Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
Silas
“Who the fuck was that?!” I grind my teeth. “Max, go after that fucker while I finish the job.”
He frowns. “Wait, why me?”
“Have you done anything at all since you came here?” I grit. “No, so get to it.”
Max rolls his eyes, lowers his hoodie, and runs off.
I swing the machete around and let the man suffer in agony for a few more seconds, his blood dripping down from his lips onto the pavement. We roughed him up real good before we strung him up here on this wall and sliced him open piece by piece.
“You think he got the message?” Heath looks the body up and down.
“Probably …” I begin, “not.”
The fucker deserves nothing less for plucking kids off the streets and selling them. Heath got onto his track through his drug seller when he tried to offer some free drugs disguised as candy to unsuspecting kids.
Too bad for him, I don’t fucking play with that.
“P-Please, please, h-have mercy,” the man stammers.
“You didn’t have mercy on any of those kids you took from the streets,” Heath growls.
I caress his face with the machete. “How many did you sell? Five? Ten? A hundred?”
“More,” he replies, gulping the second I reach his temple.
I grin like a total psycho. “Was it worth all the money to lose your fucking life?”
I lift the machete.
“No, no, no, please!”
I hit him straight in the heart, cutting through him from sternum to pelvis until nothing but a sack of flesh is left of him. And man, does it feel good to kill him. It would’ve been far more fun if I could’ve toyed with him a little longer.
Finding a victim as deserving as him is a hard find.
Normally, I have to get by with punishing petty thieves or even those who merely looked at me the wrong way.
I swipe my machete clean on his shirt and take out all my knives. His body flops to the ground, and I give it a good kick to turn him over. I go to my knees and rummage inside his chest until I find his heart, and I rip it out, staring at it. Fucking gorgeous.
Max
I run around the corner and spot a bike disappearing into the night. It goes left and right, and then left, but when I turn the corner, it’s gone. I look around and check all the ways the bike could’ve gone.
Ivy, please, let me find you. I need you to be safe.
I walk around the neighborhood, each of my steps reverberating between the many warehouses that line these streets. On the ground are skid marks that look fresh. I look up in the direction she went—a road to my right with several dumpsters behind each door leading into a warehouse. Behind one of them, the spokes and an inch of a wheel peek out.
Oh, Ivy. You shouldn’t have come here.
Grinding my teeth, I watch the feet disappear behind the dumpster.
If I bring her to Heath and Silas now, they’ll definitely mess her up too just for watching them kill. And I can’t let that happen.
I take a deep breath and approach her, but the second I raise my head above the dumpster, she nearly swats off my head with a wooden stick like it’s a bat and I’m the baseball.
“Wow, wow, calm down.”
“Stay away!” She keeps swinging that thing like she’s trying to hit something. “I swear to G—”
I grab the stick mid-swing and stop her, and I take off my mask to show her it’s me. With big eyes, she ogles me. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promised you. And I will keep that promise.”
“They were torturing someone!”
I smash my hand in front of her mouth. “Shhh! Don’t let them hear you.”
She bites my palm, and I yank it back, hissing as I shake my hand.
“You’re with them,” she says. “Why are they doing this?”
“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. But I will get you out of this.”
“Then what were you—Wait, how?” She frowns and points at me. “You all saw me.”
“No, they didn’t. They think you were some rando, which is why they sent me after you. But I’m not taking you back to them.”
“I wouldn’t let you,” she says, swinging the stick around like she’s trying to show off.
“Good.” I smile. “Now grab your bike and get out of here.”
With furrowed brows, she eyes me up and down, still holding the stick tightly like she’s afraid it’ll be her last resort.
“Quickly, before they get suspicious.”
Finally, she drops the stick, makes a beeline for her bike, and races off.
When she’s out of sight, I breathe a sigh of relief and put my mask back on. Even though I know I’ll have to face Silas’s and Heath’s wrath now. It was worth it.
Heath
Max suddenly walks back into our alley, and I look up with furrowed brows.
He didn’t bring anyone with him.
What the…?
“I couldn’t find them.”
My teeth slam together.
Fuck .
