Chapter 8
EIGHT
THISTLE
I turned the silver Monopoly hat in my hand before peering back up at Bunny, taking in his perfect glacial blue eyes and messy raven hair.
We were both seated on the floor beside the basement cage, and he was leaning against the bars beside the open door.
This was where I’d left the board last time.
I pushed the rest of the silver playing pieces toward him.
His gaze, which was fixed on me, drifted down to the silver objects glinting in the low light. The boat, the cat, the thimble, and all the other Monopoly pieces.
He’d play with me, right?
I could help him out.
I was a bit disappointed. He still seemed… distant. Ace wasn’t supposed to be distant. He was supposed to be a god Alpha.
A king.
Quiet. Vicious. Enough to leave the world afraid—if he could just… you know, leave me out of the wrath part.
But more than anything, there wasn’t no Alpha in the world better at dealing with danger than my god Alpha.
He reached out, slowly picking up the pieces and turning them in his hand. He ended up on the cat, but then tossed them all back to me.
I frowned, picking the cat up and placing it back in front of him. To my annoyance, he flicked it away, gaze darting back up.
None of the pieces were good enough?
I examined them, trying to figure out his issue.
Oh.
“You want the dog?” I asked.
The Monopoly board I’d grown up with had always had a dog. A little thing with a strange haircut.
I pouted as Ace cocked his head.
That was definitely a yes.
“Rogue went and lost it,” I whined.
In response, he leaned back against the cage bars and averted his eyes.
Seriously?
He wouldn’t play with me unless he was the dog?
What a rubbish Bunny substitute.
I sighed. “Fine.”
Picking myself up, I looked around. Rogue was rummaging through his fridge, and Knox was sprawled out on the couch, resting with a bag of ice on his cheek.
Only about a week or so ago I’d pulled the Monopoly board off the wall where it was displayed in a box.
The dog was probably around somewhere.
“What are you looking for?” Rogue asked as I dropped down to my knees by the cabinet beside where the board had been hanging.
“The dog,” I said, reaching under but finding nothing but dust.
Dang.
“The dog?” Rogue asked, walking over.
I sat back on my heels. “Uh huh. The Monopoly dog. I need it.”
“Do you?” Knox sat up straight on the couch, eyes darting between the two of us.
“Yup.”
“Uh…” Rogue palmed the back of his neck. “Don’t know what happened to it. Knox’s idea to put the board on the wall down here.”
I looked over at Knox. He’d got to his feet and tossed the bag of ice onto the counter. “The game?” he asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
I looked back at Ace. “I wanna play with Ace, but he’s being dumb.”
“I’ll play with you, Kitten,” Rogue said.
I couldn’t help smiling at his offer. “Well, you can join, but I really did wanna play with him, too.” We had to patch things up after the whole drugging and heat bonding thing.
“Why do you need the dog to play with Ace?” Knox asked.
He was strangely still, glancing between me and Ace, who was still leaning back against the cage bars.
His eyes were almost entirely obscured by the black waves of hair that tumbled haphazardly into his face.
Through it, I could see only the faintest glint of icy blue.
His expression was neutral, lips drawn in that perfect line that gave nothing away, but that wasn’t unusual for him.
I shrugged, trying to decipher Knox’s reaction. “He, uh… he won’t play with me unless he can be the dog.”
There was a long silence.
“Did he say that?” Rogue asked.
“No…” I trailed off. “I can just tell.” I frowned, distracted by how ashen Knox had gone. “What?”
Knox turned and was staring back at Ace.
I looked back at him again but didn’t know what he was searching for.
There was a long silence in the room, and I was glad that Rogue looked as confused as me.
In the next moment, though, Knox leapt into action. The gun on the kitchen counter was in his hand, and he was striding toward Ace.
“Uh. Wait—! ” I rushed after him, confused, reaching out to grab his arm only to be stopped in my tracks. Rogue had followed and grabbed me, on high alert in the bond. “What are you ? —?”
I cut off as Knox reached Ace. He pulled him up by the arm and slammed him against the bars before jamming the gun beneath his chin.
“He’s awake.”
“What?” Rogue asked from beside me, clearly as confused as I was. But then I saw it. His hair might still be obscuring his eyes, but a grin began to curve Ace’s lips.
Oh, I’d forgotten how pretty that was.
I perked up.
Bunny’s back… Bunny…?
Uh… I blinked. My brain friends had got all tangled up.
I should fix that.
