“I’m going to rip your cock from your body and feed it to that fucking dog,” Mateo snarled as he started dragging himself towards Niall, but he was stopped by a jolt of electricity as Niall hit the button for his collar once again.
“We’ll leave you two to get over the shock,” Niall announced loudly, laughing at his own shit joke and scooping Brooklyn into his arms, carrying her towards the stairs while she giggled girlishly. “But I’m impressed by your rage, fellas. Keep up the good work.”
By the time I managed to regain the use of my limbs again, the sound of his bedroom door banging shut reached me and I cursed beneath my breath as I lay panting on the floor.
“Do you need any further motivation to want him dead now, gigante?” Mateo hissed beside me and I shook my head, imaging all the ways I’d like to make that man suffer more than any man should rightly be able to survive.
“Dead,” I grunted in confirmation and Mateo met my eye as I rolled my head to the side to look at him.
“Dead,” he agreed darkly.
***
By the time Niall emerged from his room, I’d successfully destroyed the coffee table and shattered all of the plates which had been displayed on the dresser at the far end of the front room. If I had thought that losing my mind over the idea of Brooklyn marrying him had been intense, then it was nothing on the blind rage that had possessed me when she began moaning his name like he was a God-given flesh intended solely for delivering her pleasure.
My chest heaved and fell rapidly while I stood in the splintered remains of the destruction I’d caused and sweat slicked my skin beneath my shirt, but Mateo hadn’t said a single word.
He sat in the corner of the room beside the chessboard once more, his eyes fixed on the walkway above the fireplace which Brooklyn and Niall would have to cross before returning downstairs to us.
The sound of a door opening and closing made me whip around as Brooklyn stepped onto the walkway at last. She was wearing a white dress kind of like the one Marilyn Monroe wore way back before the world got too much for her and she escaped it into the wings of death.
“Hey AJ,” she called as she moved to stand by the railings, gripping the banister tightly and leaning over it so that her tiptoes barely stayed on the carpet.
I moved to stand beneath her, tipping my head back to watch her as she continued to toy with the idea of falling from the walkway above me and finding the anger in me calming.
It had always been like that in Eden Heights too. My obsession with her was enough to drive the madness from my blood. At least for a little while.
Niall exited the room behind her, strolling down the stairs and making a show of leaping the final five, landing before me and grinning widely. He was only wearing a pair of black jeans which hung low on his waist and allowed me to see the scratches Brooklyn had left all over his body during the time they’d spent upstairs.
But as I looked into his green eyes, I found myself unmoved by his show of possessiveness, turning my eyes back up to look at Brooklyn who still had her attention fixed on me. I didn’t care about some showboating Irishman while I had her to focus on instead.
Niall sighed, giving up on me and heading across the room at my back, kicking some broken pieces of the coffee table aside and making them rattle across the floor as he headed towards Mateo.
“You got something to say to me, el burro?” Niall taunted and I swear I could feel Mateo’s hatred colouring the air.
“I have nothing at all to say you, hijo de puta,” Mateo hissed in a low voice. “You are beneath my attention and not worth the breath I would waste on making conversation with you.”
“He says while making conversation with me,” Niall replied, barking a laugh.
They started to bicker, but I ignored whatever it was that they were so intent on saying, my eyes on Brooklyn as she pushed her tiptoes off of the carpet and swung forward over the banister above me.
She whooped as she almost fell, managing to swing herself back and place her feet on the ground once more before pushing forward again.
“It’s not my fault that she chose me, arsehole,” Niall snapped loudly. “You’re the one who couldn’t do enough to convince her to place her bets on you. I can’t help being her favourite.”
“Who said you’re my favourite?” Brooklyn called, causing a beat of silence to pass before Mateo and Niall started arguing between themselves again, the sound of Mateo shoving his chair back and rising to his feet reaching me.
But I didn’t look around at them. My gaze was fixed on Rook.
Brooklyn gave me a wide smile, spreading her arms out either side of her like a pair of wings before kicking off of the carpet once more and flipping herself straight over the banister.
Her white dress billowed up around her and she laughed as she fell, not doubting for a single second that I would catch her.
She landed heavily in my arms, but I was never at any risk of dropping her, my hands banding beneath her legs and around her back as I drew her in close to my chest.
She laughed excitedly as she wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned up to place a kiss on my cheek.
“You’re my favourite, AJ,” she whispered conspiratorially. “You and me have all kinds of special connections that they just don’t understand.”
I nodded, drawing her closer to me and leaning down to brush my lips over her temple, breathing her in as she leaned into my embrace. She smelled of honey, papaya and sex and I inhaled all of it, wanting more than I was taking and enjoying the attention she was giving me.
“You wouldn’t be so fucking cocky if you didn’t have the remote to this collar in your pocket, bastardo,” Mateo barked behind us, and Niall laughed loudly.
“Are you looking to get your arse kicked as well as your heart broken today?” he challenged. “Because I don’t need no fancy collar to grind you into the dirt, my little donkey.”
“Prove it then,” Mateo challenged.
“Maybe I will,” Niall replied.
Brooklyn tightened her grip on my neck and drew herself up to speak in my ear, her lips brushing against my skin and making it tingle from the contact.
“We should go while they’re busy,” she whispered. “I want to do a Pop hunt while Hellfire is distracted.”
I nodded in agreement, turning towards the door and carrying her out towards the kitchen. I was forced to stop before stepping through onto the tiles, reluctantly releasing her and watching as she began hunting through all of the cupboards one by one, cursing every time she failed to find what she was looking for.
“Damn,” she muttered as she made it to the fridge. “I keep expecting him to try and hide them in the kitchen where they belong, because that’s so clever. It’s like hiding something exactly where you’d expect it to be because no one would ever expect you to do the expected, you see?”
“Yes,” I agreed though it seemed unlikely to me that Niall would do anything that simple. His mind was a twisted knot of convoluted thoughts and half formed intentions, with a whole heap of violence thrown into the mix ready to come out and play at the slightest provocation. He wasn’t the type to do things in an expected way.
Brooklyn sighed forlornly as she stared into the depths of the fridge and started running her hand down her chest, her fingers massaging her breast while she bit her lip thoughtfully.