Silas nearly crushes the guy’s heart he ripped out in his bare hand. “You let a loose end get away?”
“They had a bike, but I don’t see it anywhere. Probably hiding out somewhere.” He shrugs.
“And you just gave up?” Well, this just dampened my already darkened mood.
Silas stuffs the bloodied heart in a plastic bag and walks up to his car. “They saw us. We need to rip them to shreds.”
“But do they know us? We’re wearing masks. No way they recognized our faces,” Max replies.
Hmm . “Dude has a point,” I say.
“Whatever. If this comes back to bite us, you’re gonna take care of it.” Silas points at Max.
Max puts his hand against his head like a military soldier and salutes him, making me grin.
“It’s settled then,” I say. “Now help us put the body in the trunk.”
Ivy
Twenty minutes later
I close the door to my apartment and turn all the locks, clutching the wood while breathing wildly. I just saw them murder a man in cold blood.
Jesus, I looked them dead in the eyes.
Even with those masks, I instantly knew it was them. But did Silas and Heath recognize me?
Will Max keep his word?
I suck in a breath through my nose and head to the windows, checking every corner of the street despite it being pitch black outside. I need to know if they followed me. If there’s even an inkling of danger out there, I’m grabbing the kitchen knives and the gun I have hidden in a safe box on top of my closet where Cora can’t reach.
My heart races a million miles an hour as I check every window for their car, but there’s no sign of them anywhere.
Did I get away safely?
It almost feels too good to be true.
“Mrppp.”
Bagel brushes up against my legs, and I pick him up and pet him. He always manages to calm my nerves. “I love you too, Bagel.”
I put him back down, check on Cora, and breathe a sigh of relief. She’s still sleeping and safe as can be. I take off my hoodie and put on my white tee and a fresh pair of undies before I crawl in bed too, hugging her tightly. She curls up to me and mumbles a little in her sleep, and it makes me smile.
We’re safe for now.
One year ago
Leaning back in my seat, I take a sip of my Coke while staring at the piece of cake on the plate in front of me. It must taste delicious, I’m sure, but if I take a bite, that means the cake will eventually be finished, along with this day.
I don’t want it to end.
“It’s so delicious,” Mom mumbles, taking a small bite out of her cake, like she’s afraid someone will say something about it if she takes a bigger bite.
She tucks her hair behind her ear, the green mark on her face visible for just a second before she readjusts her shades.
“Aren’t you going to take a bite?” she asks.
I put down my Coke and pick up my fork, still glaring at that piece of cake. Just one day. That’s what it symbolizes. One day of calmness before the storm erupts.
But I don’t want to disappoint Mom either. I take a small bite and swallow it, waiting for her content smile to appear.
“Good, right?”
“Love it,” I reply, smiling back.
“See?” she says.
“Mom …” I mutter, putting down my fork. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I didn’t know when would be the right time. So I thought, why not on your birthday?”
She pauses, her fork hanging between her fingertips. “What?”
I suck in a deep breath through my nostrils before finally gathering the courage to pull the paper from my bag that I’ve been holding for too long, and I place it on the table in her direction so she can read it.
“I have a scholarship. I got accepted into Spine Ridge U,” I say.
Her eyes fill with tears, and she gets up to hug me right over the table, smushing both of our cakes, and it catches me off guard.
“Oh, I’m so happy for you, Ivy, I could scream.” I wrap my arms around her too. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“This was my dream for so long. I didn’t know how.”
Or when it would ever be a good time.
“I’m so proud of you. You did it,” she murmurs into my ear. “And I know your dad would be too if he were here.”
I swallow away the lump in my throat. “Thank you.”
I almost feel guilty for telling her.
She refuses to let go. “You deserve this. And don’t let anyone, and I mean anyone, take this away from you. You understand?” Her tone suddenly got a lot more serious, and it brings goose bumps to my skin.
“I won’t,” I mutter. “But … I don’t want to leave you—”
“Don’t. Don’t say the words. If you don’t say them, it doesn’t exist.”
If we don’t say the words we want to say out loud, we can keep living the lie.
But we all know a lie is as sustainable as a self-eating void.
