40. Blade
BLADE
My hands were on Cyrus’s tshirt before I could think about it. The lights flashed. Fright Night was over.
She won. My Trinket won.
Nash clearly had the same thought as me, grabbing Cyrus’s muscular arms and pulling her off of Tess.
Cyrus kept her grip on Tess’s shoulders, pressing her into the wrought iron fence of the front gate. Her jaw was tense as Nash and I used whatever leverage we could to rip her off our toy.
Nash was fuming, her face flushed and her nose lifted in a snarl. With one heavy twist, Nash and I freed Tess from Cyrus’s sharp talons.
“Enough! She’s free. Stop.” Nash slammed her hand into Cyrus’s chest, the inked-out fingertip resting right above Cyrus’s heart.
Cyrus met Nash’s gray eyes, anger swelling. She tossed us off with one easy shift of her shoulders. Shaking her head, her chest heaved.
Checking in on Tess, I met her blue eyes. A twinge of sadness passed over my toy’s face.
“Nice work, Trinket.” I was still catching my breath, trying to be happy for her.
She would leave us now, take her money and run. Maybe we’d been kind enough to her to get visitation sometimes.
Cyrus growled. “Stay.”
“What?” Nash and I whipped our heads around as the words left Cyrus’ lips.
Without bothering to look at us, Cyrus kept her near-black eyes on Tess. “We’ll hunt again. Every hunt you stay, we’ll double the prize. Win or lose.”
“We will?” My brows were scrunched together like a wrung-out fucking washcloth.
Tess’s mouth fell open, shock washing over her too as she tried to figure out why this mean bastard wanted to keep her around.
But Nash and I knew why. Meeting each other’s gaze, we knew that Cyrus wouldn’t let Tess walk away without doling out her punishment. And she was willing to pay for more chances to win.
Nodding, Cyrus gritted her teeth. “I’ll double it, up to $600,000. You win every hunt and you walk away with $1.2 million.”
Holy fuck.
Sure, Cyrus had money. Crazy money. She’d been smart about our drug trade earnings, setting herself up for an early retirement. But $1.2 million. It was a lot for any normal person.
A deal that Tess couldn’t refuse.
Not in her circumstances, which Cyrus knew.
Nash and I kept our eyes flicking between each other, Cyrus, and Tess — unsure where the fuck to look.
Having mostly caught her breath, Tess bit the inside of her cheek. “You’ll pay me for every win when I win. No holding my money.”
“Fine.” Cyrus nodded.
She’s not even negotiating.
My heart raced in my chest as I met Nash’s face. All she could manage was to shake her head.
Licking her lips, Tess kept on. “And we hunt once a month. Not every week.”
That point made my head tilt in confusion.
Why would she want to stay longer?
But the answer came just as quickly as the question. She was negotiating a month-to-month lease in our fucked-up amusement park hellscape. My Trinket had nowhere else to go, and $20k would go fast in the real world.
At least here she could start to pay down her debt, to make a little nest egg with her earnings.
Besides, it was a punishment for us too. She’d be stuck living with three Freaks who’d raised themselves in the wild. And we’d have to try to keep our hands to ourselves. One month was a long time to wait for another chance with my little plaything.
My body ached for her already. We’d be desperate, eager. Between my legs, my clit throbbed at the thought of her denying me for another month.
Cyrus nodded. “Done. Deal?”
We all waited for her answer, each of us needing to know what came next.
Tess met my eyes first, through my mask. And I nodded. I would protect her. Nash and I would. If we could help it, we would keep Cyrus away from her.
And we’d get more time with my favorite Trinket.
Her blue eyes moved to Nash, who also nodded.
Looking into Cyrus’s stitched up mask, Tess lifted her chin and nodded. “Deal.”