Chapter 47
I push open Radical
Ink’s glass doors, and the moment I step into the shop, the smell of burning incense sticks hits my nose, making me scowl.
The waiting area is empty, save for Nicole, who is sitting behind the front desk and talking to someone on the phone.
She stops when she sees the crew and I, then gulps and shakily puts the receiver down on the table before getting to her feet.
“It’s too early in the morning for you to get on my nerves, Nicole,” I tell her, then walk over to the desk. I place my forearms on it and lean over, and Nicole’s chin starts trembling in time with the rest of her body.
“Where’s Gavin?” I ask her.
She’s panting a little, perhaps from having held her breath. “He’s not in yet,” she says.
I chuckle, and she looks on the verge of bawling. “Wrong answer,” I tell her. “Try again.”
“Dorran, please…”
“Tell
me, Nicole, and I’ll let you go. I promise.”
She blinks at me, and a few tears slide down her face, smearing her eyeliner as they go. “I–I swear he’s not–”
I slap the front of the table so hard, it makes her yelp, and for the table itself to rattle, resulting in the contents it held to crash against the tiled floor.
“Don’t fuck with me,” I sneer at her. “Tell me where Gavin is – right fucking now.”
She shakes her head, and that does it; that breaks my resolve of keeping my shit together.
I fist her hair and slam the side of her face against the embossed wall behind her, and when she screams, I press harder. “Now, have you decided to stop bullshitting me, or should I keep going?”
The door to one of the private rooms slams open, and a second later, Gavin walks out.
His hair’s tied above his head, and he’s wearing a black apron over his blue jeans and t-shirt.
He’s also got rubber gloves on, which means he was probably getting ready for a client, and that someone could walk into the shop at any time now.
“What the fuck is happening here, Nicole?” he asks, then comes to a stop when he sees the crew and I. “Dorran,” he addresses me with an icy glare, then glances at the hold I have on Nicole’s hair. “Let her go.”
I grin and pull back my hand, then turn and fold my arms across my chest.
“Hey, Gav,” I quip.
He snorts, seeming irritated. “I don’t know why I’m surprised to see you here, but I kinda am.”
I can’t help but laugh at that comment. “Did you really think your little chums could scare me away?” I click my tongue. “They weren’t even a proper challenge, man.”
His face tightens, and his nostrils flare. “You killed innocent people last night, Dorran. Doesn’t that fucking bother you at all?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it,” I say in honest indifference, then take a step forward, bringing myself a bit closer to Gavin. “Besides, they wanted my Cignette – to deliver her to you. I couldn’t possibly let that happen, could I?”
“You don’t deserve her,” he hisses at me.
“And I’m presuming you do?”
His chest rises and falls unsteadily as he stares at me. “She means a lot to me. I wanted to change for her; be someone she needs. But then you came along.”
“Are you saying you know exactly what Cignette needs, Gavin?” I chuckle. “Seriously, dude, have you figured her out so easily – just by fucking her a few times?” The last 6 words taste acidic in my mouth, but they are, unfortunately, also true.
“Well, she doesn’t need a goddamn murderer in her life, that’s for sure.”
“Gavin…” comes Nicole’s weak voice, and it’s clear that she’s shocked by what he’s saying. I’m not, though, because I know how men like him are: unreliable, untrustworthy.
Fucking absolute pieces of shit.
The shop’s doors open, making me look over my shoulder. Two girls – laughing among themselves whilst holding hands – start walking in, but one look at me, and they stop.
“Leave,” I tell them, and that simple word triggers their senses, because they practically rush away from the shop and into the street opposite ours.
With a roll of my eyes, I face Gavin again. “So, where were we?”
He looks unsettled by the absence of seriousness in my tone. “You’re only playing with her, aren’t you?” he says to me. “You think you’re so cool – toying with her like she’s a fucking puppet or something. You don’t care about her. Hell, you don’t care about anything but yourself.”
“You assume too much,” I tell him. “What I feel for her, you never fucking can. And you know why?” I tilt my head a little.
“Because what Cignette and I have is bound by blood – of our pasts, of our hardships, and of our will for survival. We’re both volatile in our own ways, but we stabilize each other when we’re together.
And that, Gavin, is something you never can, or will, have. ”
I realize after saying all that, that my throat has closed up. My chest is warm, and my head’s a bit heavy. Maybe it’s the weight of the things I’ve just confessed, or maybe it’s the truth in them that’s making it hard for me to breathe, but either way, I love it; I love how I feel right now.
“Fuck you, Dorran,” Gavin spits out, because he can’t counter what I’ve said with anything remotely as meaningful.
“Watch it, Gavin,” Jayce warns.
“It’s fine, Jay,” I say.
His jaw bunches up, but he gives me a subtle nod regardless.
“You must think you’re above us all, don’t you?” Gavin remarks, then laughs. “You go around threatening and killing people; you’ve got your ass secured by elites, and loaded with money. You’ve fucking got it all, but that doesn’t, not even for a second, change who and what you are, Dorran Ledger.”
