Chapter 10 #3
“I’m the Nightmare. It’s my job to uncover any possible infidelity.
” Bohnes chuckles, black hood up, hot pink bands at the ends of his sleeves.
This is as much color as I’ve ever seen him wear.
I think it’s a taunt specifically aimed at Jonas, like Bohnes is sticking out his tongue and flaunting his presence.
“I told her that I was sleeping with Alexei. Are you happy now?” I ask and Scarlett grins, stepping back from me as she’s approached by two officials.
She turns away to address them as I hang back, standing between Widow and Bohnes.
Alexei is close too, like he’s reduced his space buffer for us.
“Do you think she’s going to kill me?” I wonder as Widow tucks his hands in his pockets.
“She really did go after you in the cafe that one time,” Widow agrees and even Bohnes laughs. Alexei wasn’t there, so he lifts a brow as I turn to him.
“I was pretending to sleep with hookers. Strippers. Maids. Paying them to act like that’s what we were doing.” My turn to laugh. I’m glad that Scarlett is a human lie detector. It sounds unbelievable when I say it aloud. Who would ever believe that? Even if it’s the truth, it sounds absurd.
“That’s probably one of the reasons your father suspected you were Ash,” Alexei replies, which is probably true. It was only a matter of time before one of those girls turned on me for more money. Or out of fear. Threats. “And the cafe?”
“She knocked a hot French press into my lap.” I fold my arms, remembering how painful it was for me to see Scarlett then. It always felt like it could easily be the final time. I’m starting to feel less like that, and I’m nervous about it. Hope is a luxury.
I swallow down the jumbled bones in my throat, the ones that are choking me.
Widow leans against the stone wall, causing Alexei to flinch.
“What’d you do in that coffee shop bathroom to deserve that?” Widow wonders, and I give him a measured look.
“Told her no. For sex. I was trying to keep my distance, believe it or not.” I sigh and look up at the bleachers to see that Jonas is still there. No Chet with him today. He’s staring right at us, smiling. That’s the worst part, the crinkled skin around his eyes and the deep lines around his mouth.
“I’m truly stunned that this race wasn’t fucked with,” Bohnes says, and then he’s laughing and shoving his hood off his head.
There are purple smudges under his eyes and his lips are pale, blue gaze fixed on Scarlett until he notices me looking at Jonas.
He slowly tilts his head to one side, shifting his gaze from me to the mayor.
Bohnes licks his lips. Rubs his hand against the front of his neck. Turns fully to look at Jonas and doesn’t bother to hide his intentions either. Hunts him through the chain-link. Yes. Terrify him, Kellin. Please.
“You do realize that we are the ones chasing Jonas, right?” Bohnes asks me, slipping his hand into his hoodie pocket.
He withdraws a small blade, one that he’s sheathing and unsheathing rapidly with sharp flicks of his thumb.
He’s a dash of justice in an unjust world.
“He’s the prey and not the predator, Mrs. Force. ”
Mrs. Force. My new nickname, it seems.
Bohnes spins the knife around in his fingers, a psycho’s version of a fidget.
He throws the blade into the wall just below the spot where Jonas is sitting and then flips him off.
My father has zero reaction whatsoever, just that same, endless smile.
No doubt he’s studying my interactions here today, creating a mental catalogue of all the best ways to make me suffer.
Bohnes doesn’t care, throwing an arm around my neck and ruffling my dark hair with his knuckles. Never once in my life has another boy treated me like…well, another boy.
“Imagine Jonas as a rotting corpse, writhing with maggots. Dickless. Alone. Forgotten. That always helps me calm down.” Bohnes releases me and pats my cheek with his hand, returning his unnerving attention to Scarlett.
I think Kellin Bohnes is my best friend. I’d kill for him. I’d die for him, if necessary.
“What are we doin’ after this?” Widow asks, hands in his back pockets.
“Meeting our in-law at the house, I do believe,” Alexei replies smoothly, tossing an expensive pair of leather gloves in the trash and replacing them with an identical set from his pocket.
Shimatta. I’m meeting Scarlett’s grandma again today.
I’m meeting her grandma after executing the woman’s granddaughter in cold blood.
I can feel myself starting to sweat. Violence can’t solve this. I’m going to have to man up.
“Alright, let’s hit it.” Scarlett approaches with a swagger in her step, midriff bare. Eyes on mine again. “You, you’re comin’ with me.”
The bones are back in my throat. When she takes the Bugatti keys from me and offers them to Alexei, I let them go. I’ll ride with Scarlett if that’s what she wants.
Alexei finger-fucked her while she was driving, didn’t he?
There’s no reason I can’t do the same.
We arrive at the house an hour later, crawling up the gravel driveway in silence. We jerked off together while Scarlett drove, and it was nice, but I think we both also feel guilty about doing that on the way home to meet Patricia.
It was quick and cheap.
I’m still glad we did it, but the very first thing we both do when we get inside the front door is run to the bathroom together. The same bathroom. Scarlett locks the door behind us as we both frantically wash our hands, each of us occupying one of the two sinks.
“If Gram comes for you, do what you need to do to restrain her. Just…please don’t hurt her. I know it’s hard when someone is trying to murder you—”
“Scarlett-o-chan,” I purr back at her, my own heart racing.
I can slaughter my way through the city elite with that sword.
I could grit my way through killing Polina Lisitsa.
But this? Scarlett loves her grandma, and vice versa.
It’s not acceptable for me to mess this up.
“If Patricia feels the need to hurt me, then I can take it.”
“No kamikaze, Kitagawa,” Scarlett growls, and then she’s moving around me and opening the door, her heels clacking across the floor. Bohnes is leaned up against the wall beside the bathroom door, Widow across from him and Alexei nowhere to be seen. Probably in a different bathroom.
Scarlett grabs my hand and guides me down the hallway in time to find Alexei speaking to the grim-faced woman at our breakfast table.
Patricia Force seems to be a good indicator of what Scarlett will look like in her seventies. I feel this insanely desperate urge to make it to that age with her.
“Ms. Force, welcome to my home and my family,” Alexei is saying with a formal bow.
Patricia picks up the glass of water on the table and throws it in his face.
He blinks his way through it, standing up with a frown and staring at his gloved hands like they’re covered in flies instead of ice water. “Was that necessary?”
“Dragging my granddaughter into a life of organized crime, shame on you,” Patricia breathes, panting. Her dark eyes swing over, catching sight of me and Scarlett with her long fingers wrapped around my wrist, the tips of her coffin-shaped nails digging into me. “Oh my God.”
Patricia’s hands are over her mouth now, her attention on Scarlett and not me.
“Gram.” Scarlett stops on the opposite side of the table, dragging me forward. “Let me explain before you freak out.”
Patricia picks up a mug of coffee that someone must’ve made for her, and throws that at me along with the mug. I let it hit me in the face, spilling hot fucking coffee all over me, making me bleed. My lip is split, and my skin burns.
Scarlett’s eyes go wide, her teeth clench, and I know in my heart that even against her own grandma, she’ll defend me. I love this woman so much, more than I have ever loved anything or anyone.
I can’t let her do that.
I grab her wrist, gently pushing her to the side.
“I take responsibility for my own actions,” I murmur, but Scarlett is furious.
“I will not allow violence against my own husband in my own house,” she declares, sending a shockwave through her grandma. The pair of them stare at each other in challenge. “If you hurt Ash again, then I’ll have no choice but to confine you to your room.”