Chapter 34 #2
“Yours, of course.” Bohnes rises back to his feet, brandishing four small boxes in his arms. He works his jaw and peers past us in the direction of the kitchen, listening to Patricia puttering around in there.
Some corny Christmas song is playing, and I can hear the elder Mrs. Force singing along to it.
“Quick. Open them before that demon woman comes back in here and starts abusing her precious grandchildren again.”
Scarlett grins at that, accepting her gift from Bohnes while slanting a glance over at me.
“If we find out that he snuck out to get these gifts for us, how should we punish him, Adrian?”
“Tie him to a chair and leave him there while the rest of us fuck. He can watch and leak.” I smirk at Bohnes who flashes his shark teeth at me, handing out the other boxes and placing the final one in my hands.
I shake it around with a frown, trying to guess what’s inside.
“Is this another shrivelled dick? A heart? Some fingers?” I wet my lips. “A severed head.”
“I bring you a special present and this is how you treat me? I’m disappointed, Adrian. What’s the phrase I’m looking for? Bros over hos.” Bohnes seems to find that funny, but Scarlett is less amused.
“Hos, maybe. But your wife? If you all bro-up on me again, like you did at the track the night that I…lost, you’ll all be watching and leaking.
You feel me? There’s more than one chair in this house.
” Scarlett gets annoyed with a white ribbon on her box, whipping out a knife from God only knows where in order to cut it.
You’d never know that last night, we burnt a man alive.
I use my muscles to rip the ribbon in half and Scarlett scoffs. I’m the first to lift the lid of the box and push aside the tissue paper to see what’s waiting inside.
I look up and meet Bohnes’ eyes again.
“I was there, you know, the day Joanne Kingston delivered the, uh, naked mole rat.” I toss the box lid onto the coffee table and reach inside, withdrawing a piece of resin on a chain. Inside the resin, there’s a small white crescent moon. It looks like it was maybe carved out of…something.
“Meaning to say, you don’t believe this is just a simple good luck charm?” Bohnes retorts, turning his attention to Ash, who’s already putting the chain around his neck and smiling down at it.
“Thank you for casting the object in resin, to make it more sanitary.” Alexei hesitates to put the necklace on, but then he sees that both Scarlett and Ash have already done it.
Only difference in Scar’s piece is that it’s a full moon.
Just like our tattoos, four crescents and a full.
Kellin tugs his out of his pocket and puts it on, leaving me and Alexei as the outliers.
“Is this a bone?” I ask, watching the item dangle in front of me. “A human bone?”
“Kellin,” Scarlett begins, like she’s about to chastise him. Alexei is even more hesitant about hanging the item around his neck now. “Explain.”
Bohnes tucks his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants and turns away from us, staring up at the tree with blue eyes that don’t look quite so icy to me anymore.
“I couldn’t go out to get gifts, so I improvised. Trish was already dead, so…” Bohnes closes his eyes, listening to the sound of the rain and the distant murmur of Patricia, humming along to some holiday ballad.
Bohnes is…gifting a body part to me? My own aunt’s bone. Like the family heirloom I was lamenting I didn’t have.
With a curse in Russian and a sigh, Alexei hooks the chain around his own neck.
Without meaning to, I find myself smiling so wide that I feel stupid wearing such a dopey expression. Scarlett is peering at me with parted lips and shiny eyes, so I turn away to hide the overwhelming emotions. If she looks at me like that, I’ll…it’s a lot. Fuck.
“Here.” Ash steps forward and takes my pendant by the chain, helping me put it on so that the small white bone hangs at the base of my throat.
He pats me on the shoulder and smiles, leaning in like he’s trying to read deeper into my emotions.
I’ve stopped trying to actually hide them from anyone.
Other than a stubborn turn of my head, that’s about as much fight as I want to put into it when it comes to family.
For the first time in my life, I feel safe.
Seeing as we’re all wearing necklaces made out of my aunt, I guess you would guess that we burned a guy alive last night.
“It’s Adrian’s birthday today, and having a birthday on any holiday—especially Christmas—sucks balls.
” Scarlett plants her hands on her hips, her own happy tears sliding down her beautiful cheeks.
It’s her first Christmas without Lem and her sister, just like it’s Alexei’s without his parents.
But for me and Ash and Bohnes, this is the best holiday we’ve ever had.
“Since we can’t go out, we have to make this one special for him.
