Chapter 10 #2
I put the gun away, much to both Nisha and Basti’s relief. The crowd relaxes and people start eating again, excited Prescott patrons stumbling out of the diner’s doors in vintage clothes or alt clothes or goth clothes or emo clothes. Everyone wants to see this shit go down.
“Why are you here?” I ask, genuinely curious. I adjust my grip on the fork, eyes on the silver tines and not on my sister’s face. I can’t stand to look at her. I’m too disgusted. She could’ve been so much better than this…this envy-green serpent that she’s become.
“Did you know that Lemon was related to Chet Archer?” Alexis laughs when I go still. I shouldn’t listen to what she’s saying. Especially not right now. I should just stab her. “You did, I’ll bet. Found out that she had a rich daddy, and you couldn’t handle not being the special one in Prescott—”
Alexis isn’t able to counteract the force of my body slamming into her, throwing her against the side of the car with its four flat tires.
I jam the fork into her upper back, just above the neckline of her jacket.
The blunt tines are resisted briefly by her skin until there’s this burst and bam, there’s blood pouring down her back.
My sister screams as I take a careful step back, reaching up to fix the bow on my blouse again. My hands are wet with her blood, but I pay it no mind. I’ve got to keep myself under control here.
Alexis could be lying about the Chet thing. Easily. Don’t read too much into it. Don’t think about Cody. Scarlett, she’s trying to destabilize you, and you can’t let her do it.
“Now that Aspen’s finally whipped you on the track, everyone in Prescott should know the truth!” Alexis is gasping for breath, clawing at her bloodied shoulder as the crowd remains unmoved. Nobody stopped eating when I did that. Shit, their food probably tasted better on the next bite.
“Give me another fork,” I say, wiggling my fingers. It’s Widow that offers one up. I don’t thank him.
“You killed, Lemon!” Alexis is absolutely feral, like she believes she’s the righteous one in this interaction. Even if she were, I wouldn’t care. The next time I bring the fork to her skin, it’s with the tines pressing into her jugular. She stops moving, eyes shifting over to mine.
“No more lies, Lexi.”
I stare at her with what I hope is the look of the devil.
It’s taking everything I have not to splatter this parking lot with my sister’s blood.
The half of me that lives for adrenaline, that crime boss bitch that squats inside me like a toad, she wants to do it.
She wants to uphold her reputation by using the ironclad rules of this neighborhood.
The other half, the more rational half, knows that if I murder my sister, I will never escape Prescott.
Curly brown hair hangs around Lexi’s face while my long, black braid is picked up by the wind.
She hates me, and all I ever did was love her.
“You sunk Lem’s body in a lake on logging property,” Lexi chokes out, her breath frosting white clouds between us. Mine, too. Dueling breaths. “Just to take her man.”
This is my chance to explain myself. To redeem myself after tonight’s race.
“I’m holding back right now,” I explain, as calmly as I’m able. “I don’t want to have to kill you in the middle of a goddamn parking lot.”
“You mean you can’t kill me,” Alexis retorts, grabbing my wrists. She can’t move me. Not an inch. I’m a lot stronger than her.
“I can’t kill you?” I ask, the wind grabbing onto the giant bow that’s tied in beautiful black-and-white stripes at the base of my throat.
My ruined manicure as I keep the fork pressed to her neck.
“Why would you think that? Because the Kelly boy won the race?” I laugh at that.
I start laughing and I can’t seem to make myself stop.
There are tears at the corners of my eyes.
Alexis tries to pull a knife on me, so I stab her in the thigh with the fork instead, right through her tights. She’s wearing one of my skirts and I’ll be damned if I let that go a single day longer.
“Do not ever touch anything that belongs to me.” I yank the fork back with a splash of blood across my face as Alexis collapses to the ground, ass-first in an icy puddle. She doesn’t look scared enough. Lemon was more afraid when I ground her into the mud. Lexi is stubborn.
“Hey, Queen,” Basti whispers, putting his hand on my back for support. He’s still concerned that I’m going to snap. I’ve grown a lot lately though. I’ll prove that to him. I control my twitchy fingers, forcing all of that crazy into my smile.
“At least Lemon was self-destructive,” I explain to my sister.
“You’re just a typical Prescott ladder climber, sinking her claws into my spine and climbing over my bleeding body to reach a higher rung.
This is my neighborhood. My diner. My crew.
” I swipe the blood from the fork onto my skirt and then tuck the item into my pocket before stepping close to Alexis and squatting down in front of her.
