Chapter 21
PINK
Maybe it was the worst birthday ever and the best.
I burned down what was left of Bianca and became Pink that night.
I fell asleep on the ride back to his Vegas resort and casino. As much as I hated knowing I was going back to what I knew was practically my dungeon, I had Bane’s shoulder to lay on.
He told me things would change, and although I didn’t believe him, I felt changed myself. I’d exorcised one or more demons burning down that house and I overcame the silence.
And when we got back in that penthouse, he left me for only an hour. In that time, I’d cut my long black hair and called down to room service for pink dye. A hair stylist came and walked me through the process.
By the end of it, I had a razor-sharp pink bob and a completely new look.
She left me with the old pile of clothes I didn’t want though. And Bane was still gone. I guess his absentee tendencies hadn’t changed but mine had. I took all my nail polish remover and poured it on the pile of clothes I threw together.
The smoke alarms went off.
Everyone rushed in.
I stood there with a hand on my hip until Bane ran in like a man actually scared of losing something. I just wasn’t sure if he was scared to lose me or that his resort was burning to the ground.
Instead of yelling, he paced right up to me like he was going to beat the shit out of me. I would have welcomed it. I stood tall and tilted my chin, not stepping back at all. His hand flew up and still I didn’t flinch. “Your beautiful curls, baby girl.” His fingers threaded through my new hair.
“Out with the old, in with the new.” I pointed to the heap of steaming clothes Pepe and security had thrown water on. “I don’t want to be the little Bianca they molded me into.”
“Who do you want to be?” Bane had a small smirk his lips as he stared down at me.
I tilted my head at him and murmured, “I think I just want to be Pink.”
He nodded slowly and glanced at the hole I burned in the rug. “Done with this little fit you’ve had now?”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe not.”
He chuckled and pulled a black card from the wallet in his trousers and set it down on the dresser. “Buy whatever you want on my card. And it better not just be a bit of food.”
“I intend to spend thousands.”
“Try harder. Hit a mil if you want me to be impressed.”
What a show-off. I scoffed and rolled my eyes before swiping it off the dresser to go sit cross-legged on my bed.
He watched me put on an audiobook and then start scrolling shopping sites.
“That’s it? You got nothing else to say to me?
” He seemed concerned or confused that I wasn’t asking him for more.
I had a whole new identity to embody though. “I’m done worrying about you,” I told him with finality.
He frowned at that and then tilted his head. “What the hell are you listening to?”
“Oh? This one? It’s by Shain Rose. The main character is a forbidden fire witch and the hero is supposed to imprison her, but he’s about to screw her instead. He’s got ice powers though or nulling powers maybe? And—”
“You like the hero.” It wasn’t a question.
“Love him.”
His jaw popped three times as he continued to listen to the narrator. “Now I have to compete with magic?”
I tilted my head. “Find a girl who doesn’t listen to fantasy and you’ll be fine.”
He scraped his teeth over his bottom lip. “If I’m with someone, I’m letting them listen to all this, Pink, because I intend to live up to every standard that woman deserves.”
Damn it. That might have been the most romantic thing he’d ever said, and it wasn’t even meant to be. He left me there hot and bothered with his credit card.
So I used it way more than I intended to, buying a wardrobe that would make him drool in the future.
Later that day, he showed back up to work in my room.
And he didn’t leave. He sat in the same room and told me I could do what I wanted, but that he’d be working there as much as possible.
“Are you babysitting me?”
“No. I’m keeping you company while watching you. You wanted a change. This is it.”
“Well … I think I sort of overcame the silence.” I felt my heart start beating faster.
Was he going to be here all the time? Could I handle him sitting there in his perfect suits with his overwhelming presence working all day while I just sat around?
“Maybe I need my space now. I mean, how long are you going to work here?”
“All day.” He shrugged. “And my penthouse will be next to yours now. They’re moving my belongings.”
“What? Why?” I think I was in a state of shock.
“Why not? I can work there the same as I could downstairs. They’re moving my office and—”
“Your office is huge down there! You have rows and rows of skulls and—”
“All being moved. It’ll look the same. It’s no matter.” Just like that, he uprooted himself. “Why worry about it?”
“Um … well, for starters, you avoided me for a freaking year!” I sounded hysterical as I accused him.
He didn’t let me lash out with no retort though. “And then you proceeded to make it clear I couldn’t do that anymore. Recall how you did that?”
I snapped my mouth shut, not really sure I was comfortable talking about that yet.
“Don’t want to share?” He lifted a brow and then proceeded to stand and put all his work materials aside before he came over to me and placed both hands on either side of my hips on the bed so he could meet me at eye level.
“Fine I will. You made it clear I couldn’t ignore you anymore by cutting yourself enough that you were lying in your own blood, Pink.
I found you lying in that beautiful crimson color that’s supposed to stay inside you, give you life, and turn the parts of you pink that I like so much. In you. Not outside of you.”
“That’s a bit graphic.” I looked away from him and stuck out my bottom lip.
“Well, imagine seeing it then.” His jaw ticked. “Imagine seeing a person you care about in that state.”
I hummed. “You sure you care about me beyond the fact that I’m marrying your brother?”
“Rafe wants you better. That’s all.”
“Does he know we’re fucking?” I asked, because quite frankly, at this point he’d have to have some sort of clue.
“We’re not.” Bane finally looked up and his glare could have made a lesser person wither.
“Fine.” I scoffed. “We’re not. Does he know that his soon-to-be bride sleeps with a masked man whenever he graces her with his presence? That I fuck men with the lights out? That a masked man helped me burn down my childhood home?”
“If you never see the face of the men you hook up with, there’s no real evidence it’s me,” he said, like that was the perfect alibi. And then he continued, “As for your home, your parents were more than willing to have me buy it before you burned it down.”
