Page 65 of Prey

My hand wrapped around the silver box, and it felt cool to touch. It didn’t seem newly bought, so I assumed the real gift was the oddity that would be inside.

Making myself comfortable on the bed, I took the lid off to find a small item wrapped in blue tissue paper. Jewelry, I assumed. It reminded me of the half-heart pendant silver necklace hidden in my clothes in the third drawer. My mom had the other half, or Annika’s mom had the other half. It was the only thing I kept of her’s before I lit a fire to my perfect life with the Kaisers.

Turning my back on that life also meant never contacting my mom again. She was dead to me anyway before then. My sixteen-year-old brain hated her for choosing her habit over me, but as I matured, I learned to understand her pain. If she hadn’t abandoned me, I wouldn’t have met the Kaisers, particularly Gunner. If she hadn’t abandoned me, then I wouldn’t have suffered at the hands of my abusers in those homes.

I began to unwrap the small item from the heart-shaped box. With each layer of paper gone, another layer was underneath. The item was hard to touch, and as I got closer to unraveling it, I could tell that it was not jewelry.

Finally, I reached the last layer of tissue paper, stained in reddy brown paint or…don’t tell me. Blood? That sickly iron scentradiated off it, and I couldn’t kid myself into thinking it was anything but blood.

“Jeez, Rourke. You weirdo. What have you given me?”

The small white item, stained in blood, rolled from my grasp onto the floor. Definite and solid.

A damn tooth.

The man had gone to all that effort to gift me a tooth. Not just any kind of tooth, but a human tooth.

Me: Whose tooth is this?

While I waited for my crazed stalker to answer me, I picked up the bloody item using the tissue paper and threw it into the trash can. Yuck.

Rourke: Glad u like it.

Me: I didn’t say I liked it. Why would I? I’m not insane.

Me: Whose tooth is it?

Me: And why oh why would u gift me that?

Me: Did I do something to upset u?

Me: Are u punishing me?

Rourke: Slow down. Too many texts.

My legs won’t rest, so I began pacing impatiently for that weirdo to reply. Conflicted. Sometimes, the less you know, the better, so maybe I didn’t want him to answer.

Me: Forget it. I don’t want to know.

I had to separate myself from my phone to clear my head and leave the room to splash cold water on my face. There was nothing like a few minutes of phone separation to conclude this was a joke. Rourke’s dark sense of humor. I bet he’s rolling about laughing right now.

When I returned to my room, a message was waiting.

Rourke: He fucked u.

A shiver ran down my spine as my mouth drew desert dry. Shit, he found out about Ronan. How? I knew he was dangerous. I knew he had a side to him that was revengeful and could easily hurt someone.

But, oh no, in a fit of rage, he beat up Ronan. He smashed Ronan’s beautiful face and sent me his tooth as proof or a warning or something. Jeez, Rourke was nuts. Certified fucking insane.

My finger tapped on the screen, unable to find the words to explain that it was a heated moment, and I didn’t realize he and I were exclusive or in a relationship. He could’ve at least informed me that we were a couple.

Rourke: He abandoned u.

What did he mean? Ronan didn’t abandon me. He seduced me and tossed me aside and probably had several bits on the side, but he didn’t abandon me unless Rourke interpreted it that way.

Rourke: Let u walk home in the dark alone.

Oh. He was talking about Shaun. I’d forgotten all about the devious son of a bitch, Shaun. Huh. Now, I’m not so sad about his face being punched in.

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