Chapter 36 #2
“Horse crap. First, you’re kidnapped, and now you’re stuck in a basement with a bunch of savages. No one can be fine with such shitty living arrangements.”
I laughed. God, I loved her and the way she managed to put me at ease with her sarcasm and snarky remarks. Not even a close encounter with death managed to take that light away from her.
She tried to wriggle a little, and her face scrunched up in pain. “Jesus Christ, what does a woman have to do to be able to move into another goddamn position?”
“Can I help?” I stood, my hands hovering over her, not sure where or how I would be able to assist.
Neon cringed and moaned, shifting a little on the bed. “Nah. Forget it. I think I know what a fucking baby feels like now, all wrapped up and unable to move.”
“Are you in any pain right now?” I sat back down, this immense amount of sympathy sweeping over me, and I had to bite back the tears.
“Besides my one side being numb? No. Doc has me on some pretty potent shit. Remind me to get the name of that stuff.” She gave me a once-over. “Stop staring at me like you’re about to cry, or I’m about to break.”
“Neon—”
“I know. I know. I’m already broken, right?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Truth was, from where I sat, she sure looked broken.
She looked like she had been dragged through hell and back.
Like every part of her had been shattered, stepped and spat on.
I was convinced had it been someone else, they wouldn’t have survived whatever they had put her through.
But it wasn’t her physical wounds that worried me.
“Neon, I know I’ve asked this before. But are you okay? Like, really okay?”
She cleared her throat, and I was sure I saw a glimmer of a tear in the corner of her eye, but she blinked it away. “I didn’t die, so there’s that.”
“It was hell thinking you were dead.”
“Ah, Swan Lake. It’s good to know someone will miss me if I really had to tap out someday.”
“I’m serious, Neon. I couldn’t stop blaming myself, blaming him.”
“Stop. It’s not your fault, and it’s not Granite’s either. When they found me, I asked him not to tell you.”
“Why? Why didn’t anyone want me to know? God, Neon. It was torture thinking you were dead.”
She scoffed. “You think it was torture for you?”
Shame made me look away. “I’m sorry. I have no reason to feel like I’m the one who’s been wronged.”
“It’s okay.” She took a few labored breaths. “Just…don’t blame Granite. The guy is having a hard enough time blaming himself.”
I nodded, toying with my cuticles. I didn’t know what to say next.
What was left to say after everything that had happened?
Words felt so inadequate. Nothing could make any of this better.
Maybe only time, something that almost got taken away from her in the cruelest way.
And here I was feeling sorry for myself, thinking I had it bad.
A mother who didn’t know how to love. A father who didn’t seem to care.
And a man who tore me away from my world, made me fall for him, then ripped my heart out by lying to me.
By making me think he was the devil. All that had happened to me could not even be compared to what Neon had to have gone through.
Yet here she was, trying to play it down by seeing the silver lining—the fact that she didn’t die.
“So,” she started, “what’s going on out there? I was sure I heard a commotion.”
“Well, I think I almost witnessed World War Three out there with Onyx and Ink trying to kill each other.”
“Oh, my God. Are you serious?”
I nodded.
“God, Ink is such an asshole. What’d he do?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think it was Ink’s fault. Onyx was all worked up and pissed at Granite.”
“About what?”
It occurred to me that this wasn’t the kind of conversation I should have with Neon right now. “You know what?” I waved it off. “It’s nothing.”
“Nah-ah. You don’t get to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Start a conversation, going in one direction, then make a complete U-turn just because you don’t want to upset me. You know what’s going to upset me?”
I stared at her.
“You not telling me what you were just about to tell me.”
Leaning to the side, I looked at her IV. “Is that stuff not supposed to make you sleepy?”
“Swan Lake, out with it.”
“Neon—”
“Don’t make me get up and kick your ass.”
“Oh, please. A minute ago, you couldn’t move from one position to another.” Neon’s eyebrow snapped down, and I frowned at her. “Okay,” I conceded. “Do you know a guy with the name…I think it was Junkyard?”
“Oh, yeah. He’s a member of the club. I’ve seen him around at the bar.”
I hesitated, doubting whether I should continue. Neon picked up on it.
“Talk, Swan Lake.”
“Fine. Apparently, this guy Junkyard got killed tonight.”
“Jesus—”
“Neon, are you sure you want me to tell you? I don’t even know if I’m telling the right story here. All I know is what I heard.”
She lightly shook her head, her nose scrunched up. “It’s fine. If I can survive a bunch of sadistic Python fucks, I can survive whatever you’re about to tell me.”
I sat back. “All I heard was something about an ambush, and that Junkyard got killed. Onyx wanted to go back to NYC…” I paused. “Wait a minute. If we’re not in NYC, then where the hell are we?”
Neon sighed. “We’re at the safe house in Coney Island. Now can you please just finish the fucking story before I die of old age?”
“Coney Island?”
“Swan Lake!”
“Okay, fine.” I shot my arms up in the air. “Onyx wanted to go back to NYC, and Granite said no.”
“Why?”
“Something about it being a setup, and that the Pythons are expecting them to go back.”
Neon nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Anyway, so, Granite stomped off, and then Ink said he agreed with Granite.” I eyed Neon with caution. “And then Onyx kinda said some things.”
Her eye narrowed. “What things?”
“Things about Ink not wanting to go because he doesn’t want to leave your side.”
Neon chuckled, her mouth curved at the sides. “I bet Onyx didn’t put it that nicely.”
I pulled my lips in a thin line, shaking my head.
“Let me guess,” she cleared her throat, “Ink tried to rip Onyx’s face off?”
“Yup.”
“Fucker is as smart as a loaf of bread, I swear to God.”
“He’s in love with you. You know that, right?”
Neon snorted. “He’s too in love with himself to love someone else.”
“I’m serious, Neon.”
“So am I. Ink is a manwhore who can’t handle the fact that I have no desire to let him fuck me. It’s driving him mental.”
Even with her bruised face and half-swollen eye, I managed to catch a glimpse of something that seemed a lot like disappointment while she said those words.
Like a part of her might have wanted to believe what she said wasn’t true.
I was pretty sure if it was me, Neon would have pushed and pushed until I’d admitted it.
But I decided to let it go and changed the subject.
“There’s another woman down here with us.”
“Really?” Her brow lifted. “Who?”