“Do you understand, big fella?” Niall knocked the gun against Jack’s temple and I pouted, not liking how close those bullets were to tickling his brain. Bullets didn’t play nice. They’d make a right mess of Jack’s head if they popped out and shouted boo, but I liked his head just how it was.
“Yes,” Jack said, nodding firmly.
“Good. In return for being a good boy, I’ll feed ya on occasion and even let ya stretch those big stallion legs in the garden if I’m feelin’ real generous. But if you piss me off, I’ll drag ya down to my torture chamber, play Operation with ya and see how many organs I can pull outa yer body before you die.”
Shivers took root in me at Hellfire’s dark words, and though I definitely didn’t want Jack to be the victim in that scenario, I wouldn’t have minded him playing that game with one of my enemies.
Jack rose from his seat suddenly, forcing Niall to look up at him despite how big my Hellfire was. He was like Godzilla among skyscrapers, and I was the tiny person on the ground, horny for all of the giants around me.
Jack brushed past Niall, walking straight towards me until I was sitting in his shadow, licking my lips as my new monster reached for me. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me away from Mateo and Niall while they leapt to attention at his back.
“Where the fuck do ya think you’re going?” Niall growled.
“Put her down, gigante,” Mateo hissed.
“Room?” Jack demanded, glancing back at Niall as he reached the end of the corridor.
“That one,” Niall said, pointing. “But ya can’t take Spider in there alone.”
Jack ignored Niall, shoving through the door and leaving it open so Niall and Mateo spilled in behind us, looking frantic.
“Alone,” Jack echoed, but he was looking at me and there was a demand in that word.
I scrambled higher up his body, looking over his shoulder at Niall. “We wanna be alone for a bit, kay?”
“No,” both Niall and Mateo said at once.
I looked between them, rolling my eyes. “We need time to speak in our secret language. You can’t be here, or it’ll spoil the magic.” I waved my hands to usher them away and Niall tightened his grip on the gun in his hand.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” he muttered. “Change of plan. You come out to the woods with me, big fella. You can dig a nice hole, about…hm, six foot eight, I’d say, then we’ll have a merry song and dance together. A real nice time, you and me, how about that?” Niall grinned and though his little fun diggy hole game did sound like a laugh, I really wanted Jack to myself for a bit.
“No, Niall. Go do something with Mateo,” I insisted. “You can have a pillow fight!”
Mateo folded his arms, his jaw grinding. “Mi sol, it is not safe to leave you alone with this strange man.”
“Strange?” I scoffed. “If Jack’s strange, then I must be an oddball riding a cuckoo.” I chuckled, but no one else laughed. Well, Niall did a bit, but he was looking at a bug that had fallen on its back by the window, so I was pretty sure he was enjoying its whirly legs, not my riotous sense of humour.
“Five minutes,” I insisted. “And I’ll crack the door so you know I’m as safe as a spoon who’s best friends with a fork.”
“Fine,” Niall said at last. “But if I give ya five minutes, then you have to spend the rest of the night training with me, while these two losers stay in their rooms.”
“Done!” I cried and Niall turned around, shoving Mateo out of the room and leaving the door ajar.
Jack placed me down on his bed and I scurried up it, whipping the comforter back and gesturing for Jack to get under it with me. He frowned, but did as I asked and I slid it over the two of us, concealing us from the outside world like two crows in a tent plotting a murder.
It was dark in here, but a little light filtered through so I could make out Jack’s huge form. He was so big that I had to keep tugging the comforter down either side of us so no cracks were there to let our secrets out.
“So,” I whispered, my knees butting against his as I shifted closer and my heart pitter-pattered at the proximity of him. “Tell me all the secrets.”
“Rook,” Jack growled, reaching out to cup my jaw, his thumb rolling along it then moving up to the corner of my lips. Tension formed between his eyes, a need there that desperately wanted to come out and say hi. I gave it a little wave to see if it might be lured closer, but the creases on his forehead only deepened.
“Tell me what you want, Jack,” I breathed, a creak beyond the room telling me Niall was earwigging on us. But he couldn’t crack mine and Jack’s secret code, our words were spoken in the silence, our thoughts shared between gazes. We didn’t need to use our tongues…although as my gaze dipped to Jack’s mouth, I didn’t think using our tongues would be the worst idea in the world. But not for words, there were far more tempting things than that which we could use them for. Mateo had taught me that.
“You,” Jack answered easily and my life flashed before my eyes. Okay, not my whole life. But the me and Jack part where we were stuck together in the boring asylum, wearing boring clothes and watching the clock tick, tick, tick us towards madness. It had felt like being slowly, agonisingly lowered into a black abyss, deeper and deeper, knowing nothing awaited us below, and clinging to the view of the sky above. Jack had been a little glimpse of blue between the clouds. He’d always been there, standing at my back while I beat Cannibal Carol at chess by triple vaulting her bishop and round housing her pawn in the ass, or sitting at my side while I flicked a checker into Small Willy Norman’s eye.
Now he was back, I realised how much I’d missed the constant presence of him. Missed our looks that held a million words, missed watching him workout until the nurses came and injected him with a sedative. They didn’t like when we tried to be strong, they wanted us weak, unable to fight back. But Jack had never surrendered to that in the way I had never surrendered. Our souls were built from diamonds, and everyone knew you couldn’t break those.
“Did you miss me, Angry?” I whispered, a fuzzy little creature rolling through my stomach at the thought.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“I missed you too,” I said. “We always said we’d be free one day, didn’t we? Do you like it here? Niall’s fun, isn’t he? He plays the kind of violent games people like us crave. He can be cruel too, but I think I like that about him. How he doesn’t ever wear masks. He lives his emotions, pretty or ugly, he embraces what he is, and that’s something I’ve always struggled with. I’ve worn all the masks, AJ. I tried to fit in once upon a time, I tried to make my crazies go away, but the longer you ignore them, the more they build and build and make new friends. They started building villages then towns, then one day, bam, there’s a whole city of crazy in your head and it doesn’t matter how high you built the wall to ignore it, that city needs food and water and eventually you have to give it everything it needs to survive or else, poof, the city falls and you fall with it. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yes,” he sighed, taking my hand in his and it was so big that mine was lost within it, never to be found.