He was gone, gone, gone to a pit of fury that lived within him and his eyes were almost red with it, his monster fully awake. He swung a fist at Niall which forced the breath from his lungs and Niall coughed a laugh, swinging the saucepan again, the dong ringing off of Jack’s head.
“Come on then, big fella. Let’s dance.” Niall ducked another deadly punch from Jack and I ran forward as Niall hit him over the head again. One too many of those head bangs were gonna make Jack’s brain go splat. And I didn’t want that. Not at all.
Niall took another punch that sent him sprawling onto the ground, and he leapt back up with another chuckle, his clown’s makeup giving him the look of a true demon.
Niall swung the saucepan and I leapt forward to grab it, locking my hands around his arm and digging my teeth into his wrist.
“Stay outa this, Spider,” Niall growled, trying to push me aside, but I grabbed onto the saucepan and yanked with all my strength. My hands slipped off of it and I went flying back onto my ass at Jack’s feet. I got back up before the fight could break out again, turning to Jack and leaping onto him, scrambling up his body like a monkey and wrapping myself around him, looking back at Niall and baring my teeth.
“Spider,” Niall warned. “Get down and lemme knock the rage outa this fella.”
Jack’s arm slid around me, locking tight as I clutched his neck for support and shook my head at Niall in refusal.
“He’s mine. I won him fair and square. And you’re not allowed to bash him over the head,” I growled.
Niall spun the saucepan in his hand, considering my words. “But I like bashing fellas over the head.”
“Not this one.” I rubbed the back of Jack’s head where Niall had struck him, finding a bump growing there.
Niall turned to Mateo with a grin, pointing his saucepan at him. “How about that one?”
“No,” I hissed, tugging on Jack’s shirt and he seemed to know what I meant, walking me over to stand beside Mateo, his angries slipping away on the wind somewhere.
“You can bash some potatoes over the head if you have to – but only the ugly ones,” I said firmly and Niall scowled.
“This is my house, woman,” he barked. “What did I just tell ya about tryna bewitch me?”
“Alexa, play C’est La Vie by B*witched,” I called and the song blasted out from the Alexa device in Niall’s torture room.
Niall narrowed his eyes at me as I gave him my middle finger then tugged on Jack’s shirt and prodded Mateo into action. Jack carried me upstairs with Mateo walking with us, glancing back at me in Jack’s arms with a sneer drawing his lips down.
Niall was hot on our heels as we stepped out of the basement and he shoved past Mateo, spitting swear words as he went.
“Fine, you wanna play happy families?” Niall called back to us.
“Yep,” I said keenly.
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do, Spider,” Niall said lightly, striding into the kitchen. “We’ll be the happiest family in the fuckin’ state.”
Oh good, he’s finally coming around to the idea.
Jack carried me through to the lounge, sitting down on the couch and hugging me to his chest. Mateo took up his favourite position in the big grey armchair to the side of the room, watching us closely as I caressed the ouchies on the back of Jack’s head.
“Rook,” Jack growled, that deep voice of his setting off an earthquake in my bones. I smiled at him, booping him on the nose.
“I know why you get the angries,” I said and his muscles bunched. “It’s because something in your past makes you ragey. I get ragey sometimes too.”
He gazed at me, saying nothing and I took that as a confirmation.
“Everyone in this house is full of noxious secrets. Sometimes the poison slips out and makes us go a little cuckoo. But that’s okay, AJ. We’re different. And that’s so much better than being normal.”
He held me tighter and we stayed like that as a clattering sound came from the kitchen, pots banging and curses coming from Niall. Eventually the smell of tomatoes and cheese carried to me and I sniffed the air like a kitten on the scent of catnip as Niall walked into the room, his shirt splashed with red sauce and four bowls of pasta on a tray in his hands.
“Now, here we are. Dinner time for the happy family,” he said and I grinned. “Ain’t that what ya wanted, Spider?”
I nodded keenly, climbing out of Jack’s lap and moving to grab a bowl from the tray. Niall shoved one into my hands before I could grab my own, placing the tray down on the table then claiming his own bowl too.
“Eat if ya wanna eat,” he snarled at the guys and I moved to perch on the arm of the chair Niall was in.
I chomped through my pasta, eating bite after bite after bite. Niall ate just as savagely, consuming it all like we were in a race. And maybe we were. So I ate faster, inhaling every piece of pasta more than chewing it and half choking on a piece before I managed to get it down my throat.
Jack and Mateo grabbed a bowl each for themselves and Jack ate almost as fast as the two of us, making my heart squish with worry. Had he not eaten these whole three days? I’d thought Mateo had been feeding him but the way he was ravenously eating made me fear I’d been wrong about that. Mateo couldn’t go in the kitchen after all, so how had I thought he’d been doing it? Stupid brain. Now look what you’ve done! You almost let Jack’s stomach get so small that it slid right out of his butt. How could you be so careless? It’s like the matchstick man all over again.
I finished the last of my pasta, tossing the bowl down on the table. “I win!” I announced a second before Niall threw his bowl down beside it.
“I had more than you, so I win,” Niall said smugly.
“Na-ar. That’s not how it works,” I insisted.
“Is too.”
“Is not!”
“Is too.”
“Is not,” I snarled and he shrugged like it absolutely was. “Right then.” Niall stood up and walked straight out of the room again into the kitchen, returning a beat later with a gun in his grip and a package in the other hand. He threw the package into Jack’s lap and levelled the gun at his head.
“Niall, that’s no way to treat family,” I hissed, but Niall ignored me, gesturing to the package with the gun.
“Open that up, big fella,” he said, but Jack didn’t move. “Do. You. Comprende?” he asked slowly like Jack was stupid, but Jack was no such thing. He was as sharp as a whistle.
Jack slowly took the package into his grip, tearing into it and revealing a new shock collar in some plastic wrapping.
“Oooh, can I have that one?” I asked keenly, but Niall shook his head.
“That’s for Jack. Put it on now, come on, I don’t have all day,” Niall demanded and I pouted as Jack took it out and slid it around his throat, tightening it in place. Niall walked over to it, taking a padlock from his pocket and fixing it in place with his free hand, locking the collar on as tight as tight could be.
“There now,” Niall said, caressing the sharp line of Jack’s cheek bone with his gun while Jack gazed up at him without a flicker of fear in his stormy eyes. “If we’re gonna play house, then you’ll be needing a bedroom. You can sleep in the room next to Mateo’s down there.” He pointed to the corridor that led to a couple of bedrooms at the back of the house then took his phone from his pocket and started tapping something on it. “Both of your perimeters now allow you in here, to those rooms, the bathroom next to ‘em and for a bit of a gander outside if the notion takes you. If you try to go anywhere else, that collar will fry ya. I’ve set ‘em both to the max, so don’t go testing me, lad, unless you have a death wish, then be my guest and head on into the kitchen.” Niall gestured for Jack to walk that way, but my big man just remained in place, his gaze slipping to me and I swear there was a twinkle in his eyes that said he didn’t mind this situation so much.