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2
Pen
Isnap my head around to find a man I don’t recognise walking into the room. He’s older than us both by at least ten years, maybe more. He’s good looking in a clean-cut way and is wearing a grey suit as though he’s just come home from the office. I watch as he runs his hand through his dark hair as his serious, penetrating, green eyes stare back at me.
“My name isPen.”
“Apologies, Pen,” Mr.Suited-and-bootedreplies with a tight smile.
“Who the fuck are you anyway?” I snap, backing away. My arse hits the back of the sofa once again, but that’s not what makes my knees give way, it’s the fact that Grim has just climbed up the stairs and stepped onto the floor behind him. “You!” I accuse, jabbing my finger at her.
She heaves out a sigh, lights up a cigarette and blows out a steady stream of smoke before strolling over to the table and taking a seat. “Sit down, Pen, before you fall the fuck down. This isn’t what you think.”
“Isn’t what I think?” I shout, vibrating with betrayal. “You’re in on this! It wasn’t Jeb and David, or even Malik-fucking-Brov that I should’ve been afraid of all this time. It was you. Him,” I rage pointing at Xeno who is glaring at Grim.
“What the fuck are you doing here? I asked for time to explain,” Xeno exclaims, his jaw gritting in anger.
“Looks like you’re doing a shit job at it,” she replies, with a shrug.
“What did you need time to explain? Because it seems pretty fucking clear to me. You both betrayed me, and now I’m being sold off to this motherfucker?” I shout, jabbing my finger at the stranger whilst glaring at Xeno.
Said motherfucker, Mr. Suited-and-booted, raises his eyebrows and glances at Grim who shakes her head. “That is not what’s going on. Despite his royal fuck-up, Xeno saved your arse tonight. If it wasn’t for him andthis motherfuckeryou’d be waking up in The Collector’s castle as his new possession, with no fucking hope of ever escaping that place. Fortunately for you, Beast shot the bastard.”
My mouth drops open as I stare at Grim. “What? He saved my arse...” All the blood drains from my face as another kind of panic slides like poison into my veins, taking over that thought and blurring it with another. “Beast shot The Collector?”
“Yep. Bullet between the motherfucking eyes. Jeb’s face was a fucking picture, given most of Brov’s brains were splattered across him.” Grim chuckles darkly.
“Wait—” I sway on my feet, my fingers curling into the back of the sofa to keep me steady. “Malik Brov isdead?”
“That’s right. Dead as a fucking doornail. The cunt should never have tried to fuck with me,” Grim says.
“Oh, God....”
Grim pulls on her cigarette, and for a second I’m mesmerised by the glowing red tip. “What, Pen?”
“What do you mean,what?” I blurt out. “A man’s dead. A dangerous man. Before, when Dax jumped to my defense in the cage you said that Malik was the leader of a Polish crime family. You said there would be repercussions after Daxthreatenedhis life that night… What’s going to happen now that Beast has fuckingkilledhim?”
Grim shrugs, like it’s no big deal. “Malik started this war by trying to take you when you weren’t for fucking sale. He’s lucky Beast took him out quickly. Usually he isn’t so kind.”
“Damn right she’s not for fucking sale. Just because you gave Jeb information in exchange for Pen working at Tales it doesn’t mean to say that she’s your fucking property either. She’s ours. She belongs with the Breakers,” Xeno warns possessively.
He steps towards me, but I hold my hands out, shaking my head as I try to get my head around everything I’ve been told. Grim said Xeno saved my arse. So he wasn’t lying when he said he was protecting me? “Don’t. I need to think.”
“Pen’s myemployee, arsehole, and as far as I’m concerned, the only person she belongs to is herself. Correct me if I’m wrong, but until very recently you didn’t even want her, right?” Grim takes a deep draw on her cigarette, challenging Xeno with her stare. I watch as her chest expands, drawing the cancerous smoke into her lungs before she blows it out again in his direction.
Xeno grits his teeth, a muscle ticking beneath the stubble that shadows his jaw. “You don’t know a fucking thing about our relationship, so stay the fuck out of it.”
“Or what?” she taunts.
Mr. Suited-and-booted places a hand on Grim’s shoulder and squeezes. “Enough, Grim—”
“No,” she shakes him off. “I’m not done,” Grim retorts, and whilst I appreciate her sticking up for me. I don’t need her too. It’s not her place.
“Yeah, you are,” Xeno says before I’m able to. “Your relationship with Beast is private. It has fuck all to do with anyone else, so unless Pen wants your advice or your opinion, I’drespectfullyask that you keep it to your goddamn self!”
Grim holds Xeno’s stare for a moment before leaning back in her chair and smiling slowly in that assessing way of hers. “Fine,” she concedes, and the tension in the room dials down a notch. At that moment I wonder whether her provoking Xeno was to get him to open up rather than piss him off. Either way, I’m not sure it matters, because he’s both pissed off and saying things that surprise me.
“So what happens now?” I ask, rubbing at my temple as a headache forms.