“Gavin, shut the fuck up,” Nicole says.
I glare at her, to which she squirms and shrinks into herself, then look at Gavin again. “And what exactly am I?” I ask him.
“A monster,” he sneers at me.
I laugh, then rub the space under my chin.
“That’s it? That’s the best you got? A monster?
Gav, tell me something I don’t fucking know, man.
” I arch a brow. “Don’t you people call me the Bloody Prince or some shit like that?
Doesn’t being that come with an obvious stamp of also being a…
monster?” I laugh again, then shake my head.
His hands clench into fists as he seethes.
“But that’s what you are, Dorran; what you’ll always be – a sadistic, uncaring monster.
I know you don’t care about it, but you should.
And damn Cignette for choosing you over me, damn all those who think you’re someone to be feared.
Because I’m not fucking scared of you; I pity you.
I pity the life you lead, and the things you do in order to convince yourself that you’re superior to everything and everyone.
I pity the morals you stand for, and the–” He stops, and his eyes widen in complete shock.
A second later, he looks down, and when I do the same, I notice blood spreading steadily across his chest. From a bullet wound on his left pec.
Nicole screams, and the shots keep coming.
Two more on his chest, followed by one on his right shoulder, one on his stomach, and another that pierces right through the center of his forehead.
And, it’s only when Gavin drops dead on the floor, do I blink myself out of my trance and turn to Varsha, who looks like she’s in an entirely different zone.
She’s about to pull the trigger again, but I wrap my fingers around the gun and stand in front of her.
“Varsha, stop,” I say, and when she doesn’t even look at me, I pull the gun away from her and hand it to Jayce. “Varsha.”
She meets my stare, and what I see in hers makes my stomach knot.
Hurt.
She wasn’t over Gavin having cheated on her, so she took it upon herself to give herself what she needed: a final salutation to the relationship they once had.
“He won’t get away with everything he just said to you, Ledge,” she tells me. “He’s going to have to pay.”
“He’s dead, Varsha,” I say, then frown. “He’s fucking gone.”
She continues to look at me, all the while breathing heavily, and then, her eyes glaze over.
Her tears slip through before she can stop them, and my heart fucking aches at seeing her like this.
She hasn’t shed a single tear since her breakup with Gavin – not until now, when she’s finally ended things for good. The way she wanted them to end.
“Oh, Varsha.” My voice is constricted as I pull her to me and wrap my arms around her. “I’m so sorry, sis,” I whisper, then press a kiss on her forehead.
She fists my vest and holds onto me, and a moment later, Jayce and Alex join us. The latter runs a hand up and down Varsha’s back, while Jayce looks completely crestfallen.
A crunch-like sound gets my attention, making me look in its direction.
Nicole – who was trying to get away while me and the crew were distracted – stops short, having accidentally stepped on one of the fallen items from earlier.
She looks at us like a deer caught in headlights, and starts opening her mouth to say something, but I stop her.
“Going somewhere, Nicole?”
She’s flat-out shivering now, and I know it’s not because of the weather.
“I won’t tell anyone what happened here,” she provides. “I promise I won’t tell a soul. I’ll leave, and I swear you’ll never see me again.”
I disentangle myself from Varsha and walk over to her. “That’s the plan, isn’t it?” I say, then give her a wink.
A monster. That’s what you are…
Gavin’s words buzz in my ears, making me grin. I sniff and run a hand over my face, then focus on Nicole, who looks like she might faint if I so much as move a finger.
I sigh, give her a quick glance, then reach a hand out to Jayce. He offers Varsha’s gun to me, and when Nicole sees me holding it, she tries to make a run for it, but I grab her by the neck and push her back.
“No! Dorran, please… Please!” she begs as she struggles against me. “I won’t tell anyone. Please.”
I press the gun’s muzzle between her brows. “Look, I’m making it quick and easy for you, so just shut that bitch mouth of yours up and accept your fate. You’ve seen and heard more than you should’ve, which was supposed to be absolutely nothing. You’re not walking out of here alive, Nicole.”
She sobs and closes her eyes, seconds before I pull the trigger.
Her blood splashes across my face, and on instinct, I run my tongue over my bottom lip, tasting the familiar, iron-sweet flavor of it.
A monster.
A sadistic, uncaring
monster.
Fuck yeah, I am.
Nicole’s body loosens against my grip, so I let go of her neck, and watch as she falls in a heap at my feet. I then walk back to my crew and hand Varsha back her gun before saying, “Eddie will deal with this mess. Let’s get the fuck outta here, come on.”
She’s so disoriented as she nods that it makes me burn with rage.
If I could bring Gavin back to life and kill him myself, I would, because that asshole broke a piece of my sister today, and I know for a fact that it’s one she’ll never get back.
It sucks, and I’m helpless against it, and that’s the kind of situation I don’t like falling into.
The urge to turn around and look at Gavin’s dead ass one more time is strong, but I keep my eyes forward and follow the crew out of Radical
Ink. It is, after all, the only logical thing for me to do.