Chapter 24 #2
Blair doesn’t smile back. The life doesn’t come back into her eyes either.
“You’re not in the right head space to play, Rhett,” she replies, her answer clipped. “Maybe we should head home.”
I recoil. “What? No. I’m fine.”
“Bullshit,” Santi snaps.
“Oh, it’s bullshit?” I clap back as anger surges forward. Glaring at him, I step forward to get into his face. “And what about you? I can tell something is eating at you but you haven’t spoken up!”
Santi’s mouth pulls into a large grin, but it doesn’t warm his eyes or brighten the features on his face.
“Me? You want to know what's up with me?” He whirls around and storms over to Blair. Blair watches him approach but doesn't react as he stops in front of her. She simply looks up at him expectantly.
“What’s up, Santi?” she asks.
“Why’d you do it?”
She frowns. “Do what?”
“Claim him.”
“Claim him?” She repeats as her brows draw together. “What are you—”
“You carved your name into that traitor’s skin! Even after everything he’s put you through!” Santi shouts, surprising Blair and me.
Her arms drop to her sides and her eyes narrow. I know she wouldn’t hurt Santi but the way her eyes flash with a challenge makes me nervous all the same. I’ve seen this woman in action. It’s impressive and terrifying and she’s fast.
I shuffle forward a few inches in case I have to separate the two of them
Blair tilts her head. “Why shouldn’t I have done it?”
“Because Ledger doesn’t deserve your claim! Why would you carve your name into his skin when it belongs on mine!?”
Blair blinks, looking about as stunned as I feel, then a small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth.
“Don’t tell me you're jealous?”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “Maybe.”
“Santi…” Blair let’s out a nervous laugh as she stares at him with bewilderment. “I mutilated Ledger’s body.”
“That’s not mutilation—your name is art.”
Blair scoffs, then glances my way looking for help. I simply shrug, just as lost as she is in this. When she looks back at Santi, she shakes her head. “Santi—”
“I want that!” he bellows, his words carrying throughout the dark woods. “I want your name on my body. And yours!” Santi looks over his shoulder at me, his eyes alight with anger. “Why don’t I have either of your names carved into my skin yet? What do I have to do to get that type of—”
Blair reaches up and presses her finger to his lips, settling him down. Her smile grows incrementally. When she blinks, that empty void in her eyes fills with life again. The smile on her face is warm and genuine.
“Santi, I would be happy to carve my name into your flesh. If I knew this was something you wanted, it would’ve already been done.”
The tension in Santi’s body drops away like a stone.
“Yeah? You will?”
Blair nods, then reaches down to pull a blade from her boot. “We can even do it right now if you want?”
The delighted gasp that Santi lets out has me laughing, though I’m already moving toward the two of them.
“No, not here. We have to get rid of the body and we don’t want any of our DNA anywhere near the crime scene,” I tell them, stepping between the two of them. “Besides, there’s a less barbaric way of doing this, you know.”
Santi’s bottom lip pushes out as he pouts. “How?”
“Why don’t you guys—” I see the protest gathering in Santi’s face and quickly backtrack. “I mean, why don’t we get tattoos?”
Santi considers it for all of three seconds before he shakes his head. “Nope, I want it carved.”
“Rhett’s right, Santi. We shouldn’t do it here,” Blair says. “Let’s clean up and head back to the cabin and we can—”
“Let’s go to my house tonight,” Santi offers instead quickly. “That way Rhett can get some sleep and not hang outside in the hallway.”
Both Santi and Blair look at me then.
“Santi told us his issue,” Blair hedges. “Maybe you should fess up?”
Fine. Fuck it.
It’s less crazy than wanting to be carved up.
Anxiety climbs now that I’m refocusing on the issue at hand. It gathers in my throat, makes my heart race, and my palms begin to sweat.
“I can’t lose you two. I couldn’t stomach the idea of killing Ledger, or seeing him tortured after what he’s done for me but…
” I shake my head and look away from two pairs of eyes so full of concern that it’s making this even harder to admit.
“It’s not like Ledger hasn’t done anything drastic before.
What if he does something that would, in the end, kill either one, or both of you? The unknown is… It's driving me crazy.”
Blair steps closer and reaches out to take my hand.
Her fingers weave through mine and she gives me a comforting squeeze.
“Trust is a hard thing to give once it’s been broken,” she admits. “And you’re right to be wary. It’ll take time to rebuild it, but this was the best outcome, don’t you think?”
I don’t know.
What if my own selfishness for not wanting Ledger’s blood on my hands leads to Blair, or Santi’s, or even Wes’s, death?
The absence of an answer seems to be an answer enough for Blair.
“You heard him, Rhett. He saw something in you worth saving—it doesn’t matter that he did it for me.
Ledger adores you all in his own way. If he didn’t, you wouldn’t be living under his roof.
He’s not…” Blair pauses as she considers her next words.
“Ledger isn’t impulsive. And he’s not evil.
He just got in over his head. I don’t trust him much either, but this is…
it’s what we all wanted. Now we live with that decision. ”
Santi steps closer to us.
“We’ll take turns watching over each other,” he says.
I nod.
They’re right.
My anxiety is still there but being here with these two settles something in my chest.
“Alright,” Blair says. “Now that we’ve aired out all concerns, can we get rid of this body? I have a prize in mind I want to enjoy—I don’t want to wait much longer for you two to pay up.”
Her mischievous smile tugs at my heart. Fuck do I adore her, even if she scares me sometimes.
I smirk. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“You’ll see…”