Page 161 of Moth to a Flame

I’m doing it for them as much as I’m doing it for myself.

“Eat my fingernails, you fucking loser.”

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Tears spring free from his eyes when I laugh.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

“You piece of shit. You’re nothing. Less than nothing. You’re a little bitch who eats fingernails. Ha!”

“I’ll never get enough of you.” Landon’s voice is distant and yet speaks directly in my ear. Into my heart. “Ever.”

I’m smiling from the inside out. “Swallow, Lester.Swallow.”

Landon’s foot lifts only so he can slam his knee into Lester’s head. His hand curls around his throat. “Making sure he obeys.”

“You’re too good for me.”

“You’re the one who’s too good for me.” His expression hardens. His lips are inches from mine. “I’ll never deserve you. I’ll never let you go, either.”

Lester swallows. His gulp is audible. I laugh harder when he sobs.

“Good dog—Fuck, no, not a dog.” Landon scrunches his nose. “Calling you that is an insult to dogs everywhere. I’ll settle for what Regan said. Nothing. You’re nothing.”

“You’re up next.” I lean over to kiss his cheek, then rub mine against his stubble. “Are you getting something from the duffel?”

Landon chuckles, low and terrifying.

Lester screams, his entire body shaking.

“Remember when you raped me?” Saying that kind of sucks the humor out of me. I get up, moving to Landon’s side. To where I’m loved and cherished. “It hurt a lot worse, and I never complained like you do.”

We’re both standing over Lester now.

A foreign object is being placed in my hand. I lower my gaze to the large, gleaming serrated knife. Look up at Landon, who’s wielding a syringe in his hand.

“What’s this?”

“Eye for an eye.” He cups my cheek with his free hand. He’s never gone into that much detail about his revenge plan. “I won’t put my cock anywhere inside this man, but—”

“Mmmm!”

“Shut the fuck up.” I kick him in the shin. His muscles strain, and I bet his back is killing him. Wonderful.

Landon pulls my face back to him. His eyes shine at me. “As I was saying. I won’t rape him with my cock. I belong to you and no one else. The baton…That’s another story.”

“What’s that?” I point at the syringe.

“This.” A clear drop leaks out of the needle. “One of Moth to a Flame’s investors from when we just started, he’s a physician from Chicago. That’s where I stopped. He’s the person who gave me a pair of leggings for you and this baby.” He gives the syringe a little shake. “Epinephrine.”

“Wow.” I don’t need him to explain what it does and why he brought it. Dad researched it for one of his books.

If a person, say…Lester…goes into shock for whatever reason, a shot of epinephrine will bring him back from the dead.

“So the knife is to sodomize him?” There’s no use being quiet about it since Lester is about to get fucked anyway.

I don’twantto be quiet about it, either. He should be as afraid as I was that night and many, many nights after.

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