12
The Burden
Mikael
Amanda disappears from sight as Ace chuckles. Knowing that the mysterious Manny is a teenager that’s just as foul mouthed as she is has settled him nicely. A child that felt comfortable enough with her to barge in. She is familiar with his antics with hardly a lecture, grabbing him a drink as if it’s a ritual. A vague sense of maternal nurturing well hidden behind cursing and threats.
The boy dresses like a petty thug, but he’s protective of her. He’s warning her, likely about us. I don’t want him to poison her against us, but maybe that’s for the best. We still don’t know enough about her to make a decent call on her guilt with what we’re learning here. With all the random coincidences piling up, there’s a lot of doubt right next to it.
I look around the dismal apartment with a frown. It’s obvious that she isn’t wealthy. Ace was right when he said she took nothing with her when she left. There are no welcoming touches here to make it a home. She’s living as minimally as possible to spare expenses. Or so it seems.
This could be a long con. An in to get to Gabe and his money or worse. This wouldn’t be the first time or the last, I bet.
Gabe recaptures my attention as he holds up one of the letters and mutters, “What are the odds?”
“Slim at best,” I glance down at the sheet in my hand.
With each of us handling the envelopes, fingerprints will be a crapshoot. If she gets another one, we can send it in, but these won’t net us much. Each page has a carefully printed name in large font in the same style—nothing else.
A young woman, alone, in this kind of setting, receiving this type of letter makes what I’m seeing even more depressing. How is she not afraid? This has to be a setup of some kind. No woman would be so unconcerned with receiving countless pages from an unknown sender, regardless of the contents.
“This is a lot more than we thought,” Ace shuffles through pages with a scowl. “And the fuckers are sendin’ it to her . Why?”
I look back at the closed drawer. I know there’s more in there. She moved things to the side before she handed the names over. What is she hiding?
The drawer opens smoothly to reveal a few missed manila envelopes. I pick one up and take in the smaller white envelope underneath. They have the same bland label with her name and address on it without postage or a return address.
“There’s more,” I mutter and dig one out and then another. There are several. I can feel something thicker than pages inside the one in my hand. I tip it and watch four photographs fall to the counter.
I immediately want to stuff them back inside with disgust. This is unrefined pornography at its finest. The shots are amateurish close-ups of women’s faces or body parts. The only sign there’s a man involved is a hand or a random view of his cock inside them. My brows furrow as I bring one closer to my face.
“What’s that?” Ace asks, turning his ever-present anger on me instead of an inanimate object.
“Porn,” I reply helplessly.
“Excuse me?” Gabe raises a brow and snatches the photo out of my hand. The immediate distaste on his face makes me smirk. The fucker could have asked for one. It’s not like it had Amanda in it.
That thought makes me clear my throat. My one tell of discomfort. Gabe gives me a bewildered look for it. I’m not telling him what got me hot. It certainly wasn’t what I’m looking at now. My semi goes down immediately when I take in a new photo.
Ace stands at my side and picks up another white envelope. When the pictures come out, his expression drops into disgust. The man has no interest in pornography whatsoever. He said he prefers the real thing to pictures. I can suddenly understand where he’s coming from.
The room in each picture has the same dark red walls and black silk sheets. Not a bedroom or hotel room. This looks like a brothel. In one, I can just barely make out a row of sex toys hanging from the wall. All with the same hand adorned with a ring shown. Odd that so many of them have this as a prominent feature. A message only the perfect viewer would receive.
The ring is a heavy white-gold piece with a single square diamond pressed into the surface. A wedding ring. Upending another envelope reveals another woman with the same theme to the pictures. It’s obvious, based on the ring and the manicure it’s all the same man, no matter which woman is present. He’s been busy.
Who the fuck gets manicures? Rich men trying to impress women. The ones who don’t work with their hands much. Office types. Gabe types. No calluses in sight. Smooth knuckles. It must be nice.
“There’s more?” Gabe asks in a hiss of anger when he sees the open drawer and the scattered stack of envelopes left.
I find a better view of the ring in a photo. Unfortunately, it’s a nauseating close-up of a woman being taken from behind.
“Ace,” I mutter and turn the photo towards him.