First, breakfast and then cookie-making, holiday movies and… an orgy.”
She examines her Christmas-themed nails, the ones she got done after we came home last night and will most definitely have redone before P-Trip tomorrow.
“Orgy? I should get you all to myself. That’s what I want for Christmas.” I sound like a fuckin’ Grinch, but hey, I’m not ungrateful. I grab onto the necklace and look right at Bohnes, thanking him with my expression as much as my words. “I appreciate you, Kellin.”
“Have a couple-fuck, go on. Us boys can suck each other off, can’t we?” Bohnes teases, looking between Ash and Alexei with a sly grin. “You two seemed like such naturals at it before. If Scarlett and Widow want some alone time, and I need to nut—”
Patricia appears just in time to hear this statement. Only, it’s worse this time. She’s got Nisha, Hype, Bastian, and Emma Jean with her.
“Nut, as in chestnuts roasting?” Bastian asks, doubling over with laughter. Nisha immediately notices the necklaces we’re wearing and sighs dramatically. “By the way, happy birthday, Adrian.”
“Happy birthday!” Emma Jean claps her hands together and smiles at me like we’re old friends.
“Saengil chukahae.” Hype shoves her hands into the pocket of her hoodie and glowers. I assume that’s Korean for happy birthday.
Part of me wants to run away, with all these people staring so intently at me.
“Tanjoubi omedetou,” Ash whispers, putting one of his hands on my shoulder from behind. He’s so happy, his voice thick with emotion. I reach up and put my hand over his, drowning in feelings of my own. “Happy birthday, my friend.”
Scarlett and I exchange a look. There could be a million people in the room with us, and we’d still find the time and space to give one another private glances. It’s basically a compulsion. An obsession. It’s like oxygen.
I’m worried about her and her friends, after dealing with Chet last night. Stirring up feelings about Lemon and all that. Do I bring it up? I can tell Scarlett knows the direction of my thoughts, watching me flick my eyes between her and Basti.
“Are you okay, Bastian?” I ask when I read the stark approval in Scarlett’s face. She likes that I’m worried about her friends. “You, especially, but Nisha, too. Are you guys feeling okay this morning?”
Patricia doesn’t know what I’m talking about.
She doesn’t want to. She turns away and takes Ash with her, using a firm grip on his arm to drag him away from me.
I work my jaw in annoyance, both at myself and at her.
I’m feeling possessive, like he’s mine and she shouldn’t be able to remove him from whatever room I’m currently in.
Isn’t that nuts?
“I’m…great, actually.” Bastian blushes, ruffling up the back of his hair.
Even on a day like today, he has wrenches hanging out of his pockets.
Oil stains on his Christmas pj pants. I respect the hell out of him, seriously.
“Since the day we first met, Adrian, when Lem brought fucking Aspen to the track, I’ve been a wreck.
” He holds out his arms to either side of him and looks skyward, like he’s pleading with some higher power. “From today onward, I am reborn.”
Nisha elbows him in the side and leans in close, gritting her teeth around her next words.
“Just tell ‘em, jackass.”
Scarlett is immediately on alert, a knife in her hand and an expression on her face that says what she did to Chet is nothing compared with what she wants to do to Jonas.
“Tell me.” Scarlett nearly stabs the blade into the wall in agitation. Only my hand on her wrist stops her, the pair of us exchanging another private look. “What? I know how to patch holes. If I want to make a few…”
“Listen.” Bastian edges away from Emma Jean who’s just standing there jotting notes down on a piece of paper and watching our interactions like she’s trying to write a book about them.
Based on her conversations with Scarlett, I don’t think that’s a far-off thing.
“The Pantera needs more work than I can manage in the time I have left to work on her, especially if you want my merry ass in here to celebrate. Which, you know, I really hope you care more about my presence than the car…”
“You tryin’ to suggest I drive a car other than the Devil at Stars and Stripes tomorrow?” Scarlett says, still looking at me.
Without a word, I reach into my pocket and withdraw the keys to the Stingray, handing them over like it ain’t nothin’.
“First time you drove my car, you stole it. This time, I’m giving it to you.
” I press the keys into my wife’s palm, still studying the dark brown pools of her eyes.
Liquid, those eyes. Melted. The overwhelming affection inside of me is mirrored right back, an endless loop of positive feedback.
Will it always feel like this with her, like I’ve won something I can’t even put words to?