“You go to that school,” she says. “Whatever it takes.”
I smile. “I will.”
Present
I sit up straight from the sound of rattling near the window. I blink a couple of times to get out of my nightmares and back into reality. I don’t know how much time has passed. It feels like forever.
I brush away the sweat dripping down my skin as I look around, but there doesn’t appear to be anything here.
I yawn and get up, walking into the living room in only a bit of underwear and a white shirt. I lock the door to the bedroom with the key to make sure Cora’s safe at all times before I head to the kitchen. Bagel is rummaging with his bowl, so maybe he woke me up.
I fill it with more food, and he purrs with thanks. I turn around again but suddenly spot a figure sitting on the couch.
I freeze.
The person turns around, his face hiding in his hoodie, so I bolt to the button on the wall to turn on the light, but not in time before he’s already cornered me against the wall. My shriek is cut off by a hand covering my mouth.
“Shh …” The whisper is soft. Almost … friendly. “Don’t want to wake Cora.”
What the—
I spin on my heels.
The crazed yell I was about to throw out there is swallowed down as I stare straight into Max’s sweet eyes.
“You’re here …” I mutter, confused. “How—”
My words are cut off as I realize why.
The key he stole from me.
“I needed to know if you were safe. But then … I couldn’t leave anymore.” His Adam’s apple goes up and down as his eyes skid across my face, almost as if he’s looking for answers to questions I don’t understand.
“Do Silas and Heath know you’re here?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he says, lowering his hand off the wall. “Even when you hate me, I still lie awake every night, wondering if you’d ever forgive me.”
“I don’t … hate you,” I reply, swallowing down the nerves.
His eyes fill with a kind of hope that makes my heart flutter, and a gentle smile appears on his face but then swiftly disappears. “You should. I’m not good for you. I know that. You don’t know what I’ve do—”
I plant a finger on his lips, narrowing my eyes. “You didn’t rat me out to them.”
He lowers his eyes. “I couldn’t.”
He protected me.
“But they’ll hurt you if they find out,” I say, “won’t they?”
He nods, biting his lip, and for some reason, it’s so alluring that I lean in to press a kiss to his lips. Just one.
Just one tiny kiss is enough for me to see him unravel right before my eyes.
Suddenly, he grips my face with both hands and smashes his lips onto mine, kissing me so intensely I forget how to breathe.
I shouldn’t be doing this with a friend of the boys who’ve blackmailed me.
I definitely shouldn’t, but I can’t stop.
I’ve never been kissed this passionately before—like he’s pouring out all of his love into this one kiss as if he’ll never get another shot.
Suddenly, he pulls away and steps back. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I—”
I place another finger on his lips. “Don’t.”
“I’m bad for you. I’m a Skull and Serpent Society member. I’m in your house uninvited. I stalk you. You have a kid. I’m endangering both of you by being here. I should—”
I plant both hands on his chest and shove him backward more and more until the back of his knees hit the couch, and he falls.
I settle down on top of him and lean in, whispering into his ear, “Do you want me?”
“Oh God … yes.” It nearly comes out in a moan.
I press my boobs against his chest, and he gulps as I grab his hands and put them over my shoulders while I press silky soft kisses all over his neck. “Then touch me.”
His hand lowers down my body, across my breasts, squeezing, moaning when I leave a hickey. “Do you think they’d wonder where you got it?”
“Heath will be mad, for sure,” he replies.
I grin. “Good.”
And I push his hand farther down until he reaches my panties. “You know how I like it. You’ve seen me do it.” I lean back up. “Now touch me.”
He rubs me right through the fabric of my underwear, his gaze on me at all times as though he’s enamored with the way I look when I’m enjoying myself, and something about that just feels so goddamn good, I can’t help but gyrate on top of him.
As he circles my most sensitive spot, his bulge begins to grow underneath me, so I push down as I roll my hips around to egg him on. I lean back on his knees as he increases his pace, and I whisper, “Yes, just like that.”
“Oh fuck, I’ve dreamed about this,” he says.
I smirk. “What do we do in your dreams? How do you take me?”
“In my dreams, y ou take me .”