Page 26 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
His hands come down like a vice on my hips. And he bites out, “Des, you take over feeding her. She’s too squirmy.”
Squirmy. That’s what he calls me. Like I’m a little kid he has to put up with.
Des-E happily pulls me into his lap. And you’d think nothing would be able to touch my self-esteem after what just happened with him and Hyena. But for some reason, Vampire’s rejection stings way worse than being called Whisper Tits.
I have to eat. That’s one of the rules. But I stop after Des-E feeds me a few bites and say, “I’m full. Can I go to my room?”
They do that silent three-way-look thing. Then Hyena answers, “Sure. I’ll bring up lunch a little later.”
I spring out of Des-E’s lap before Hyena’s done giving me permission to go. Embarrassment and shame nipping at my heels.
As I leave, I hear Hyena saying, “You need to be nicer to her.”
And Vampire answers him, “I’m being as nice as I can be, considering she—”
I don’t stick around to hear the rest.
Why are they even keeping me here if one of them isn’t fully on board? I run up the stairs to the room—not my room.
I refuse to call it that.
Or fall into the bed like a teenager in one of those high school rom-coms where some silly girl’s always getting upset over some silly boy to the point that she just has to cry silly tears into her pillow.
No, I swallow down all the ugly feelings swirling around inside of me and go to the bathroom to defy the rules and clean myself up with the one hand towel they left hanging in my shower.
The condom question rises again. But, Triage my trusty voice reminds me. Refocus on the new plan. Then you can figure out everything else.
Yes. Focus.
Instead of crying on the bed when I return to the bedroom, I walk to the window and stare at the huge rock structure in the distance.
New plan. New plan. New plan.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been standing there when a knock sounds on the door.
“Hey, we got something for you….” Hyena calls out behind me.
I’m supposed to be playing along, but the irritation rises up before I can tamp it down along with a question: “What happens if I don’t want you to come in here? Am I allowed to be alone, or is that against the rules, like locking the door?”
Silence. Of course.
My irritation ratchets up and I have to ask, “What happens if you come in here and I don’t want to have sex? Do I get punished for breaking the rules?”
There comes a click. Hyena setting down his latest charcuterie board. Then, the next thing I know, Hyena’s wrapping his arms around me from behind. “You mad at Vampire and trying to take it out on us?”
Yes. “No,” I insist out loud. “I’m just trying to figure out how this game you’re playing with me is supposed to go.”
“It’s not a game.” He nuzzles his face into the side of mine and rocks me a little. “And you don’t have to have sex with us if you don’t want to—we’d never make you do that. You’re ours now, but we want you to want us the same as we want you.”
Theirs….competing emotions battle for dominance inside my head.
“Vampire doesn’t want me. Obviously,” I blurt out before my trusty voice can remind me of all the reasons that shouldn’t matter. “You saw him down there.”
“He’s scared to want you,” Hyena says with a wry note in his voice. "There’s a difference.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means you need time to get used to you belonging to us now. And so does he,” Hyena answers, hugging me a little tighter. “But don’t worry, he’ll come around. And in the meanwhile, we’ve got something good for you.”
He turns me around, and it’s easy to let him. No matter how righteous my cause, leaving the breakfast table after only a few bites of cereal is catching up with me.
My stomach growls in anticipation of a bigger meal, even if it has to be hand fed to me.
However, my heart stops, and I forget all about the charcuterie board when I see Des-E.
Apparently, Hyena really did mean we. And though there’s a tray of food on the table, Des-E has the real “something good” Hyena was referring to.
No more dark swirl. My entire chest lights up when I see the surprise in Des-E’s hands.
CHAPTER 13
VAMPIRE
Des-E hates talking. Even before all the shit we did and saw in the Middle East, he tended to keep to himself. He also loves to eat.
So, I know I’m in trouble when instead of tucking into his own bowl of cereal, he turns to whisper, “You’re fucking this up for us” after she runs out of the room.
