15. Salt & Destruction
-Spade-
Waking up to the feeling of my skin melting off my body causes me to scream out in pain. Breathing heavily, I feel the sweat pouring down my face, or maybe it’s tears, I don’t know anymore. I’m so disoriented that I forget where the fuck I am. Laughter and the sound of a torch are all I hear. The smell of my burning flesh makes me gag. I need to get my shit together. I’m so fucking thirsty. My throat feels like sandpaper. This fucking sucks. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. My body hurts from all the torture. My shoulders are screaming at me, and I have no clue how I am still holding my weight up. Just fucking kill me already. I’m over this shit. Suddenly, the door swings open and the twins walk in.
“Clear the room,” Ryker commands and I sag in relief. There’s no way they would leave me here to rot, knowing I’m with their sister, right? Everyone disperses, leaving the twins and I alone.
“Spade, yo man, didn’t Dario give you my message? You shouldn’t fucking be here right now,” he says in a panic.
“What message? I never made it back to the Academy. I left everything there. Jade and I got into it, so I left. I needed to clear my head.” I rasp.
“Fuck, man! Jade and your brothers are on their way.” Ryker states.
“No, don’t let her in here. She can’t see me like this. Please, man, she’s been through enough.” I plead.
“You know damn well that I cannot control my sister. If she wants in, she will shoot her way in. I’m sorry, man. I’m so fucking sorry.” Ryder chimes in. Why is he apologizing? It’s not like they are the ones who did this.
“Oh shit, they’re here, and Jade is not looking so hot herself. What the fuck is going on tonight?” Ryder says.
Mother fucker, I don’t want her to see me this broken and battered. I need to find the strength to not show defeat, especially in front of the only woman I’ve ever loved. She needs a man to match her energy and light that fire inside of her. Not dull it out.
My brothers walk in with Jade, she’s pointing her pistols at the back of their heads. The twins step away to grab the guys, putting them on their knees, and zip tying their wrists together. Jade rounds them, smiling a sinister smile I have never seen before. What the fuck? She looks strung out. She sniffs and rubs her nose. WHAT. IN. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK?!
She walks over to me and I see something flash in her eyes, but as quick as I saw it, it vanishes. The closer she gets to me, the more I see her eyes are blown wide and I smell tequila on her breath. Then I notice there’s a very light, white coating in her nostril. The cut on her face is opened slightly, and there’s a bruise forming on the opposite side of her cheek.
“What happened, Babygirl? You look a mess, are you high?” I rasp. She doesn’t answer, cocking her head to the side and tapping the barrel of the gun to her chin.
“Actually, I am. How are you feeling, Reid?” Reid? Who the fuck is this girl?
“Just hanging. You feeling okay, Babygirl?” I counter. She circles me. Don’t look at my back. Baby, please don’t look. Fuck.
“Looks like my boys got you good, huh?” she chuckles. I pull at the chains, wanting to be set free in the worst way possible. Her eyes on my back make me feel so vulnerable and disgusting, but her chuckling makes me irate.
“Ya know Reid, when you first walked into my mill almost three months ago, distracting me from what Dario was sent to do, and all the drugs Jameson sold, that was the first mistake you made.” She whispers close to my ear.
“The second, was thinking that I didn’t know what the three of you had been up to.” She licks the shell of my ear. I whip my head away. I don’t know the person next to me. The woman I love is long gone. I look over to Jameson, whose eyes are wide. He must be thinking the same thing as me, but I narrow my eyes at him. He is the one who set her free. He’s the only one to blame for this disgusting behavior. Fucking Carver.
“And last, but not least, is the three of you thinking I could actually love you. That I was actually in love with any of you.” She cackles and pours more salt on the wounds. Literally and figuratively. I pull at the chains instead of screaming from the pain she’s inflicting on my torn flesh. My brothers yell at Jade to stop, but she’s too far gone to listen.
“All of you, shut the fuck up! There’s no saving him or me, this is who the fuck I am. I’m the Devil’s Incarnate Princess and I am no fucking traitor. I’ll never choose any of you over my club.”
“You’re a liar, Jade, and you fucking know it!” Ri yells at her.
“Am I? Or am I just that good, that you can’t tell what is real from what isn’t?”
“Keep it up, Blood Queen; watch what happens next. This is your only fucking warning,” The Carver growls at her.
“You three thought you had me fooled, but guess what?” She steps in front of me, addressing my brothers, dismissing the fact that I’m legit hanging by chains behind her, with a mutilated back, and probably internal bleeding.
“Come on, take a guess,” she taunts.
“You’re fucking high out of your face right now, Jade! You are not of sound mind!” Ri yells. She laughs.
“I mean, that tracks, Dario. However, I feel fucking amazing. Too bad The Carver didn’t make me cum one last time before I burn this all to the ground.”
“Fuck you, Jade! This isn’t you, stop lying to yourself.” I rasp. My fuckin throat is on fire and my heart thrashes in my chest at the notion that this is truly it for us. How can she inflict pain on me like this? How can she stand there and say all these things, like we mean nothing? There is no fucking way this was all bullshit. I’ve seen the love in her eyes every time I fucked her tight cunt, when it tightened around my cock, or we made her cum. There is no fucking way.
“Did you know Kayla sent you to me? You were actually MY job—to watch, to make you fall for me, and look at you three, utterly obsessed with the Club princess.” She laughs sadistically.
What the fuck? No, she’s fucking lying. There’s no fucking way this was a set up. No fucking way at all.
“I knew your dads were the ones who raped me and left me with scars and burns on my body. What better way to get to them but through their spawns? I won’t lie though, you almost had me. You all can lay the pipe down, but love? Do any of you even know what love is?”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it Jade! You fucking love us, otherwise, we would be dead already. I mean, we killed your mother after all.” I state. She whips her head around, looking me dead in my eyes. The girl I loved is truly dead and gone tonight.
“Yeah, well maybe this was my plan all along. You do my dirty work, and now I get to burn you alive for what you did to my mother.” She shrugs.
“There’s no coming back from this, Jade. You do this and a war will start.” Ri states.
“A war has already started.” She grins, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
Someone comes in with a tank of gasoline, pouring it around the perimeter of the room.
What the fuck? I pull at the chains again, trying to find the strength to get myself free. I am not being burned alive in this place. She doesn’t get to win. She doesn’t get to ruin this. I’m not done with her yet. If she wants a war, she’s fucking got it.
“If you do this Little Creature, when I get out, you better fucking run and keep running, because when I catch you–and I will; I’m going to carve your heart out next.”
“Light em’ up,” she says to her brothers. They look at one another before nodding.
“See you in hell, fuckers.” She turns and leaves without a backward glance.
I scream for her until my throat is raw as I see the flames ignite around me.
…Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.