Chapter 20 #2
Do it, Bohnes. Tell her now. Lay it all out there.
“I saw him drag Lemon’s body out of the pond.
I was going to kill him then, but he explained that he was planning to drop the rotten corpse in his father’s bed.
” This is what I tell her, like I’m describing the weather.
Perhaps that was a bit callous and cold.
I reach out a hand, curling mine around hers and squeezing.
The remainder of the cigarette tumbles to the floor.
“Ah. So that’s how Lemon’s body was ‘found’.” Scarlett sighs heavily, her breath a beautiful white cloud. “I assume Ash himself was planning on telling me this?”
“Yes, well, I thought it’d be better coming from me.” I’m testing her, to see if she might get emotional. I want her to. I want her to confide in me.
“It is better, coming from you,” she admits, her dark eyes peering into mine. Waiting. The wind picks up and swirls through the open bus door, tossing my white hair around my head and mixing it up with Scar’s raven black. “We’re in deep shit, Bohnes. This isn’t an easy game anymore.”
“It’s not an easy game, no.” I lift my head to stare out the window at the woods, the frost on the leaves glazing silver under a nearly full moon. “So when I ask you to do this, understand that it pains me.”
“Pains you?” she asks wryly, raising her own head. I love the way she smells. The way she moves. The pinch at the corners of her full mouth when she’s annoyed with me. “How very dramatic, Kellin. Then again, I guess you’re prone to that. A severed dick in a box? With a bow and everything?”
I chuckle, like it’s no big thing.
“I love that about you,” she blurts before I get a chance to respond. “How you act like all of your grand, heroic acts are just expected steps in our burgeoning romance.”
“Chet Jr. had it coming. It’s the least of what he deserved.
Nothing dramatic there.” I stand up, very flashy and dramatic as I kick my ouija board sneaker back to rest against the metal wall of the bus, folding my hands behind my head.
Rip the bandage off, Kellin. “But I do need you to marry Alexei as quickly as possible.”
The wind blows through the leaves and the branches outside the bus creak.
I don’t register them. I’m stuck on the strange expression that’s just crossed Scarlett’s face, like maybe she expected to hear this from me.
Her mouth is a sin, and her body is an altar that I want to drop to my knees and worship.
As much blood sacrifice as this goddess needs, I’m happy to provide.
Fuck, I want to throw her over the bus seat and have my way with her.
She’d like it, too, but I can’t slake my thirst in her body without emptying the guilt from my shriveled, black, hideous heart first. Those tits under that sweater.
The warmth of her. The smell, like cherries and chocolate and my shampoo.
“Marry…Alexei.” She closes her eyes, like she’s trying to gather up that white-hot temper of hers. Or, worse, get a handle on the ice queen that rests beneath. “I don’t want to marry anyone, least of all some rich boy.”
“Oh? So you’d marry a poor one like Widow for love?
Please, Scarlett. Marriage is a game like everything else.
Marry Alexei. It’s the smart choice to ensure you survive the mob.
” I stay where I am, working at a breezy nonchalance.
This is crucial, Scarlett marrying Alexei.
Doesn’t bother me necessarily, as her Nightmare, though I’d rather she didn’t marry anyone at all.
Scar bites her thumbnail, a quiver travelling through her body that she can’t control. I see it. I see everything.
“Why did you pick me?” she asks abruptly, a question she never bothered with before. Didn’t matter. Still doesn’t. Maybe she’s just curious? “Why, Kellin? You’re a force of nature. All I’ve done is fuck up your life and get you involved in shit you wouldn’t be involved with otherwise.”
I sigh dramatically, unzipping my hoodie and offering it out to her. She’s cold. Shivering. Teeth chattering. She stares at it and then looks up at me, shirtless and white in the moonlight. Yes, it’s cold, but all I care about is that Scarlett is warm.
She takes it, putting her arms in the sleeves and zipping herself up in my heat and my smell.
“If you’re asking me why then you must be hurting, Scarlett. Come here.” I hold out my arms in offer of a hug.
To my surprise, she stands up and throws her arms around my neck, squeezing me with all her might. I wrap my arms around her middle and lift her feet from the floor, burying my face against her shoulder. She relaxes into me. Surrenders. Gives herself to me fully.
I could die today, and I would die happy.
My hand strokes her hair, and I feel warmth in my soul in a way I never thought I could. I’d assumed my fucked-up childhood would leave me tainted and broken forever. Scarlett makes me feel alive, human, and whole. Like a man, too. Fuck this goddamn boner. All my blood has gone straight to my cock.
