Page 54 of Sinful Like Us
“It’s cooked enough,” Eliot assures.
Fresh road kill would smell and lookbetter than what stares back at us. Blood drips off rare, greasy pieces of heart. Collecting in pools at the bottom of the carton.
Jane ties her hair back. “Where’s a fork?”
“Wait,” Ben says, anger hacksawing his blue eyes. He pivots to Charlie. “You said you’dthrow outthis card.”
“Oh fuck,” Sulli says too loudly, her voice audible from the bar.
“I said I’d think about it.” Charlie flips his phone in his palm.
Beckett places a comforting hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Thatcher and Jane aren’t vegan like yo—”
“It doesn’t matter!” Ben yells. “You should all respect my feelings on the consumption ofanimals.This didn’t have to happen!” He points at the hearts and then whips around on me. “Don’t eat it.”
Sulli was right.
Oh fuck.
I need to make a hard call. Eat the rabbit and piss off Ben. Will he hold this against me forever?
Or I could just not complete the card and irritate Charlie, Beckett, Eliot, and Tom. Before I even move, Ben tells his brothers, “How would you like it if I cracked your ribcage and tore out your heart?”
Charlie rips open the last buttons of his white shirt. Bare chest and toned abs in view. “Go ahead.”
Eliot unpockets a switchblade, twirls the knife, and stakes it on the wooden table near Ben.
“No,” Jane scolds.
I tear the knife out of the wood and snap the blade closed with a quick hand. I shove the weapon in my back pocket.
“Murder-blocker,” Tom quips.
“The worst,” Eliot jokes.
I nod and breathe out of my nose. “Symbolic death and brothers might be your afternoon tea, but it’s my nightmare.”
They don’t know it’s one I’ve met. Sky’s death still isn’t public fact. But I have another brother, and that nightmare exists for us. If I lost Banks…
Just kill me.
You’d think Eliot and Tom Cobalt are all humor, but they can turn a switch quickly and they voice their understanding.
Ben goes to steal the rabbit carton.
Charlie pushes him back. “Let Thatcher decide.”
I look between the Cobalt brothers.
Choose.
I dip my head down to Jane. “I’m eating it.”
“Me too,” she whispers with a wince. She feels for Ben.
I tug the plastic container closer to us.
Ben makes a noise like I impaled him. “Don’t eat it,please.”
