23. Amorette
AMORETTE
P arker had called through the door that day when they were all in Grey’s apartment. He’d warned me that Grey was a psycho. I hadn’t really paid attention to his words. Not like I should have.
I wasn’t sure if it was because Grey seemed like the nicest one of the bunch, so I latched onto him, not wanting to believe he was just another dead end on my path to escape.
Or maybe I was still in shock from everything that had happened up until that point.
It wasn’t until that night that I’d really been able to catch my breath.
Either way, as I sat in the back of the helicopter, the scene kept replaying in my head on a traumatic, bloody loop. I’d tried. God, how I’d tried to stop Grey from beating that man to death. Once, I thought Grey was about to clock my jaw with his elbow, but I’d jerked back in time.
When it became terrifyingly clear Grey wasn’t going to stop and the man was past the point of walking away, I stepped back.
I watched him through what seemed like a frosted plexiglass.
So close, yet his movements were distorted, hazy, except for his grin that got wider with every strike and every kick.
He killed that man.
And he enjoyed it.
Grey really was a psycho.
For the return flight, Grey decided to pilot. Which left Parker beside him without anything to do. He turned around for the tenth time to grin at me.
Not a friendly, I enjoy having you here , or I hope you had fun type of grin. No, this was a facetious grin that said he loved my brand of stupidity and the trouble it caused.
Grey never looked back once. He wasn’t exactly tense, more like I ceased to exist to him. And as crazy as it sounded, it bothered me. I was like a kid in trouble when they knew they did something wrong, and the parent ignored them instead of disciplining them.
The lack of attention hurt . Even knowing he was crazy, it still hurt.
I glanced down at my hands. How did I get in this position? And how did my head get so screwed up?
Before I knew it—maybe because I dreaded it—we landed.
Andre and Lafe were walking around another helicopter, deep in discussion.
Well, Lafe was talking at Andre, wildly waving his hands while Andre continued his work of checking it over, straight-faced.
Whatever they were doing, Andre was dressed for business, and Lafe wore the only things I’d seen him in, jeans and a T-shirt.
Why was I thinking about their clothes? Or acting like I had seen them more than once or twice a piece?
The vibrations slowly stopped as the blades slowed down. I handed my headset to Parker, and he hung them up. When they both opened the door, I climbed out on Parker’s side. Grey still wasn’t looking at me, and Parker seemed the safer bet. Ironically.
“She’s with you,” Grey said as he shut his side and started heading toward their warehouse home.
“What?” Parker called after him. “No way! You wanted her, she’s yours.”
Grey stopped in his tracks and turned around as Andre and Lafe silently joined Parker. I stood off to the side, unsure if this was the moment life came crashing back around me again.
Was I dumb for trying to escape?
Maybe.
Could I have saved that man’s life if I’d just tried to leave on my own?
Yes, and I was going to suffer for that every single day. The sudden tension radiating off Andre as he watched the scene had my feet itching to make a run for it. But I didn’t. I’d really learned my lesson when it came to stupid decisions.
“That was before I realized she needed a babysitter. I don’t have time for that. There are other things I need to be focusing on.”
“What happened?” Andre barked as he glared at me.
Even with trying to turn over a new, safer leaf for me and all the innocents around me, I couldn’t cower away from him. I lifted my chin defiantly as I met his gaze.
“Grey was the one who thought it was a good idea to play house,” Parker remarked with a smirk, watching his brother gleefully.
Only the psycho didn’t rise to the bait.
He just shook his head and looked at Andre.
“She tried to fucking escape. With Ramos. I killed him, by the way. Vicente was already up our asses for whatever reason. So, you might get a phone call soon.” Grey shrugged and turned away from us, heading toward the trees. “Someone else needs to watch her.”
Shit, was I a toddler? The way they talked about me both shamed and enraged me. I didn’t want to be here. They were the ones forcing me to be.
“Are you fucking shitting me?” Andre yelled, tossing his hands up as he spun toward the other helicopter. “I don’t have time for this. Parker—”
“Nope. Sorry. I have other things I need to be working on. Especially a job that should have been done yesterday. Lafe, looks like you’re the lucky winner.” Parker clapped Lafe on the back as he followed after Grey, who had already disappeared through the trees.
