“You smell like Angel,” he says.
“I used his shampoo. I’m a sugar cookie now.”
“Should put some sprinkles on you.”
“And bake me in the oven,” I add, and Tatum laughs.
“No. No baking. I’d like you to stay alive.”
Well, that just warms my heart. For as long as I can remember, no one’s wanted me alive. My memories are filled with nothing but the weight of hate sitting heavily on my chest. Suffocation. Drowning.
If you escape, no one will ever want you.
I’d never felt like I belonged, not until I met the Costellos.
As we walk into the kitchen, the scent of freshly baked treats hits me and pulls me from those memories. Agatha greets me with a pat on the cheek.
“Hello, little bug. I heard you were very busy last night, working so hard. Here are your tea and scones.” With a soft grin reserved only for me, she hands me a plate, and I shove one in my mouth, my eyes rolling into the back of my head as the taste explodes in my mouth.
“Mm. So good.”
“And where’s mine?” Anthony asks dryly.
Agatha arches an eyebrow at him. “Did you ask nicely? Give me a nice knuckle bone bracelet just because?”
I giggle, bits of food puffing out of my mouth.
Anthony scoffs. “I pay your wages. And give you a bonus each quarter.”
Her other eyebrow joins the first. “Anthony Costello. If your mother could hear you now. Money. Honestly. You know me better than that. I prefer manners.”
Anthony glowers at her and then sighs. “Please, may I have my breakfast, which I pay you to make?”
“Don’t mind his rudeness. He’s very hungry, Aggie,” Tatum explains. “I wore him out last night, and he’s come to the realization that he’s just an old man and can’t really keep up with my stamina. It’s put him in a mood.”
“I kept up just fine. If anything, you were begging me to stop.”
“I would never!” Tatum says, and I bob my head at that.
“He’d never,” I agree around a mouthful.
Anthony glowers at me and then sighs. “All right. No more of this. Agatha, if you’d please bring some food and tea into my office so we can get started, I’d appreciate it. It’s been a fucking night, and I suspect that we’ll have what’s left of the Sirens—those the soldiers didn’t kill last night—coming for us soon.”
I follow them into the office, all of us getting situated. I take a seat on the couch and feel the sting of the tattoo on my ass. It aches in the best way. It reminds me that he cares.
That he went through all that trouble.
“Bane,” Anthony says, interrupting my slutty thoughts. Too bad my dick isn’t getting the clue. It’s hard and sticking up. A scone crumb sits on the tip of it, and I flick it away.
“Hm?”
“The info. If you will.”
“Oh, yes. I was just thinking about Georgiy and the tattoo on my ass, but…Tish is useless. Said it was a shadow that was controlling everything. Said he’s big and bad and we’ll never find him. He sounds really boring…”
“Did you get the name of thisshadow?”
“No, she’s not willing to talk. Even took a few teeth and her left foot. This shadowy person must have something on her that’s keeping her quiet. Unfortunately, I can’t take out her brain and find the answer. I don’t have the technology for that yet. Well, I mean, I could take out her brain?—”