“The fuck, Mik?” Ace smacks my hand down.
“The ring. It’s a wedding ring. Is it the same one in yours?”
Gabe and Ace glance at me in confusion and then look at their photos.
“Yeah. A cheatin’ fuck,” Ace’s voice trails off as his eyes meet mine. He’s following my thoughts. I can tell because of the rage rebuilding in his eyes. “You don’t think this is Blake , do you?”
“They all have that ring in them somewhere. The same man in each photo. No face shots for him, though. They’re not sending names alone. But why this too?” I dig out more to verify, passing them around so I’m not the only one forced to look.
“Could Amanda be the photographer?” Gabe asks with a dark look of censure.
The thought of it disgusts me, and I can’t say why. I’ve participated in my fair share of bacchanalian acts.
Amanda does not seem like the type. Not to mention, Ace believes she left because Blake is cheating. The fact that she’s keeping these photos hidden in her mystery drawer is telling.
But we’re all jaded with our own views on how to perceive a guilty party. She has our attention in more ways than one, which brings the caution level up considerably. It’s one thing to have an informant or spy in the ranks. Another when each of us wants to keep her.
If she is guilty of anything, could I punish her for it? Lock her away until she learns better, yes. Abuse her for it? No. And I’ve only met her twice now. I’m just as bad as Ace, a mindset that baffled me previously. You can’t own a person no matter how hard you try.
A loud throat clearing yanks our attention to the doorway.
Amanda is standing there with her arms crossed under her ample breasts with a raised chin of clear stubbornness. Her flannel pajamas are large enough to be a man’s, which angers me, worn thin from excessive use. There’s a rip over her thigh that calls my attention to her creamy pale skin, making me swallow hard at the sight of it again. How is the simple sight of a bare inch of her more arousing than anything displayed in these pictures?
My eyes snap up to hers, but she’s focused on the photos in our hands.
Her expression is filled with bitter pain. She didn’t want us to see this. Not because she wanted to hide information. To spare herself the pain of seeing us digging through something that’s obviously very personal to her.
She didn’t take these pictures. And the man is Blake. These are something else sent to torment her. I don’t doubt that this part of the mystery is real.
This isn’t the face of the fierce woman we’ve seen. The vulnerability there makes me want to destroy all of this. And the man that put that look in her eyes. The defeated, hopeless expression should not be there.
A muscle twitches in her jaw before dark anger covers her pain. When she looks at us, the disgust at how we must appear to her makes me want to drop the photos and pretend to be innocent. Anything to get the pain-fueled rage off her face.
The following rant that rips Gabe’s pride to shreds is as amusing as it is concerning. Gabe has it as bad for her as we do. It would be easy to trip any of us up with how much chemistry is getting thrown around. There’s no way this ends in anything but combustion either way.
I’m excited to feel the burn.
The three of us are on the same page about her, even though we haven’t explicitly spoken about it. We’re all interested in her. We’ve shared this type of dynamic before. There’s no reason to feel jealousy when we each have our own methods of seduction. Or they do, at least. I gave up on that a long time ago. Long enough that I have no idea what I’m doing. Other than trying not to drool like an idiot when she comes into view.
No. I have to be level-headed about this. Ace is too far gone, and Gabe is baffled about how to deal with her. The heavy hit she gives the top of his head proves it. Watching him backtrack at speed would be funny if I didn’t want to punch him for his insulting comment.
I hurry to drop the photos I’m holding with Gabe’s back covering me before I become her next target. Ace tosses his on the counter beside me so I can sweep them into the drawer as well. Out of sight, hopefully out of her mind.
Nothing about this woman is adding up. Several things are glaringly obvious. She’s been emotionally manipulated before. She’s standing up for herself with enough belligerence to be concerning. There’s no fear if we’re mafia or not. She doesn’t seem to mind if she’s set up and thrown in jail. She seems eager to see her ex dead.
If this is a play, it’s the oddest one I’ve ever seen.
She thinks we’re here to take advantage of her. That isn’t the natural thought process of a guilty person. She has something we want. She could easily leverage information for money. She hasn’t, as if the thought hasn’t occurred to her.
Her knee-jerk reaction is to assume we’re here to torment her, just like these photos.