My fingers slip into her pocket, drawing out the KMZI 66.6 lighter that she won during the job fair. I wiggle it at her, still smiling. Alexis hasn’t said a word, eyeing me in a way that promises she isn’t done. Giving me no choice but to write the ending to her story.
“Aspen will never love you,” Alexis fires back, making me wonder if she slept with the real thing. What will she make of Ash refusing to sleep with her now? Who says he isn’t? I ask myself. Especially when he dares to put Emma Jean on his lap—
“Lemon’s fiancé will never love anyone else.
” I shrug and stand back up, pocketing the lighter and revealing a secret at the same time.
Strategically. Utilizing the Prescott gossip network.
Trapping Ash in my web. “He’s dead.” Big ol’ grin for Alexis.
“Do not let me see you around here again or even track rules won’t save your ass. If I were you, I’d leave town.”
“Scarlett is sucking the mob’s dick!” Alexis shouts out, struggling to her feet with a fork sticking out of her back. She might be a Prescott bitch, but I am the Queen of Prescott Bitches. “She wants Prescott to drown in crime because it’s what she does best.”
I let her go, ranting and raving as she wanders through a parking lot full of people who trust me more than they believe her. My reputation in action.
The crowd is scowling and swearing at Alexis now, spitting in her direction, throwing spare fries. These people know me. It’ll take a lot more than the ramblings of my crazy sister to crack this rep.
“Must be nice to fuck your way to the top,” Lexi shouts at me as she tears the fork from her back and clutches it in a bloody fist. “Screw the son of the mob, get favors. Screw the mayor’s son, get some more favors. Screw the new guy and take his car. Screw the creep who kills people for money.”
“What you’re really asking is: what does she have that I don’t?
” I reply with a faux pout. I run a single finger from the point of my chin, down my throat, the curves of my body.
“The answer is literally everything, babe. Did you ever ask yourself if maybe Lemon was fucking the wrong twin? You know, the one whose foot they found floating in the bay. I always choose the winning side. Clearly a skill you don’t possess.
” I slap my hip and then flip Alexis off with the upside-down cross on my finger.
“This better be the last time I see you.”
She smiles at me, this little knowing smile that foretells her own end, a crystal ball made of teeth and malice. For my own sister to look at me like that, what a life I lead. I’ve had eyes out for traitors all around and let a changeling grow and thrive inside my own nest? Nah.
Alexis backs away, dripping blood, and then turns. I watch as she walks down the gravel road where…a blue Shelby (with fresh tires) is waiting to pick her up.
Ash. Damn it.
Jennifer Atwell is standing beside me with her blue eyes wide, hands clasped together, practically bouncing with excitement. She lives for gossip and she’s great at feeding it to me.
She’s even better at feeding the machine.
“Tell everyone that Lem picked the wrong twin,” I explain casually, and then I sweep past her and toward Ash’s car.
Without a single fear that he might hit me, I step directly in front of the Shelby with my arms folded. Alexis is yelling something inside the vehicle that I can’t hear since she’s shut the door, the engine is rumbling, and KMZI 66.6 is blasting.
Ash climbs out and stalks over to me like he’s Aspen, pebbling my skin with goose bumps. Even the pretend version of his hideous twin looks dangerous. Not the eyes, though.
I smile, a filthy saccharine thing.
“I am this close to saying the hell with it, and slicing Alexis’ throat in front of the entire neighborhood. It’s okay if you’ve got a plan, but you need to execute it, like, yesterday.” I reach out a hand for Ash’s tie, and he swats me away with the sharp flick of a spoiled princeling’s wrist.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” he says, smooth and sibilant, lacking any trace of an English accent, “before I run you over.”
“I’ll take that as a yes, ma’am and move on.” I slap a palm against Ash’s dry cheek before I sashay back in the direction of the diner’s front doors. Nisha and Bastian join me at the midway point, falling into line like soldiers.
The parking lot returns to normal. Kissing couples. Fighting couples. Fucking couples. Jennifer, running from car to car to spread Queen-approved gossip.
Widow is standing beside the old rusty newspaper stand, trying to grab some sort of private couple-look with me.
“Not bad, Mrs. Lawless,” he growls as I reach for the handle of the door.
I pause with my fingers wrapped around it and give him a nasty look.
He’s so stupidly handsome that I only get more enraged at the sight of him.
Why?! Nature is cruel. “Long-time coming. Only thing missing was Kelly’s blood in the mix. ”