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Five.

Tucking her hair behind her ears, I cup her face. “Cinnamon, why are you here?”

“I—I just wanted to start a new business.” She stutters out, her eyes flashing to Reuben behind me. “I hired a web designer to set up my website as a knife for hire.”

“To work in a kitchen?” I cock my head.

“Yes. But…”

“But your website ended up on .carrot.” Reuben mutters in absolute shock from behind me.

“I thought—I thought it was cool, like something that would make it clear I worked in a kitchen,” Cinnamon explains meekly. “I didn’t…I didn’t know…”

“That it’s the dark web.” Kale finishes for her. “And I was the detective assigned to the digital threats unit. Who made her website.”

There is a cup inside my body. It is where I put all my negative emotions.

To empty it I would go out and let loose on anyone who deserved it.

I never allowed it to fill.

But right now?

In this instance?

It overflows.

“And I hired you.” Reuben confirms what I suspected.

I should have just handled this all myself. He’s a fucking idiot.

“And their deaths?” I clip through my teeth.

“Accidents,” Cinnamon whispers looking up at me with glassy eyes. “Just as my boyfriend’s was and everyone who came before him that wasn’t supposed to be in my life…I come with a trail of bodies…I should leave…turn myself in…be done with this once and for all.”

Kale tightens his grip on her. “No. We all come with bodies in one way or another.”

“I’m so sorry.” Reuben moves at my back, stepping up beside me and staring down at Cinnamon. “I—I—this is my fault.”

“No.” Cinnamon shakes her head. “I should have known the jobs were weird, the flags were red. But I had bills to pay and I long since have decided to just accept my life is chaos. It’s why I was fired from the Marble Bison.”

“You’re the one who dropped the knife in the toaster?” Reuben shifts beside me.

“Yes.” Cinnamon tucks her chin to her chest.

“Stop,” I bark, cupping her face with my hands and appraising her. “I have killed countless. And that was by choice.” I clench my jaw, my teeth grinding. “I don’t regret it. Each of those deaths made this world a safer place. And I imagine all of the ones you are tied to did the same.”

“But it’s not my job to decide that.” She quips back.

“You didn’t. The universe decided for you. A heavy dose of karma.” I tell her, stroking the tears away that fall. “It wasn’t your bad luck. It was theirs.”

She isn’t crying, exactly, but it’s clear the emotions needed somewhere where to go. And so they roll down her cheeks, but I capture them with my thumbs. Bring them to my mouth. Consume her pain.

It’s mine.

“And so in my chaos I stumbled on each of you.” She shifts her attention from me, to Reuben, to Kale. “I understand if this is too much. I can just leave.”

“No,” I tell her. “You will not be leaving or going anywhere.”