Chapter 23
Eve
For the second time this morning, I walk down the stairs to the sound of laughter radiating from my dining room, but it’s not my son’s joyful laughter from Wylder asking him questions about the boy scouts.
No, this laughter is dark and full of dangerous promises.
It’s Wylder playing nice until I decide if these men get to stay in our lives or not.
It’s Roman acting like everything is okay when I know Atlas and Kor had to have laid into him last night.
It’s Atlas trying not to strangle Roman as he stares at the bite marks I left high on his neck.
The only one who is not making idle conversation when I get downstairs is Kortez.
He’s making his way through my living room when I reach the bottom stair, his hands deep in his pockets as he walks from photo to photo, staring at them like…
like he knows he should have been standing beside me in every single one.
He wasn’t, though, because of Aldo Valente – Atlas’s father.
He wasn’t there for my high school graduation or my first day of college. I never got to see the apartment he picked out for us because it was too painful…I didn’t even go to the same college. He…
“There you are, Little Moth. I was starting to wonder if you needed help in there.” Roman’s easy smile seems to take the pressure off, the subconscious need to be perfect, to not let them see the cracks in my self-made armor. His eyes dart down to the black shoebox in my hands, “What’s that?”
Wyld and Atlas join us from the dining room as Kortez spins around, his dark eyes sweeping over me with more tension than I ever thought he could hold. My prince has been touched by the darkness.
My fingers tighten around the large shoebox, the one that held my very first set of platform boots Kor bought me in my freshman year of high school. “It’s…memories. It’s a run down of the last ten years of my life.”
Kortez walks closer, his fingers stroking down my arm until they rest on top of my own, his hand closing around mine as we hold the box together. “You still have it.”
I shoot him a smile, brushing past him to sit on the sofa. “Of course I do, there’s just more in it now.”
He follows, sitting down beside me so close that there’s only an inch of space between us. “Like what?”
I look up and motion for the other three to join us. They sit, Wylder taking a place on my other side as Roman and Atlas sit across from us. I see Atlas’s eyes lingering on the windows where we can all see Abel playing in the backyard, pieces of rope tied together all around him.
“He’s practicing…for a boy scout competition.”
Atlas barks out a laugh as his eyes swing over to mine. “Imagine, a Valente child in the boy scouts.”
His eyes twinkle with amusement as I laugh along with him. “Imagine.”
My hands fall back to the box sitting on my lap, my fingers shaking as I reach over to open the lid.
I place it on the floor with shaky hands before looking down into my lap.
“You told me your story yesterday…about what really happened that night.” I hesitate as I look over to Atlas once again.
“I’m sorry I thought you hurt Kortez…It’s just… ”
I let out a deep sigh and flip through the worn cardboard box to see hundreds of pieces of my life staring back at me.
Pictures from graduation and college, of Abel when he was a baby – photos showcasing every milestone in my life.
Then there’s my diplomas, the documents for the house, medical papers and proof of everything I accomplished and overcame in the last ten years.
It’s all shoved in this one black shoebox.
I clear my throat, digging through the box until I reach a newspaper clipping at the very bottom. “I went back to the warehouse after graduation.”
I hear the intake of breath from everyone except Wyld.
He knows the story, and he knows more details than I can give them right now.
His hand lands on my thigh and he gives me an encouraging squeeze as I continue.
“Some guy was there burning Kor’s car. I asked him what happened, and he said someone was killed by orders of Mr. Valente. I…”
Atlas nods from his place across from me. “You thought I had Tez killed.”
Tez? Cussing, tattoos, the gun I see peaking out from his waistband…who is this man that wears the face of my best friend?
I nod and lick my lips, handing Atlas the newspaper clipping I pulled from the box. “I left town that night, but I kept watch on the Jacksonville papers. The only mention of the warehouse was in a single article on the third page saying it was demolished two months later.”
Atlas’s eyes narrow as he reads through the small article with a photo of the demolished warehouse.
Kor reaches over and takes it from him, nodding as he looks down at the weathered paper.
“I remember Aldo talking about this. He was pissed because…” Kor turns toward me, his eyes telling me he knows the answer even as he asks, “What happened to the man you spoke to? The one who said Mr. Valente had someone killed?”
Wylder squeezes my thigh again as I meet Kortez’s dark eyes with a hard stare, “I killed him.” I turn to see Atlas staring at me with interest in his eyes. “I used his blood to write a message to your father – to you.”
Roman leans forward in his chair, his hands clasped together out in front of him. “What message, Little Moth?”
Memories of blood staining the asphalt while the smell of Kortez’s car burning in the background plays through my mind as my mouth voices the words I fingerpainted in blood so many years ago. “It said…it said I’m coming for you next.”
The living room is silent as I let them process my words, my fingers already digging through the box to find the next trip down memory lane.
“I left Jacksonville, left Florida altogether actually, and ended up in Chicago. I thought that if Atlas killed Kor, then he may come back for me, and I didn’t want that.
I got settled and then I changed my name. ”
Atlas’s voice is low and troubled as he reaches across to grab the paper from me, the one confirming my name change. “Why Patton?”
