, but they keep staring like they paid good money for this show.

Setting down my coffee on the closest bookshelf, I keep the blanket closed with one hand and use the other to point at Zachary.

“You think you can just go around doing whatever the fuck you want? Well you’re wrong! You can’t.”

Zachary settles back in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest. Is that a smile ghosting his lips?

“Someone’s going to notice I’m gone. You realize that, right?” I scan the other faces one at a time. Apollo with his mop of unruly hair. Reuben with his ten-yard stare. Cassius who?—

He’s fuckingleeringat me. “Who’s gonna notice you’re gone, my little slut?”

“Stop calling me that!” I charge forward, emboldened by their apparent lack of giving a shit. I make to punch him on the shoulder, but nothing close to that happens.

Instead, he’s on his feet pulling some kind of ninja move that has me draped over the back of the couch and him bending over me.

No one stops him.

Cass’s hand slides under the blanket, grabbing at my breast. Reuben’s rosary falls out and dangles from my neck.

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