Lafe didn’t say anything. He stood utterly still as he watched the back of Parker until he was gone too. His jaw clenched rhythmically like he suddenly drew the short straw. Or that he had to clean up his own mess. Maybe both, I wasn’t sure.
Andre glared at Lafe as he started to climb into the helicopter. “I need to go. I didn’t like what I heard when Pilar called. I’ll see you when I get back…” He jabbed a finger at Lafe. “Don’t fuck this up. More than your conscience is on the line.”
The helicopter started up, and that familiar whirring I’d gotten so accustomed to over the last two hours eclipsed any other sound. My dress swirled around my legs and my hair beat at my face as the helicopter lifted. Then Lafe held his hand out in front of him for me to precede him on the path.
That was fine with me. I didn’t want to be here either, and my ears needed a break.
I also needed him to shove me wherever he was going to put me so I could have a good cry. My eyes had been suspiciously dry the entire ride back. But now that solitude was so close, an unwanted ball of emotion lodged in my throat, cutting off my airways and forcing tears to my eyes.
Andre was gone as the sound of the blades grew more distant.
Which was great. Focusing on that helped to rein my unruly emotions back in.
If I were lucky, Lafe would return me to that same apartment.
Funny, I’d missed human interaction so much, and now after what happened at the hotel, I ached to be left alone.
I couldn’t even call Lafe Addict to myself anymore. Because of his bad deeds, I’d tried to distance myself from him and make him less human. But hell. I was a hypocrite.
An innocent man died tonight because of me. I was no longer the shining white hero I thought I was. Realistically, I knew what happened wasn’t so black and white, yet it didn’t change the fact that I felt stained—dirtied up a bit.
We reached the doors with Lafe trailing close behind me. Every few steps, I swore I felt his breath across my nape. I opened the door, heading for the stairs, but he gently took my arm and steered me toward the hallway where Grey’s apartment was.
He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t either. For me, I was afraid the dam would burst on everything bottled up inside me. Why was he so quiet?
The door he stopped at was closer than the one to Grey’s place. He punched in a code, scanned his phone against the keypad, and opened the door.
Using the palm of his hand at the small of my back, he scooted me toward the door. I resisted and I wasn’t even sure why.
These men weren’t out to hurt me. I believed them about that now. Kill me? Maybe, if I kept causing them trouble, that was a very real possibility. Although I doubted they would hurt me just to hurt me.
And that took some of the wind from my sails.
Once we were both over the threshold, he shut the door, locked it and reset the alarm.
When he turned, he leaned back against the door and regarded me with an unreadable expression.
“This is my apartment. Lucky for you, I don’t have to be anywhere over the next week.
Same thing as Grey’s. The alarm will sound if you open any of the doors or windows.
Don’t try it. You won’t like what happens. ”
He pushed past me, and I blindly followed him, unsure if I was even aware of what I was doing at that point. Lafe headed toward the kitchen and pulled out the drawer closest to the fridge.
His place was much different from Grey’s. Where Grey’s was modern and sleek, Lafe’s was… a collection of mismatched items. Nothing was that old or threadbare. It was more like he didn’t care about matching sets or an overall tone and picked things up for practicality.
I glanced back at him when I heard a loud sniff, and he was screwing the cap back on a small canister. I’d never been around drugs, but I knew immediately that was what he’d done even if I’d missed the action.
“Drugs are bad for you,” I commented. Why tell him that? I didn’t care what he did. It didn’t matter to me at all, yet it felt like my mouth was on autopilot.
“You don't say.” He dropped it back in the drawer and pushed it shut. He had the fancy soft close drawers, because it barely made a whisper of a sound.
I trailed my fingers over the white granite countertops next to where I stood, just to give myself something to do. Then I glanced down at the floor.
On my foot was a splatter of dark, dried blood.
My stomach rolled.
I searched the kitchen for paper towels, snagged one, and frantically wetted it in the sink and scrubbed the skin. That was when I saw a few more splatters up my legs and one on the hem of my dress.
“No, no, no, no.” I chanted as I wiped away all evidence of the guard who was only trying to help me. The weight of my actions was too much, and the tears I’d mostly been able to hold back escaped, hotly trailing down my cheeks.
Once it was all gone, I dropped the paper towel to the floor. I couldn’t touch it anymore. I fell back on my ass, hugging my knees to my chest, and sobbed.
I was not a crier.
I never had been.