“You bought my childhood home?” I squeaked, “Before we got there?”
“I told you they wanted to sell it. And I wasn’t sure whether you would want it.” He sighed and glanced up at me. “Am I going to get any work done in here?”
“You chose to work in here! And then you expect me to be quiet after you admitted to buying the home I burned down. You pretty much let me burn a million of your dollars!”
“It was two mil. But yes.”
“What the hell?” I screamed, throwing up my hands. “Why did you let me burn it down?!”
“Because it bothered you. And you felt better after. Am I right? Or was that just the masked man fucking you in the field?”
“I can’t believe you. The masked man we don’t know the identity of, right?” I sneered because he was being ridiculous.
“Exactly.”
“What if I want to have more masked men in the future?”
“I think that’s done for the time being.”
“Is Rafe sleeping around?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Who cares if he is?”
“Well, if he is, I’m going to be also,” I informed him.
“Because I’m not staying in here like you want me to for another four years, Bane.
I refuse. Bianca may have, but Pink won’t.
I hate sitting here in silence acting like a good little girl.
So, if you don’t want to fuck me or give me the time of day, let someone else. ”
“If I say no?”
He stared at me for probably a whole minute before I grabbed my phone and typed out a message to Rafe.
Me: I’m getting a job and sleeping with whoever I want for the next four years. Guessing you’re doing the same.
Rafe: Be discreet.
Bane: I’m not dealing with this.
Me: Then don’t. I’m fine within the Black resorts, right, Rafe?
He sent laughing emojis and a thumbs-up.
Rafe: Ask Bane about the Vault then.
I wasn’t sure what the laughing ones were for, but Bane was not in any way, shape, or form finding the joke in this.
“What’s the Vault?” I asked.
He got up to pace three times back and forth before he said, “Are you purposely trying to make my life hell?”
“Are you doing that to yourself? Let me go and live. Rafe basically just told you to.” I waited another second. “What’s the Vault?”
“Not something I use or you should use. Rafe doesn’t know how reckless you are.”
“Really? Does he know what happened with me…” I shifted uncomfortably.
Bane waited, like he wanted me to say it, like he intended to make me. “You going to dance around it forever?”
“What do you want me to say, Bane?”
“That you tried to fucking leave me!”
“I tried to leave the world!” I threw up my hands. “And you didn’t let me.”
“Nor will I ever. You don’t get to leave this world without me, Pink. I’ll drag you fucking back every single time.”
“Fine.” I huffed, it was dark and poetic and wrong that we were arguing about my suicide attempt, but that was the thing about Bane and me. We were almost normal when it came to our dysfunction. “Then, expect Pink rather than Bianca from here on out.”
“God damn it. What is that supposed to mean?”
I walked over to my minibar. There were still a few pieces of clothing there and I started ripping them from the hangers and I poured the liquor on them before going to look for more matches.
“You’ll set off the smoke alarms again,” he said, but he sat down and pulled a Zippo lighter from his pocket. “Not embarrassed?” he asked me without getting up.
I swiped the lighter from him. Maybe he didn’t think I have it in me? Fine.
I flicked the Zippo open and threw it on the clothing. Of course it went up in flames, and it was only about ten seconds later the alarms started … again.
He was texting something to someone as he languidly got up to open the door to my penthouse and let two more men rush in with their water bottles and a bucket.
The fire was out before it even really got started.
I wasn’t done though. I walked over my landline phone and dialed the number for the spa.
I waited as I stared at Bane staring at me.
When a receptionist picked up, I said, “Yes, thanks for doing my hair. Bane was just here … the owner of the resort, yes. He said I could work there?” I waited as the woman put me on hold and just a minute later Bane got a call.
“Pick it up.” My words were pointed. “Be a good boy and say yes, Bane.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll really go wild and you won’t like the result.” I put a hand on my hip and gave him a look. “I need more in my life. More friends. More activities. More love. More freaking chaos. You need the opposite. You would love more isolation. More silence. More violence. And more order.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Your point?”
“Just let me live how I want.”
He growled but he picked up and confirmed with his hotel management that I’d have free rein to work where I wanted within the resort. “Anywhere but the Vault.”
Only a minute later, she was back on the phone telling me to come in.
I should have taken that as a win, but now I was laser focused on the one place he didn’t want me.
When I hung up with her, I put a hand on a hip. “I’m going to find out. You know I’ll bother every single person including every guest of this place to figure it out.”
He sucked on his teeth and stood like he needed to leave. “You’re being impossible.”
“Just the way you like me.” I poked his shoulder. “Tell me.”
“The resort has been expanded. On the lower level, specific tastes are satisfied.”
“Like …” I dragged out the word.
“Like fantasies.”
“What? Like a sex club?” I chuckled but when he didn’t smile back, my jaw dropped. “Like where all my romantic fantasies could be fulfilled?”
“No,” he retorted angrily. “You try going in there for anything without me, Pink, and I’ll drag you right back to the place you called a dollhouse.”
My mouth snapped shut at that. “That’s low even for you, Bane.”
“I’ve got skulls lining the lower level room of a restaurant and my office, Pink. You think me throwing you back in there is low? I’ll take you to hell if I have to.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Let’s compromise. Take me with you next time you go.”
“I don’t go.”
“Because?”
“Because my fantasies aren’t in the Vault.” His stare was heated and suddenly I wanted to be in there with him, with what we had between us now, with me being Pink rather than Bianca.
“One day though?”
His jaw moved three times before he nodded.
And with that agreement, that was how we became reluctant friends over the next year.
He said no and I said yes and our push and pull drove everyone insane, but it worked …
Well, it worked until it didn’t.