Page 111 of Anathema Codex

“What?” I bark as I turn to glare at him.

“Why do you care if Trixie fucks Aftyn?”

I rub my forehead with my thumb and turn my eyes away for a moment. It’s that same fucking look he gave me when I manhandled him back into the house after I got back. The one that’s accusing me of being a liar and of not being able to keep my promises.

“Lakyn,” he says, his tone matching his eyes. “Why do you care?”

A grin slips across my lips and settles on half of my face as I take another drag from my smoke. I look Ichabod up and down for a moment before I shrug. “You’ve known Beatrix almost as long as I have. We both know she’s a festering bitch and the last thing I need is for her to turn the kid into one too.”

“Is that the only reason?” he persists as he crosses his arms over his chest and juts his chin out.

“What the fuck is this? An interrogation? I don’t want that bitch giving the kid a disease. Maybe it’s thedaddyin me that you were so desperate to drag out finally showing up,” I say snidely. “Isn’t that why you did this? To see if I would give a fuck about someone other than myself for once? Or maybe you wanted to see if it would slow me down knowing that some rogue spunk made its way to a random fuck in Vegas and have it show up at my front door. Not a chance in Hell,Ichy, baby.”

His arms drop from his chest and all the macho bravado that I know he’s been nurturing the last couple of weeks seems to slip away in the next breath he lets out.

“Besides…” I say as I reach over and flick ashes into the ashtray he hasn’t broken. “I thought you wanted to see your bestie?”

His eyes light up slightly and I can see the hope shining brightly.

“You mean—”

“No.” I wave a hand, cutting him off immediately. “I promised that I’d bring her back, and I will, but you have to promise to be a good boy and give me time to go talk some reason into them, mkay?”

Red shudders. I catch it out of the corner of my eye, and I arch an eyebrow at her curiously. She looks like she’s trembling and when she wraps her arms around herself, all I can envision is her blowing chunks all over my fucking carpet.

“Did you get on that cactus shit too while you were out there?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“No. I refused to drink that stuff.”

“Huh…” I tilt my head looking her over, and while she definitelycouldbe dealing with withdrawal, I don’t think she’d lie to me. She’s too damn in love with me. “You sick?”

“I’m fine,” she answers almost immediately, giving me those puppy dog eyes and it takes everything in me not to kick her and leave her behind just so she doesn’t throw up in the car.

“Well, just remember that good girls swallow,” I tell her with a wink. Ichabod scowls when she looks at me with those fucking stars in her eyes, but he doesn’t have anything to worry about.

Honestly, at this point in my life, I’d hate to have to break in a new hole. Besides, he knows what I like, and he lets me take it whenever I want.

Turning back to Ichabod, I flash him a grin. “So, you gonna stay and be a good boy?”

“I suppose,” he finally relents.

“Excellent! Now I’m gonna get dressed”—I pause long enough to jab out the cigarette in the ashtray—“then we’re gonna get out of here and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“With Bea?” he asks quietly as I walk by him.

“As promised,” I reply with a wink and march out of the room.

The grin instantly drops from my face and I’m doing my best to keep my steps steady. This bitch always likes to overstep her boundaries, but this time she’s gone too fucking far.

I could care less that she’s letting someone else stick their dick in her rotten hole, or that it’s my useless kid. No, what’s got my eyes set to kill is that this bitch doesn’t remember the one person that loves her more than she deserves because she’s too busy becoming a druggie guru to some fuckwads in the desert andthatis something neither of them deserve to enjoy.

Nothing a little walk down memory lane won’t be able to fix,I think to myself as I disappear into my bedroom and slam the door shut behind me.

* * *

“Alright, let’s get on the road again, Red,” I call out when I walk back into the little love circle that she and Ichabod have formed.

“Okay.” She twists on the couch to look up at me and nods before awkwardly standing. I’m pretty sure she sways, unsteady on her feet, and I catch the way Ichabod almost reaches for her. They were whispering about something when I walked in, but I really don’t give a shit what it is. Ichabod knows his place, and Red would do just about anything I half-suggested to her. As long as stays upright anyway, because now that I’m actually paying attention to her, she looks pale as a sheet.

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