Chapter 15
Zira
Outside, a landscaper’s leaf blower whizzed as he cleared up a few fallen leaves, and a golf cart zoomed across the lawn with my father in the passenger seat.
An aching tension swelled in my chest. I bit my nails.
It wouldn’t take long for my father to find out about Ernest. In fact, there was a good chance that he already knew.
And I was supposed to know every detail so that I could use it to my advantage.
But I didn’t know anything.
Carter Care had called me the night before to confirm that everything went smoothly. Hazard had picked up Ernest, and had probably brought him to his motel room outside of the city. But I had called him multiple times and even shown up at his motel, and Hazard was still missing.
I let it go. I mean, I tried to let it go, but the need to control him prickled inside of me.
He wasn’t like other people. With anyone else, you could tell them the parameters and they would listen because they were obedient little sheep, pining for that reward on the other side.
But Hazard wasn’t like that. He refused to stay in his lane, even if he knew that there was a prize in the end.
If he knew he could have something over me, he would jump on it.
But I needed Hazard on my side.
The next day, I raised my chin as I knocked on Hazard’s motel door. An insect buzzed in the trees behind the motel shacks. I shifted on my heels, listening for any sort of life from inside, but it was quiet.
I knocked again. What was taking him so long?
When the door finally opened, Hazard rested against the doorframe.
Shirtless, his chiseled chest flexing from his posture.
Jeans hung on his hips, and though he seemed casual, there was something off about him.
A rigidness shifting in his bones. His skin was pale, his eyes bloodshot. He must have been up all night.
I peered to the side of him. A dark spot stained the carpet and the fresh stench of flesh stunk up the air, almost like Hazard had been playing football with a raw steak.
But Ernest was nowhere to be seen.
“Did he keep you awake?” I asked.
“Something like that.”
I went past Hazard, checking the bathroom and throwing back the thin shower curtain. Nothing. I plopped down on the bed, the squeaking coils like nails on a chalkboard right then.
“Where is he?” I asked.
Hazard ran a hand through his hair, then lifted his shoulders in an exaggerated way. He was hiding something.
He leaned back against the wall. “Don’t know, really. Could be anywhere by now.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re lying.”
“We all lie, don’t we, little bloom?” he asked, his yellow teeth dripping with violence. “You seem to be the best at it.”
My stomach churned. I didn’t have time for this. “If you have something to say, get to the point,” I said. “This isn’t a game. I want to see him.”
Hazard strolled forward, then used his hands to spread my knees until there was more space for him. Tucking a finger under my chin, he forced me to meet his gaze. With the blood vessels trailing across the whites of his eyes, he reminded me of an apocalyptic sun.
“You want to see him,” he said. “Is that right, my queen?”
“You know what I want, Hazard,” I said, holding back the frustration swelling in my chest.
“Then I’m going to need something from you first.”
My veins constricted. He was using those same words I had used when we first met. Hazard was playing a game with me, and this time, I wasn’t ahead of him. He had what I wanted.
“What’s your problem?” I asked, my upper lip curling. “We made a deal.”
“No, we didn’t make a deal, love. You gave me instructions, and I completed them.
Mostly,” he said, a flash of amusement crossing his lips.
“That’s not a deal, is it? When you tell someone to do something while you sit back and watch, and you, my little queen, dictate all the details, that’s homework.
And honestly? I’ve never been a good student.
I always hated listening to teachers. Thought of them more as dictators. ”
I huffed through my nose, rolling my eyes. He was getting on my nerves. But I had to play nice, didn’t I?
“We both want the same thing,” I said. “What’s so difficult about that?”
“You want to make this a deal?” He pinched my cheek. “Then I’m going to need something in exchange from you, Zira.”
For the first time, my name on his tongue was harsh, like a jagged stone scraping against a wall, leaving a deep valley in the plaster.
Hazard must have known that I was hiding something, then.
I had always kept my advantage from him, but now he could see who I really was. We were no longer on the same team.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He took a step back, giving us space. His fingertips ran across the wood wallpaper as he walked toward the back of the room, then paced in the other direction.