But it had worked! We’d brought him back.
Now he could help fix this stupid Bella mess.
“Shit,” Rogue muttered as Knox, with very little fight from Ace, shoved him through the door to the cage and slammed it shut.
I lifted my hand in protest, then dropped it. Guess that was fine—we could still play through the bars. That’s what I’d done with Rogue.
“Did you bring him back?” Rogue glanced back at me.
“No…” I lied.
Would they be pissed? I mean, he was mine, right? So what if I wanted him not to be beast-mode anymore? That was none of their business.
Kinda.
“So he’s not heat bonded?” Knox asked, turning back to us.
Excuse me?
“He certainly is,” I snapped. How fucking rude—he was totally mine. Knox raised his eyebrows as I winced, realising I’d been had. “Okay. I uh…” I nodded my head in a so-so motion. “I thought he might be able to help.”
“Help?” Knox hissed.
What?
He was the one who’d got us all into trouble with a whole-ass trafficking ring thing. He couldn’t judge me .
“Okay, but how did you know he was back?” Rogue asked, jabbing a finger at Knox.
Knox stared between us for a long moment, and his expression was entirely unreadable. The silence was broken by the faint, cracked laugh behind him.
Ace had closed his fingers around the bars, and his forehead was resting against them as he watched. The bond flickered, and I felt him for a second.
Oh boy!
He was back—in a manner of speaking. He was in as many fragments as I was in the bond, like a storm was dusting off pieces a bit at a time.
Not fully present, but he was flickering in and out.
Right now, though, he seemed to think something was very funny.
I frowned.
In my experience, anything Ace found funny spelled bad things for whoever the humour was directed at. Not that I usually cared, but right now his eyes were fixed solidly on Rogue.
I wrinkled my nose.
I was sick of these vendettas. Why did he care more about the Alphas in the room than me?
I’d been nice enough to bring him back. Plus, if he was back, he might actually be able to play Monopoly—like properly play.
I had to find the damned dog.
“What?” Rogue demanded.
Knox cleared his throat, and I could swear there was a hint of a smile warring across his expression.
“ Is this about the dog?” I asked hopefully. There was a serious lack of Alphas in this room focusing on the important things. I tugged at Rogue’s shirt expectantly.
“Huh?” He glanced down at me. “Uh, no.”
Oh.
Ace laughed again, and the first words I’d heard from him in forever finally came ragged from his throat. “Where is it, Knox?” His voice, though broken and unused, was sing-song, and a chill ran up my spine hearing it again.
“What?” I asked.
Rogue’s grip on me had loosened, and I broke from it, hurrying over to Knox. “Daddy?” I whispered. “You know ?”
Come on .
Someone had to know where the fucking dog was.
I saw another guilty smile waver on Knox’s lips as he flicked the gun’s safety and stepped toward the couch, tossing it onto the cushions.
Rogue’s voice was low. “What the fuck is going on?”
“ Someone knows where the dog is,” I muttered.
“Well I don’t,” Rogue said. “All the pieces were there last time it belonged to me—” He cut off. “Last time…” I watched as all the blood drained from his face.
He was absolutely frozen.
“A well-kept set,” Ace said quietly. “Was on the table upstairs that one time I visited. What could have possibly happened?”
Knox failed to contain his snort.
They were both still fixated on Rogue.
I, however, honed in on that.
Are they gonna be friends , Bunny?
Never knew Ace to get on with anyone, so that would be great. I narrowed my eyes at Knox, who was still trying really hard not to laugh. The smallest trace of worry reverberated in my soul.
What if they became the thickest thieves?
They wouldn’t forget about us, right?
For a moment, I imagined them both riding off into the sunset together.
My stomach clenched.
No, no. Wouldn’t happen. And anyway, we’d always have Rogue.
I edged back to him. Rogue was frozen, but I noticed his hand drifted slowly up to his neck toward where that little device was—the one that might blow any moment. There was a look of utter horror on his face.
“You believed—for all this time ,” Ace snorted, “that I had access to some bite-sized explosive that I could jam into your neck that might blow up at the push of a button?”
Knox lost it, sinking onto the arm of the couch, wheezing with silent laughter.
“No!” Rogue’s voice was rough as he glared between them. “But it wasn’t something I’d bet my fucking life on.”
Uh… I was lost.
What the hell were they talking about?
“You…” Rogue looked like he was gathering courage to put his thoughts into words. “You put a Monopoly piece in my neck?” Rogue asked. “ In my fucking neck?”
