Page 138 of Rattle the Cage

Satisfied that she’d gotten the last word, Cyrus changed the topic. “Getting into the compound won’t happen overnight. We have time to figure out a solution. But you have bigger things to worry about, Ragdoll. Fright Night is coming early.”

“What?” I perked up, unable to ignore the bait.

“This Friday. Halloween.” Blade sat up straighter, excited by the reminder.

Cyrus nodded. “$160k is on the table this time. And your costume is required.”

I scoffed at the stipulation. Surely she was joking. Surely, with everything else going on, the Freaks didn’t intend to hunt me this Friday night — and in costume no less.

But the hungry looks on all of their faces told me that this was no joke. With the recent developments, everyone was in need of some stress relief. And apparently, I was going to be theirs.

67

TESS

I can’t believe she was being serious.

With everything else that was going on, all of the problems we still needed to solve, Cyrus had made a Halloween hunt a top priority. And now, she was carting me off to get the requisite costume.

This is such bullshit.

As much as I wanted to put up a stink about it, though, there wasn’t much to be done. The compound search was still an active priority — I had glimpsed the open tabs on Cyrus’ computer.

I knew she was still plotting, scraping the barrel for any way to peek past those pearly gates. But answers were slow-coming. And in the meantime, we couldn’t all stop living.

The Freaks worked their best when they could balance out their work with their play.

Cue me.

I frowned as the Aston Martin approached a Halloween shop with a big, goofy grim reaper on the sign. Despite my sour mood, though, the Freaks were doing their darnedest to make me crack a smile.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Blade hopped out, slamming her door and she sprinted around the car to open mine. Before I even had a foot on the ground, Nash stepped past Blade to offer me a hand.

With a wink at Blade, Nash looped my arm in hers before leading me off to the store’s main entrance. “We’ve made it: the premiere destination for all things Halloween, open for a limited time only. Any idea what you want to be, Sweet Lamb?”

I shook my head as Blade ran ahead of us, triggering the automatic door with a flourish. “Not a clue.”

“Well don’t you worry, Trinket.” Blade smiled, sweeping her arm wildly to the rows and rows of floor to ceiling pegboard. “Here, the whole world is yours.”

Peering past her waving arms, I was a bit surprised by how much of a selection there was, especially this close to Halloween. Across all of the display boards, not a single peg looked completely emptied.

The end caps were mostly dedicated to licensed franchises: huge animatronics and cardboard displays for the year’s hottest TV shows. But tucked between them were tons of generic costumes that looked suspiciously familiar. Then, of course, there were the classics: witches’ hats, cat ears, clown masks.

As Cyrus went for a shopping cart, I couldn’t help but smile. It was weird seeing the Freaks in here with all the cheap costumes in their prepackaged plastic bags. I could picture a Halloween store much nicer than this, but this stuff was so cheap compared to what I was used to seeing them in.

They were grungy, but at a certain income bracket, everything had an undercurrent of luxury to it. Even their masks had to have been hand-crafted.

As if she could read my thoughts, Nash slid a hand around my waist, dropping her lips to whisper in my ear. “You know why we like the cheap costumes?”

I shook my head, fighting back a whimper as her fingers tightened around my hip. “They’re thinner. Skimpier. Easier to tear off when you lose.”

My skin prickled where her hot breath ghosted my neck, but I forced my expression to remain calm as I locked eyes with her. “Who said I’m losing?”

A wicked grin pulled at her lips, but the rattle of the cart interrupted us as Cyrus marched over. “Ready?”

And before I could respond, Nash had swept me off of my feet, dropping me dead in the center of the cart. “Ready.”

I whipped my head around to protest the sudden transport, but Blade already had her hands on the cart handles. “Hold on tight, Trinket!”