Tongue (Ruthless Kings MC #8) - K.L. Savage Page 0,86
for Daphne. I’m starving for her.
I miss her.
“It’s her hair,” I whisper, feeling smaller. I am not a small man. My size is the one thing I use to intimidate people, but now I’m worthless. I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t know how to handle it. What do people do in these situations? I’ve never loved before. I’ve never felt so lost and weak.
“Tongue,” Sarah turns over and reaches out for me, pushing away her anger for me.
I don’t hesitate. I grab my best friend’s hand and try not to lose it. My chest rises and falls quickly, and pressure builds inside me. I can’t breathe. This is why I’ve stayed in the shadows. This is why. I don’t know how to deal with situations like this. I want to kill this Groundskeeper guy, once and for all.
He took what is mine.
I’m going to get her back, and I don’t care if the attempt kills me.
“Tongue open the box,” Reaper orders, reaching slowly for the strands of hair hanging from my fingers.
I rear back, holding them to my chest. “No. Don’t take them from me,” I say, not wanting to part with the only thing I have left of her.
“We can find her if we know what is in the box.”
What if I open the box and it’s a body part? Or worse, her heart?
I reach down, somewhere inside my barren fucking soul and find the last bit of strength I have, tear the paper off the box and peel the lids apart.
A fucking piece of goddamn paper.
In a box.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I reach inside and throw the box off my lap. I stare at the words and grind my teeth together because it’s a note for me, and I can’t fucking read it. I know my name when I see it, but that’s it.
I want to read it. I can’t be less than anymore. I want to be the man Daphne deserves.
“Let me see it, Tongue. I’ll read it,” Sarah offers, and Reaper peels my fingers off the page, one by one.
“It’s okay,” he reassures, but he’s just saying that. It isn’t okay.
Nothing about this is okay.
It’s not even embarrassing anymore, it’s shameful.
Reaper hands the letter to Sarah and everyone sits back, waiting to see what it says.
“Tongue,
I couldn’t bury you alive, but I can still bury you.
Ring around the rosy. Daphne’s hair is cozy.
Ashes.
Ashes.
You will. Fall. Down.
-Groundskeeper”
Sarah stops reading and lays the letter on her lap and the silence is a high-pitched ring as the dizziness takes over.
The anger. The rage.
“Tongue. I need you to calm down. Your heart rate—”
I grab Reaper by the throat to shut him up. Like I give a fuck about my heart rate. I sling my legs out of bed and my fingers itch to crush his windpipe. The man that had no idea what to do a second ago is gone, I know what to do.
This is the man I’ve always been.
I’m the horrors people check their house for, I’m the reason people are afraid of the dark.
As they should be.
Because I’m the worst fucking thing this world could have ever created.
“Sorry, bud,” Doc pierces my neck with a needle, and I growl when my hand falls from Reaper’s throat.
“Daphne,” her face flashes in front of me and the floor falls out from under me.
All I can think about is how the Groundskeeper was right.
I will. Fall. Down.
Holy Moly.
This place is going to crumble and fall on top of me. That’s how I’m going to die.
“Aren’t you going to eat? You have to eat. You have to keep your strength up. We have a lot to do. Lots. Lots. Lots. We will be here for along time. I have friends you know. Here. Coming. Here. This place is big enough for everyone. You know, it used to be an old insane asylum.”
I push the canned green beans around on my plate. The metal fork squeaks against the plate, and I stab a string bean. The effort it takes for me to bring it to my lips is exhausting. My entire body is shaking. It’s freezing in here. I can’t wait for the sun to come up and for it to get warm. The desert nights are so cold and there isn’t heat here. If this building doesn’t crush me, I’ll freeze to death.
I’ll never see Tongue again, but maybe I’ll see him in the shadows if I’m lucky.