Like a wild animal, not yet used to being kept in a cage, on the verge of throwing himself at the bars, bloodying himself, until he broke free.
“A little birdie told me you actually know everything about Gabby. Don’t you, little bloom? You know exactly what happened to my sister.”
“What did Ernest say?” I snapped. “Tell me, and I’ll tell you if it’s true.”
“That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? I know you, Zira. You can twist the truth into whatever suits you just as well as I can. But I want to hear it from you.”
I groaned, running my hands through my hair, tangles catching on my fingers, anger vibrating through my veins. I had to keep myself under control. That was the only way I could make this work for both of us.
“Where is Ernest?” I asked, enunciating each word while trying to keep my tone sweet. “Just tell me that. Please.”
Hazard tapped his knuckles on the walls. “Ernest could be in a cage. Could be on a vacation. Could even be underneath that bed.”
A sudden tension seized my stomach. We had made a promise to each other. And yes, I had promised that I would give him his sister’s killer, but first, I needed him to do this for me. Kill Ernest, then kill my father.
He was messing up everything.
“Tell me the truth,” I said, my voice snapping with the tension building inside of me. That tone made him stop. He took a few steps forward, then kneeled down so that we were at the same eye level.
“Make me, my queen,” he said.
Without thinking, I threw a fist at his face, my knuckles cracking against his cheekbone.
His head swung to the side, and both of us stayed frozen like that.
Our harsh breaths filled the air, intensifying each moment.
My knuckles stung. A few doors down, a motel guest was singing a mournful country song about a broken heart.
Hazard turned back to me, his teeth pulled into a smile, that crooked canine like a jagged dagger. But there was no pleasure in his expression this time, only a red, tender spot on his cheek.
“That’s how you want to play, huh?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to answer but he pounced, throwing me onto the bed, grabbing a pillow and shoving it over my face.
I twisted, trying to get out of his grasp, but my screams were muffled by the pillow’s filling.
Hazard used his bodyweight to keep me pinned down, my pulse racing as his grunts vibrated through me.
Using his legs, he forced my thighs apart, his jeans rubbing against my exposed flesh.
He reached between us for my pussy and I used that moment to shove him off of me.
I gasped, letting the air swell into my lungs.
I glared at him, and finally, he gave a smile. A genuine one this time.
Any logical person would have been terrified. But I knew what this was.
Hazard wanted to fight me, because it was better this way. Better than us facing the fact that my secrets were tearing us apart.
I wanted this too.
I ran forward, leaping up and straddling his waist, clinging to him like a net.
As he pulled off his jeans, I grabbed his neck, squeezing it as tight as I could, his Adam’s apple jutting against my palms. His pale cheeks filled with pressure and blood but between each staggered breath, he choked out a laugh, like this was all a game to him.
He kneeled down as I strangled him, then he used his weight to literally crush me against the floor.
“Fuuu—” I started to scream, the air in my lungs expelling out before I could finish.
His hard dick jabbed into my thigh, and my pussy ached to clench around him.
He propped himself up on his elbows, using his body to pin me between his arms. I grabbed his shoulders and barrel-rolled us until I was on top of him, leering down like a beast. He bared his teeth in a complex expression, like a leering clown on the walls of a fun house, pleasure and fury warring inside of him.
“What happened to my sister, Zira?” he said, his words slurring with a vicious tone. “You know exactly what happened.”
I rested my knees against his balls, putting enough pressure to get him to shut up, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He moaned like I had lowered my pussy onto his dick.
He liked the pain.
“How many times do I have to tell you?” I snapped. With that look on his face, I couldn’t resist adding more pressure. “I don’t know anything!”
He bucked me off of him, then he lunged at me, shoving my dress to the side, and I spread my legs, letting him penetrate me. His cock was like a knife inside of me, but I welcomed each painful thrust.
“It’s not that hard,” he growled. “Just a few words, Bloomy.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t lie to me, Zira. I know you. I know when you’re playing games. Because we’re alike, more than you want to admit. That’s why we make sense.”
I shook my head, even though he was right.
