Page 71 of Reaper Flame

“Don’t tell me you’re actually feeling sorry for that murdering bastard?” West snarled.

“Hell fucking no!” I said. “But having to live with knowing what you did? That’s worse than jail. I know what it’s like to lose someone and think it’s your fault, remember?”

“What happened with Red was different,” West muttered. “You thought you were saving him when you shot him.”

“That didn’t make a difference when I thought I killed him,” I replied. “Having to live with thatfeelingfor the rest of your life is worse than any beating you could give him.”

West swirled the bourbon around in his glass, almost sloshing it over the sides. “You really think Giles loved her, huh?”

“Yup,” I said, popping the p. It’d be easier if he hadn’t as he wouldn’t be stuck in his own personal hell forever. “He had it bad.”

“Penny wasn’t always a bitch,” West said. “When she was younger, she was different.”

“Will you miss her?” I asked, bracing myself for him throwing the glass.

“The person she turned into? No.” West shook his head, taking me by surprise and keeping his cool. “The person I used to care about was dead years ago, but dying like that with a kid? It’s not right.”

“We’ll make them pay for it.” I put my hand on his inked forearm and stroked his prominent veins, bulging from his clenched hand. “Giles didn’t do this alone. He may have been behind it, but Hiram will have pulled the strings like a puppet master.”

West drained the rest of his glass and slammed it down. A crack appeared down its side from the force. “We’ll kill him.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said, grabbing the bottle and taking a slug. I looked around the empty club. The others had gone upstairs.We settled into a thoughtful silence, then I asked, “Is this where you thought you’d end up?”

“Exactly in the same position as my pa working for a Briarly?” West laughed coldly, taking the bottle from me to take a swig, then wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “No fucking way.”

“Would you do things differently if you could go back in time?”

West’s brows drew together in deep concentration. “No,” he said finally. “Would you?”

“Sometimes I feel like all I do is bring destruction,” I admitted. The news of Penelope’s death and alcohol was not a good combination. It forced me to confront feelings I usually ignored. “It’s like I’m cursed or something. Bad things follow me wherever I go.”

Fate had it out for me from the beginning. After I was born, someone dumped me on the doorstep of a group home. Whoever my mother was could probably tell I’d bring trouble and wanted to save herself the hassle. Despite growing up in Evergreen, I tried to keep my head down throughout school, but it made no difference. The devil came into my life and sealed my fate.

“Hey!” West put his thumb under my chin and tipped my head up to face him. “This isn’t your fault.”

“Quit the bullshit, West,” I snapped. “We both know this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t leave Hiram in the first place. If I never set foot in Lapland, none of you would be in this fucking mess!”

Why can’t you keep your mouth shut, Candy?Hiram taught you how emotions get you killed! But I couldn’t stop.

“You’re all risking your lives, don’t you get that?” I continued. “Since I came to Port Valentine, your lives have been a fucking train wreck!”

“What would have happened if you stayed at Blackthorne Towers?” West asked. “Could you keep killing on command for the rest of your life? That shit doesn’t last forever.”

“I never thought that far ahead,” I said. Getting from one day to the next was a small achievement. “There’s only one way out for people who don’t follow Hiram’s orders. A future is something I never had to think about.”

“You’d better think about it now, Pinkie,” West said. “Because we won’t let anything happen to you.”

“But what if something happens toyou?” I could still see the image of Rocky bleeding out on the warehouse floor like it was happening in front of us. What if West was next? Or Mieko? Or Vixen? Or even Zander? “How am I supposed to feel knowing you died because of me?”

The last few days had been a total head fuck. Being around the guys again had made mefeel, and I couldn’t control it. The Sevens crackedopen a small box hidden in my chest with a crowbar, and its insides were spilling out.

“Nothing is going to happen to us,” West said fiercely. “I’ll make sure of it. The Sevens are a family. If someone comes for one of us, they come for us all.”

If only words were enough to keep Hiram at bay. If he wanted to take us out, he could do it with a click of his fingers. It wouldn’t be long before the fire came to our door, and none of us would see it coming...

SIXTEEN

“We’re shutting the club tonight, so I’m going to stay at Mieko’s apartment,” Vixen said, popping her head around my door. I’d reclaimed her closet as my room again. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

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