A victim mentality in the form of an enraged spouse.
I don’t want to think of her being married to the owner of that fucking ring.
Especially when Manny comes back and tells her Blake is here. He urges her to confront her ex instead of hiding. She’s bounced from puzzled to angry and now timid. Watching her sudden withdrawal from the fiery rage she’s been spreading all over us is sobering.
But who could tell if any of it is genuine?
The kid.
Manny knows her well enough not to be surprised at her sudden withdrawal into timidity. He also knows that her temper is real. She’s loud and brash but not violent. Take away the magazine, and I doubt she would have approached Gabe at all when he lost it.
After he tosses her out of her apartment, he locks the door so she can’t come back in. It makes me uneasy. Fake or not, she’s out there alone with a possible threat.
“Don’t back down!” Manny turns to smile at us. When he sees us and remembers we’re bad news, his smile falls off.
“She shouldn’t be alone out there,” Ace snaps at me. What I did, I don’t know, but his fury is focused on me.
“This is a public place,” Gabe mutters. Ace gives him an exasperated look. “Public enough, Ace. Manny, has he hurt her before?”
The kid jumps a little when we turn to him.
“I don’t think so. She doesn’t talk about him much. Whenever I try, she clams up. We all know he treated her like shit, though.” He looks back at the door guiltily. “She used to be a doormat around here all the time. We thought she was a pushover. Until we heard her threaten to put the old landlord’s dick in a blender. Scared him bad enough that he disappeared.”
Wait a second. Didn’t South say-
“ Who all has seen her act like this?” Gabe asks quickly.
Good question. A little history will verify her story or prove she’s a liability.
Why is Blake suddenly showing up while we’re here? Another coincidence ?
“Everyone in the complex, man,” he gives us a disgusted look. “When she first got here, she was sad all the time. The angry version is a fuck ton better. She doesn’t act like she’s seen anything physical, though.”
“How long has she been here?” Ace butts in. Gabe gives him a glare for it that gets ignored.
“Uh, like four or five months?”
“That long?” Gabe asks and looks around at the barren wasteland of the apartment.
That’s an impressive length of time to portray a victim. And the highlighting might never have been brought to our attention. She certainly wouldn’t have planned to verbally abuse us as soon as she saw us. If she knew about us she would have known about Jake and Cade. She hasn’t been treating them any better.
“Well, well, well.”
Amanda’s voice comes clearly through the door. The ominous pitch sounds so offbeat it makes Manny’s eyes widen in delight.
“Please let her kick him in the dick,” he sends the prayer up in a mutter and presses his ear to the door.
My eyes meet Gabe’s. I can see that he’s on the same wavelength as I am. There’s no need to look at Ace. He’s already in. If this fucker tries something, we’re breaking him in half.
We can’t help but move closer to take in the argument.
The man even sounds like a scumbag. How the hell did someone like Amanda marry that? She can do so much better. Say, any of us, for instance.
Ace’s vicious smile at her cutting the man down to size is disturbing. Gabe crosses his arms with a smirk, happy that someone else is getting her rage-filled venom.
When he tries to convince her to let him inside the apartment, I’m hoping she says yes. I want him in here with us. We can see how that conversation goes.
“You better fuckin’ beg, and I’ll still kill you,” Ace mutters, his stare firmly fixed on the wall as if he can see through it to the fucker outside. Manny slowly glances back at him with fear.
Or there won’t be a conversation at all. I’m good with it either way.
The more Blake speaks, the angrier Ace gets. He’s doing everything he can to convince her to give him a second chance as if he’s innocent.
A thought hits like a bolt of lightning.
He doesn’t know. He has no idea she’s seen what he’s been up to.
So who the fuck is sending her the photos?
I glance back at the drawer I left open. Could it be one of the women in the photos sending them as a warning? Are there even more out there?
Ace takes a stealthy step closer to the door, catching my attention. He’s gearing up, not that I blame him. But there’s a kid here, and despite Amanda’s assurances of wanting Blake dead, it’s another story to watch it happen in front of her.
Blake pleads with her to come home but she adamantly refuses. It isn’t until he starts insinuating she’s cheating as well that her anger breaks. Gabe’s arms drop and Ace begins scowling.
