Page 64 of Witches Be Damned

Pascal already won an Oscar for a movie soundtrack for a Christmas movie and had the contacts to do it.

I snaked my palm from side to side over his chest. “I second that motion.”

Tor pretended to cover his mouth. “Opps, sorry, P-man. I’ve planted the seed. Our girl’s gonna expect you to get rich and spoil her. We’re all relying on you now.” He raised two palms like a man under arrest. “Sorry, but I’m a reformed man now and can’t sell contraband anymore.”

I snorted. Hardly. These past nearly two years, I got used to living off tinned tuna and crackers as date treats. I doubt I’d go all diva and demand jewels. Collectible pop culture items, most definitely. I’d need a room in our mansion for the collection I planned to obtain when we got out of here.

I grabbed Tor’s collar this time and pulled it tight. “As for your reformed ways,yeah, right.”

“Guilty as charged.” He winked. “That’s what you love about me, isn’t it, Supergal? My bad boy charm?”

Knoxe shoved Tor’s arm. “Don’t encourage him.”

I kissed my Superguy’s nose. “You’re my bad boy for life. I don’t want you to change a single thing. You’re perfect just the way you are.” I glanced at Pascal and Knoxe. “You all are.”

Knoxe scooped me off Tor’s lap into his arms. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. What do you want to do? Eat? Shower? Play cards?”

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I couldn’t stomach breakfast this morning and I’m starving.”

“Sexy time, it is.” It was Knoxe’s turn to wind me up, and he steered me to my cell, then hung a right at the last moment, carrying me to the cafeteria.

My men bartered with the chef, paying him one hundred bucks to whip us up something special and off the menu. I was the luckiest girl in the world to have men that showered me with me special privileges.

Knoxe sat me on his lap while we waited for our meal, and I curled his orange ponytail around my finger and tugged him down to my lips. “This is why I love my bad boys.”

CHAPTER 21 - KNOXE

Inever thought I’d thank the thief avatar, but I did, over and over when my girl came back to us. She felt so good on my lap. Soft, warm, and soothing. Ecstatic she was healthy and safe, I cuddled her waist with one forearm, nuzzled the side of her neck, and rubbed her thigh.

“Then a massive plot twist unfolds.” Tor gesticulated with wide arms as he regaled Astra and Pascal about the latest comic that arrived in the mail. “And boom! I won’t spoil it, Supergal.”

“Yeah, don’t,” Pascal warned.

“If you spoil it for me, I’ll have to kill you.” Astra slapped Tor’s arm.

Hell, I was so happy, the nerd talk didn’t make me want to pour concrete in my ears. Normally, I had Raze to ground me when they dove in. I missed his company and wise council and hoped to catch up with him again.

Guilt circled my chest and squeezed that our brother didn’t have his pack or tribe to rally around and support him in our absence. We spoke to him sparingly when Ben loaned us his phone to show he was one us always. Any contact on the prison’s communications channels was forbidden to avoid alerting the prison authorities. Without Raze, our team was divided and missing one part of us that made us whole. This made me more determined than ever to get us out of here to be a unit again. That way we all shared her fairly and none of us got priority, when Astra promised not to favor one man in her harem over the other.

Silver eyes flashed in my memory. Raze out of it, drugged, skin burned, fangs bared, claws ready to shred Tor, Pascal, or me if we came near her. Sunset’s safety trumped everything, and we backed off and let her go with him. Her return to the prison proved her loyalty, trustworthiness, and courage without a shadow of doubt. God knew we didn’t want to add her name to the list of fugitives we went after.

The scent of food frying on the stove brought me back to the moment, and I brushed her back, loving the feel of her next to my body.

This morning, Sentry Ben informed us of her return, and we shaved, showered, and put our fresh clothes on, wanting to look and smell our best for her. To say we were excited to see her was an understatement. Six and a quarter days stretched into a painful eternity.

Then she was in the hall, on her way to Cell Ward A, putting one foot in front of the other as she followed the warden. An angel in orange prison attire, her sunset hair streaks burning brighter than the day we met.

When the sentries let her in, we descended on her like wolves wanting a piece of a bunny. Her lips tasted even sweeter than I remembered. She smelled even better than her usual fruity candy. Her hair never felt as silky and looked as shiny. The break did wonders for her.

Astra’s small, warm palm came to the back of my hand. “I’m sorry I’m ignoring you.” Nothing I wasn’t used to, only I didn’t have Raze as my buffer anymore. “No more nerd talk,” she instructed the other two.

“Boring.” Tor pretended to fall asleep, mocking how I felt about the subject matter. I was a realist and had the imagination of a blade tip. Zero.

“What have you been up to?” Astra swiveled on my lap and brushed my jaw with the back of her finger.

“No business talk,” Tor warned, reminding me of our pact, which I had no intention of breaking.

Her mind would be in a spin from the last week, and I’d give her a few days to settle in before I dumped her with the heavy shit like a deep dive into the thief avatar’s intel, or catching ten more escapees based on information Tor extracted, and the plans to hide the prisoners in the vamp planet.

---