Oh… I… oh!
My mouth popped open.
Shit.
The dog ?
Ace was grinning, but Knox couldn’t contain himself he was shaking so hard. “No… because…” He could barely breathe. “I got him this collar so he could… so he could…” Knox cracked, tears streaking his face. “S-so he could charge it at night.”
Ace let out another cackle.
You know, it was nice to see him happy about something. Wasn’t very common.
“This is good, right?” I asked, eyes wide. “No way you’re gonna die, now.”
Rogue seemed utterly lost for words, his frame as still as a statue.
He was gone in the bond, too.
“I’d like to know how Knox knows,” Ace mused. “I never told a soul.”
“What?” Rogue demanded.
“Uh. I figured out after… Well.” Knox caught Rogue’s expression, laughter fading for a second. “About that…”
“About what ?”
Ace’s gaze flickered between them, fully engaged.
“You know right at the start where you almost burned down my art room?”
“You let it blow up ?” Rogue demanded.
Knox shrugged. “ Tried to. Nothing happened. That’s when I noticed the Monopoly board was missing a piece.”
Huh.
That’s probably when he’d mounted it down here on the wall like a decoration.
Cheeky cunt.
Rogue, however, didn’t seem to agree.
In fact, he had hit his max.
“You let it blow up ?”
I felt him blow up in the bond. He made for Knox, all sanity gone from his eyes.
Oh.
There they went again.
I folded my arms, watching as Rogue bowled Knox right over the couch arm.
Still hot.
I admired the fight for a minute then crossed back to the cage, nudging the Monopoly board over to the bars with my foot.
I sat down, picking through the pieces. “Could we pretend the hat is a dog?” I asked, hopefully. Wasn’t likely we were gonna get that piece from Rogue’s neck anytime soon.
Ace, who was now lazily leaning against the bars, tilted his head just slightly, and I caught a glimpse of his piercing gaze as he looked down at me with frigid eyes. He didn’t speak.
He wasn’t laughing anymore either. That cold, impassive look sent a shiver down my spine. He’d always been impossible to read, which was what made him so very unnerving to be around—for most people.
He was definitely back.
And probably still a teenie bit pissed off…
I mean, I could threaten to send him back into madness if he refused to play, but that might be a bit soon. He’d know I was bluffing.
I could play with… I looked around.
Rogue and Knox were still kicking the stuffing out of each other, and the other Bunny was… I swallowed. Real Bunny was gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, shoving away the memory that had replayed a thousand times. The moment Bella had ripped him into pieces and dropped him on the floor beside me.
What- ever .
I didn’t need to play.
Still, I tugged out a few bank notes while no one was looking and tucked them into my bra. Just in case someone agreed later, I deserved a head start for being the most eager.
The world didn’t actually work like that, but it certainly should.
It took Rogue and Knox a while to get it out of their system (again). Finally, though, Rogue staggered to his feet.
I think he’d won?
Knox looked in much worse shape than last time, barely holding himself up on the kitchen counter as he spat blood into the sink.
Rogue, with a bruise blossoming on his cheek, almost fell as he staggered into the couch, then made for me.
He was all hormones right now, and next thing I knew, he’d lifted me up and tossed me over his shoulder (I had to check to make sure the Monopoly money stayed in place).
“What are you doing?” Knox asked, wincing as he adjusted his jaw, turning back to us.
“Callum got into the security system and reset it,” Rogue grunted. “We’re all clear.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m taking my Omega on a fucking date.”
“What?” Knox demanded.
“YES!” I punched the air in delight as Rogue strode toward his bedroom door.
A date ?
That was a gazillion times better than mouldy old Monopoly.
“Put her down,” Knox snarled. “We have shit to figure out.”
“No!” I clung to Rogue’s back in upside-down horror. How dare he! “None of youse ever took me on a date!” I glared at them both.
Knox folded his arms, a bitter expression on his face. “I paid five million fucking dollars for you—does that count for nothing ?”
“With my money!” Rogue growled, ducking through the doorway to his room. I giggled, thumbing back at Rogue in agreement. “With my fucking money!” He spun back to them so I was swiftly shown the inside of his bedroom.
“Your money?” Knox snorted. “You’re a spoiled nepo baby, you Manzo piece of?—”
SLAM!
Oh my god!
I squealed, kicking my legs as the door shut right in Knox’s face.
It was happening .
We’re getting a date, Bunny!