When we first got here, we thought she was sleeping with Manny, which led us all into anger before she opened the door. Finding out it was a kid soothed us. This doesn’t.
She sounds baffled as Blake starts getting angrier. His voice is dropping into a low threat that I don’t like. That’s a lot of rage for a man who’s slept with an entire town’s worth of women. Gabe and Ace are too intent on getting information to pay attention to it.
“Who is the guy that’s calling you his girl?” Blake snaps, out of patience with her.
Gabe’s head turns to take in the surprised pleasure that covers Ace’s face. My brows furrow. Was Blake at the gym? That’s the only place Ace has said that other than just a second ago. And in the car. And in the office.
How did he know?
A tiny niggle in the back of my brain has me turning back to the open drawer again. Before I can take two steps, Blake snaps something at Amanda, sending Ace over the edge.
I barely have time to catch his collar and pull him back. He takes a swing at me. I’m too familiar with his first salvo to let it hit, knocking his arm down with my forearm. I’m not as prepared for the surprising addition of his fist in my ribs.
My air tries to desert me as we glare at each other.
“I am not doing this with you. Calm. Down,” I grit in his face.
He blinks and shakes his head as if he’s trying to throw his anger off. Seeing my face and looking into my eyes helps center him enough to knock him out of it. Manny is pressed against the wall, watching us warily.
“He’s gearin’ up to hurt her, Mik. Let me lose.” His tone is wrecked with rage, but he’s making sense, at least.
The conversation outside continues as we stare each other down. Amanda is laughing at Blake as he demands answers. We listen to them, still staring at each other. I still have a good grip on the back of his collar, though his shirt has been stretched out. I think he’s calming down until Amanda ruins it.
“Are you telling me that if I get caught with another guy, you’ll divorce me?”
“You are mine , Amanda!”
That tone. That’s violent. I’m loosening my grip on Ace when Amanda drops her bomb.
“Fuck that. I’m screwing every man in this building and taking out an ad in the paper. Social media? There’s so many ways I could do this.”
Ace lunges for the door. Manny slides out of the way with wide eyes filled with fear. Gabe elbows Ace in the side, forcing out a harsh grunt as I catch up to him. I grab him by the bicep and haul him back hard enough he stumbles and hits the wall.
When he raises his chin there’s no sign of recognition in his eyes as he sneers at me. I’m not his friend anymore. Right now I’m an obstacle keeping him from what he wants. Namely to have Blake’s head on a platter to serve to her. Or to bend her over and spank her ass for daring to say something like that where we could hear.
I brace myself as he comes at me, tackling me. He’s gotten stronger with rage, not that he’s a pushover to begin with. My feet slide until I hit the mattress on the floor, his fists pummeling my sides the entire way. He’s not going to feel anything I do back. Pain won’t register for him until he’s calmer.
He keeps moving, forcing the mattress to skid along with me. I almost fall when it wedges against something. The sturdier surface helps me regain my feet and push back.
Instead of trying to do more damage, I shove him away, getting my foot up to kick him even farther.
He crashes into the open drawer, breaking it off and spreading photos and letters everywhere.
I advance on him to get a firm grip on his shirt and force him into the kitchen, where he has less room to maneuver. He slips on one of the pages and cartwheels, slamming an elbow into a cabinet and cracking the fake wood as he goes down. I almost fall with him. I’ve just caught my balance when his boot slams into my chest, knocking me into the fridge. It tilts at my weight and skids until it hits the wall.
I have enough time to see Ace’s fist coming at my face and fall out of the way. He hits the fridge’s door hard enough to dent it.
She really isn’t going to get her deposit back.
I straighten and shove him into the wall, holding him there as he swings wildly, connecting with any part of me he can.
Yeah, I’m used to getting hit, but damn, his fists are like iron.
When he tries to head-butt me, I pull him forward to slam him into the wall again.
“Ace,” I grit out. “Snap out of it.”
“Amanda,” Gabe says coldly.
My shoulders hike up, expecting to hear her tirade over the damage to her apartment.
Ace’s fists drop, and he blinks a few times.
I gape at him in angry disbelief.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grit out and shove him again as I back away.
