Uh.
Oh… dear.
“I’ll get you more once we’re out.” I’d give her a whole room full of so many keys she could swim through them.
But first, we needed to survive the appeal.
Until then— “No more in here.”
“But y-you saidI’m in your pack, and I can be as disruptive as I like.”
“I…” My jaw worked soundlessly as I processed that.
“They’re just keys,” she said.
“You need to waitthreedays, Little Omega?—”
“But—”
“No buts. If the rest of Anarchy find out you’re stealing?—”
“Stopsayingthat. Stealing is a sin. I’mnotstealing, this is theirhome.”
I took a breath, trying to shove down my anger. It wasn’t her fault. It came from the fear I was feeling now we were so close.
Nothing could go wrong.
But she didn’t deserve me taking it out on her.
“Are these all of them, Firefly?” Sin had shuffled nearer and was peering at the ring that held the collection. She growled when one of us touched them, but of course Sin got a pass.
“Do you… like them?” Crescent asked, watching Sin with glittering eyes as he examined her trophy. “I… it was for you, too.”
“Forme?” Sin looked at her curiously.
“Keys are important to you,” she whispered. “I saw. And you don’t nest, so I thought…” She trailed off, suddenly looking unsure.
But I watched as the colour drained from Sin’s face. “What…does that mean?”
Her lip wobbled. “I… remember now. You kept it real close like it mattered. And then everyone wanted it from you, so I… I kept it safe.”
“Firefly…” Sin looked stunned. “Whatdid you keep safe?”
Her eyes darted from me, to Vandle and Karma, to Sin, and she looked like she was going to cry.
“You can’t take it,” she whispered.
“You didn’t…” I’d never seen Sin lost for words. “But the cage—we got thrown in the cage because I didn’t have it.”
“Theycouldn’ttake it…”
The truth was slowly dawning on me, and my lips parted in shock.
No... way.
But my little klepto omega was digging in her pocket to pull out the one key that wasn’t on the ring.
The key to the contraband room.