“Tell me why,” she grumbles, nuzzling against me and insulating me against the cold. I sigh against her hair and she squirms, as wet as I am hard, I imagine. I grin against her scalp. “Why do you love me?”
“That’s a silly question. But fine. I’ll indulge you.
Even when I’m ugly, you look at me like I’m beautiful.
” I’m not talking about physical appearances, and she knows it.
“That, and you were never, not once, afraid of me. Never. You have pride. You keep to your morals, but you make allowances when needed. You drive like a demon, and you fuck like the devil. Your psycho and my psycho are intertwined like black briar in a swamp of blood and ravens. You’re violent, unpredictable, and determined.
Driven. I could wax poetic about you for hours, but those are the basics.
I love you because you’re Scarlett Force, that’s why. ”
Scarlett doesn’t say anything for a while. I’m a patient man. I’ll wait.
“That’s…you’re saying such nice things, I don’t know how to respond. All of what you just said, the reasons you love me, are the same reasons I’m in love with you. How is it that you always know how to read my mind?”
I snort.
“Now, don’t you feel silly for trying to prove to me that I didn’t own you? If you’d just accepted it from the beginning, we could be three fuckboys lighter and much less involved with both the mayor and the mob.” The sound of my voice gives her goose bumps, a sheer delight for me.
“Are you sure you want to go there, Nightmare? I can receive severed dicks in gift boxes, but I can also send severed dicks in gift boxes.”
That makes me laugh. It makes me howl.
“I don’t doubt that statement as a whole.
But when it comes to my dick? Now, now, don’t play-pretend with me, Scarlett.
You love being fucked by me far too much to even consider such a thing.
” I pat her on the top of the head, and she smacks my hand away, stepping back so that she can get a better look at me.
She cocks a brow, throws out a hip, plants an obstinate fist on it.
“Why the fuck would you tell me to marry Alexei? That’s weird, Bohnes. Even for you, and you’re already the weirdest person I’ve ever met.” She crosses her arms, snuggling deeper into my sweatshirt.
I cross my arms right back, and the move strikes Scarlett like a storm. She bites her lip, flirting with me. I wink right back, and she shakes her head like she’s desperate to clear it and get back to business. I do it for her.
“The mob isn’t going to respect a casual girlfriend, but a wife?
Marry him for protection. Marry him for money.
Marry him because you like him. He’s no threat to me.
” I shrug both shoulders. “I’m telling you this because I’m always honest with you, Scarlett.
This is my recommendation as both your Nightmare and your lover.
Marry Alexei Borisov before the mob kills you both. ”
She sucks in a sharp breath, gnawing at her thumbnail again.
“Does, uh, Widow know about this recommendation?” she asks dryly. “He’s going to lose it at the suggestion. He might kill Alexei. He might try to kill you. Ash won’t care since he’s already resigned himself to death.” She rolls her eyes.
“Widow should have suspected that this was going to be the outcome all along. How else is Alexei going to pay us our portion of his inheritance? We need guarantees.” I hesitate, but decide it’s time to clean house.
No more secrets. Scarlett doesn’t like them, not even if they’re for her benefit and her own good.
“Can you handle any more bad news tonight or do you need some time?”
“Tell me. Now.” She’s got that Queen of the Crimson Crew voice on again.
I don’t remark on it this time. Scarlett has been pushed as far as she’ll go.
She wants me. She loves me. She does not want to be dominated by me outside of the bedroom.
It’s going to be a difficult adjustment for me, but I’ll do my ghoulish best.
“It gets worse, this thing with Lemon. It’s why I sent you the dick with a little bow. It was a gift meant to soften you up before I told you about all the horrible things Cody told me.” I move closer to her, my boots scuffing across the dirty school bus floor.
I look her dead in the face. I put my hand on her shoulder. Squeeze it.
“Hit me with it,” she whispers, bracing herself.
“Lemon is Chet Archer’s biological daughter.”
The implications of that cause Scarlett to blink several times in quick succession, like she’s dazed and recovering from a concussion.
“I see. Alexis said as much, but…Shit. Is that how they picked her? Aspen and the mayor, I mean. Is that why they chose her?”
“Presumably.”
Implications cling to the night air, as gossamer as the silver spiderwebs in the corner of the bus. Something—an orb weaver maybe—is crawling across the spokes and spirals.