Ace shakes his head and looks around me, frowning.
“Where is she?”
“Still out there,” Gabe tells him with an angry expression.
Ace relaxes back against the wall, wincing when he looks over at me.
“Sorry, Mik.”
“Yeah, right,” I straighten my suit with a glare. “Next time this happens, I’ll have her on speed dial.”
“Not a bad idea,” Gabe mutters.
Someone slams on the door, gaining our attention.
“Open up, Manny! Petty vengeance will be mine !”
The kid hurries to slide the deadbolt out of the way, more to escape than to let her in.
“Here’s your girl now,” Gabe jibes with a smirk. The easy taunt falls out of him naturally. He’s never done this, not without a freezing tone and a condescending look.
She broke him.
Amanda is excited as she blows through, oblivious to the damage done to her apartment. She’s focused on something else. We get out of her way as she opens the fridge and grabs a soda. It isn’t until she starts shaking it that I get concerned. The door of the fridge won’t close properly, so Ace forces it with a wince.
South enters next while Manny backs into a corner, eyeing her like she’s a snake. He has good instincts. His cowering gets worse as Shade follows behind her.
Amanda opens the window above where her mattress was.
She suddenly rears back like a professional pitcher and slings the soda out the window.
“Jeff, no !” Manny yells seconds too late.
The two women hurry to lean out and watch whatever happens next.
Glass breaks, shattering the frozen silence before a car alarm starts blaring.
Gabe’s jaw drops as she squeals in victory.
“Score! I actually hit what I aimed at!”
When she notices that South hasn’t stepped back she grabs her arm, yanking her closer.
“Are you crazy? He’ll see you!”
South says something back to her indignant lecture.
“Ok, Captain Invisible. But in reality? He would have said you did it, and I’m not into feeling guilty about anything. Do me a solid and learn how to duck and cover if we hang out in the future.”
“Guilt is a useless emotion.”
That comes across soft but clear. If I had any doubts that South is a psychopath, this would wipe that away immediately.
“Most of them are,” Amanda sighs. Then she starts looking around and frowning. “What the fuck happened in here? Who messed up my fridge? I left you guys alone for five minutes, tops! Clean this up, assholes!”
I try not to look guilty as the kid protests and marches away. She lets him go easily, but I don’t think we’ll be spared.
“The cops won’t do anything,” South watches Manny leave without expression.
“True. They don’t come out this far very often. But it would be my luck if they showed up and arrested me.” Amanda sighs ruefully and then glares at us as she moves to the mattress. Damn, how did we get it into the closet like that?
“One of you get your ass in here and help me with this.”
Gabe glares at her over the rash demand. Ace watches her like she’s a dream that will disappear if he moves.
I step forward to take one for the team.
“ Thank you. It must be difficult dealing with them all the time. They did this, didn’t they? You’re innocent.”
Her irritated grumble makes me smirk at her. She has no idea how difficult it can be. I’m happy to throw Ace and Gabe under the bus. Taking one for the team has never been so satisfying.
The mattress is easy to move back into place. Out of pure guilt, I redo the sheets and blanket, trying to see if my incriminating footprint might be on the fabric.
“I’m calling you if I ever manage to move out of here. What’s your name?” Her voice falls in awe as I straighten to glance at her.
I’m struck dumb by the surprise on her face as she smiles at me. A genuine smile. No vicious mockery in sight. My heart gives a heavy jolt in my chest.
Damn it. Now is not the time to lose words. I should be telling her my name. Blaming Ace for the mess. Saying you’re welcome. Anything!
Instead, I’m struck mute as I pace away in shame.
I almost step on a photo and bend down to pick it up as I berate myself silently.
My brows furrow as I spin it to get a clear look at the woman’s face.
This was one of the women at the gym.
I glance at Ace’s shamed face and flip the photo for him to see.
His expression falls into disgust before he blinks and leans closer.
This is the reason Blake knew. He’s been sleeping with her friend. The gym class is a setup for Blake to keep an eye on her.
Why?
Amanda is a mystery that’s building layer on layer. We need to keep her close to find out what the fuck is going on.
At least, that’s what I’m going to tell everyone else.