We were so alike that he knew exactly how to fuck with me in a way I needed.
His cock stabbed between my velvet walls and tears welled in my eyes.
I reached for his throat again, but he kept fucking me.
It was so intimate to be like this; neither of us holding back, both of us giving absolutely everything we had to give, and it scared the hell out of me.
He could see inside of me to those truths, and one day, he would find out what he wanted to know about his sister.
He was right. Even if I didn’t kill her, I was involved.
But as I choked him and he thrust inside of me, I couldn’t make myself say the truth. If I did, Hazard would kill my father before I had the chance to secure my legacy, and I’d been screwed over one too many times to risk letting him screw me over again.
Hazard flipped me over, forcing my face and chest against the brittle carpet, slamming into me from behind.
Each thrust unloaded his frustration, forcing me to take every inch of him.
He grabbed my neck, leaning on the carpet too, lying down on top of me.
As our foreheads touched, our eyes glued to each other, I could see, even then, that he still wanted me.
Even if I lied. Even if I played games with him. And he hated it.
He pulled my hair, yanking until my head tossed back, then he slapped my ass so hard that my body jiggled, and that force pushed me over the edge, making me come. He pulled out and erupted all over my back, marking me.
Our breaths came out uneven, like we both knew that this wasn’t where we were supposed to go, but we couldn’t help it.
I stood cautiously, straightening my dress.
And as if he had gotten something out of his system, he pulled up his jeans and his lips pulled back into a forced expression, one I had never seen before.
A half-smile. It was like he knew he had me pinned between his fingers, and he didn’t want to worship me anymore.
He wanted to break me.
I rubbed my hands together, trying to stay civilized this time. “Are you going to tell me where Ernest is now?”
Hazard’s brown eyes glowered. “Don’t worry, little bloom,” he winked. “I made a promise to you, didn’t I?”
Those words tightened my chest. He had made a promise, but he knew I was lying about his sister’s death, and so he was lying to me about Ernest.
“We’ll kill him together,” I said carefully.
“In the guillotine, just like we planned,” he said.
I nodded slowly. “Like we planned.”
I left the motel as quickly as I could without seeming like I was running away, but I was. I didn’t know what I would do if Hazard turned against me, but I knew he had broken his promise.
Ernest was dead.
On a whim, I went to my father’s study in the Bloom Estate. He sat behind his desk with reading glasses on the edge of his nose as he stared at his computer. His chair squeaked as he rolled back, looking up at me.
The crown and scepter had been replaced by another set, but my father had never said a word about their disappearance. It was as if the set Hazard had stolen for me meant nothing.
I gulped hard, but I had to do this.
“Why did you pick him?” I asked.
My father tilted his head. “Who?”
I rolled my eyes. “Hazard has been a member for a few days, and you’re making him a board member?”
My father cleared his throat, his eyes tracing me from my head to my toes. Chills ran down my spine, but I suppressed them. I needed to get this out.
“That man loves you, my child. He respects you,” he said.
I sniffled; respect? How could he possibly respect me if he had broken a promise?
And love? People like us didn’t love anything.
My father continued, “I’d rather he be in danger than put you in the spotlight.”
“But I want to be in the spotlight. I don’t care if I die.”
“Zira, this is—”
“Hazard killed Logan, Simon, and Ernest.”
My father pressed his thumb against his lips, his eyes still on me. He raised a brow.
“What happened, exactly?” he asked.
“We were supposed to kill Ernest together, but he did it without me.” I didn’t have any proof, but I knew what had happened.
Everything I was saying to my father was wrong, a complete betrayal, but it was the only way I knew how to get back my power.
My fingers tingled, but I rambled on: “What if he kills me too? What if he tries to kill you? I don’t know—”
“You gave him too much power,” my father said. “Just like I did with your mother.”
An oppressive weight filled the room, making it hard to breathe. I hated when he brought up my mother, and it unnerved me that he was bringing her up in the context of Hazard. As if they were the same.
My father was considering me his equal for once, and I didn’t like it.
“You know what you have to do,” he said. I swallowed hard, lowering my eyes. “Kill him before he kills you.”