Page 140 of Gratification in Gluttony

“You know we’re doing this for fun, right?” Oliver said haltingly as he held the front door open for Liel to enter. “Like just a silly surprise for his birthday.”

“Of course it’s for fun,” Tad said as she pulled out a coil of rope and a roll of duct tape from her duffel. “If I was doing it for money, I’d work with my own crew. You all are too unprofessional, and I’m not going back to jail again because y’all can’t hack it.”

“You know we’re not actually, like,kidnappinghim, right?” Jude asked.

“So he knows we’re coming? Well, this changes everything.” Rifling through her bag, Tad set a bottle of chloroform, several full syringes of an unknown substance, and a flash grenade on the sidewalk. “Seriously, it’s like you’ve never abducted someone before.”

“Oh my gods, Tad, put the flash grenade away!” Toni shouted. “You can’t be waving those things around out here. Are you crazy?”

Tad rolled up her balaclava and considered Toni’s words. Then she nodded. “You’re right. We should wait until we’re in the hallway.” She put everything back into her duffel, then hoisted it up and over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Exchanging a rather terrified look with Jude, Toni followed Tad into the building. They all piled into the lift and rode up to Gem’s floor. When they arrived in front of Gem’s door, everyone turned to Toni.

“So, you have the key, right?” Oliver asked, and Toni rolled his eyes.

“Of course I have the key.” He patted his pockets in search of his keyring. “Do you really think I can’t handle bringing one little key to…” His right pocket was empty, as were his back pockets, and he chuckled nervously. “I mean, Toni always delivers…” His left pocket jingled, and he pulled out the keys triumphantly. “Ha, see! Keys. Wait a minute.”

It was a keyring, but it wasn’thiskeyring. It was for the borrowed car. He patted desperately at his pants again, hoping for a different result. But he was keyless! He’d only grabbed one set of keys when he left his house.

“You seriously forgot the key?” Rusty demanded.

Toni bared his teeth. “I felt a keyring in my pocket. How was I supposed to know it wasn’t the right one?”

The group groaned.

“You had one job,” Oliver chided.

“I had many jobs!” Toni corrected. “I scored us last minute tickets, and I fucking delivered on that car.”

“The car is too small,” Quin countered. “Tad had to ride in the trunk.”

“She wanted to,” Toni defended. “She said she likes small, dark spaces!”

Tad grinned unnervingly. “I do like small, dark spaces. It’s where the bodies usually are.”

“We could maybe pick the lock?” Liel suggested.

“Oh shoot, I forgot my burglary kit at home,” Jude teased.

“I didn’t!” Tad exclaimed, pulling a lockpicking kit from her duffel bag. “Am I the only one who came prepared?”

“I don’t know if we should—” Glyma started, but Tad was already waddling toward Gem’s front door, pulling items from the kit.

“Doesn’t this actually count as breaking and entering?” Willow asked.

“Only if Gem presses charges,” Tad said, another bone-chilling smile breaking across her face. “Good thing he won’t be around to try.”

“Hey, folks,” Rusty said as he flipped over Gem’s welcome mat. “Think I found the spare.”

Taped to the back was an envelope with big, block letters scrawled across it in Gem’s handwriting. “For Emergencies Only!”

In smaller, messier handwriting—that Toni realized was actually his—it said, “Or when you lock yourself out naked cause you’re a sloppy whore.”

Everyone stilled, then turned to stare at Toni.

“Right,” he said with an easy grin. “I forgot about the spare.”

Rusty huffed and ripped the envelope free from the mat, then tore it open to retrieve Gem’s spare key.

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