I let out a soft laugh and pull out a picture, handing it to Atlas.
He eyes the woman in the photo, her light brown hair somehow shining even in the dim lights of the woman’s center I used to stay in.
“It was for her, Lurie Patton. She ran the woman’s shelter in Chicago where I stayed, and she bent over backwards to keep me alive.
She even watched Abel while I went to school. ”
It’s Kor that catches the small detail I let slip a little before I meant it to, “Alive?”
My throat feels like it begins to close as I pull out ultrasound photos of Abel.
“A few months after getting to Chicago, I realized I was pregnant.” I shrug, “I guess it took so long to realize because I was so…gone. I wasn’t eating and wasn’t sleeping.
I thought my missed period was just stress until I started throwing up constantly in my second trimester. ”
I pass Kortez the photos and he takes them with gentle precision, holding them at the corners so not to smudge the image.
“But…it wasn’t easy. I fell into a deep depression while I was pregnant, and Lurie is who made sure I was eating enough, sleeping enough…
taking my prenatal. By the time Abel was born, I was a shell of myself.
All my time was spent in school, and I was overworking myself to keep from thinking too hard.
I had two jobs at the time. One waitressing for a restaurant down the street from the shelter and the other… well, stripping.”
The looks on Kor and Atty’s faces are enough to have me choking out a laugh. Roman just sits back with a smile on his face, his eyes sliding down my body as if remembering when I danced for him at Larry’s.
Kor passes the photos to Atlas and Atlas passes the things he was holding over to Roman.
“I couldn’t keep working right after giving birth, though, so I spent too much time stuck in my head – reliving graduation night and thinking about Kortez lying in a ditch somewhere.
It was too much.” I grab the next stack of papers from the box and pass them to Kor, my hands shaking as the hospital’s name shines in bold at the top.
“I took a bottle of pain meds and tried to overdose. Lurie found me before it was too late and called an ambulance, but Child Protective Services was involved for a little while. They almost took Abel.”
I hear a crinkle and look over to see Kor shoving the stack of papers over to Atlas without even looking through them. Atlas, though, takes his time reading through every single one as I sit there and try to compose myself.
“It’s okay if you need to stop, Evie. You don’t have to do this all at once.” Wylder’s hand moves from my thigh to my back as he tries to soothe me. It works, a little, and I wipe away a single tear that managed to fall.
I shoot Wyld a grateful smile before continuing.
“Almost losing Bel was a wake-up call, though, and I realized I couldn’t live like that forever.
All those college classes I took in high school gave me a head start, and I was able to finish law school in seven years.
I got my own apartment in my third year and that’s when I met Vivianne. ”
Kor holds up his hand to stop me, “Who’s Vivianne?”
I smile, “She’s my best friend.”
I see Kor’s eyes harden but Roman jumps in to save me, his smile nearly contagious as he says, “Don’t worry, Tez, she’s cool. She’s got a boyfriend and a girlfriend.”
Roman winks and I see Atlas shake his head. “She sounds interesting.”
“She is. When she said she wanted to come home to Denver, I followed. We were able to get jobs at Sawyer’s firm together and she found me this house.
I still stripped occasionally at a place in town, but it wasn’t out of desperation anymore.
I found I loved the power it gave me and the other girls needed the extra money.
” I reach over and take Wylder’s hand, lacing our fingers together.
“Wyld moved in a few months later and we hit it off almost immediately when he locked himself out and asked if Abel could squeeze through his bedroom window to unlock the front door.”
Wyld laughs and shakes his head, his eyes going to my son now kicking a soccer ball around outside. “Kid was a natural. He said it made him feel like a spy.”
I roll my eyes and place the still full shoebox on the coffee table in front of me. “So…yeah. I was rough for a while, but I made a life for myself.” I turn to face Kor. “I’m giving him everything we didn’t have as kids.”
Atlas clears his throat, bringing my attention over to him as he passes the hospital papers over to Roman.
“I’m sorry, Reginetta. I tried to protect you from this – from my father.
That’s why I…” He sighs as his eyes catch on the chain around my neck.
“A wife is sacred in my family. He never would have touched you.”
I shake my head. “It wasn’t me I was worried about. Your father did the one thing that could have broken me and it did.”
Roman throws the papers down on the coffee table, making all of us turn toward him as he crosses his arms across his chest. “So, what did you do about it?”
“What?”
He shrugs, his eyes taking in so much more than I want him to see right now. He knew I killed someone, I gave him that much when I took a drink with my eyes set on him, but he never said a word. Roman is a made man who can keep my secrets, but where does his loyalty lie?
“You wrote a promise in blood, Little Moth. That sort of thing marks your soul and if I’ve learned anything at all the last few weeks, it’s that you don’t give up when you set your mind to something.
So, again, what did you do about it? How was my dear little moth going to get revenge against the man who took her happiness from her? ”
He knows. He knows I want – need – my revenge. My vengeance. I can’t admit to it yet, though, because my plan is still in place. I just…tweaked it a little.
I shoot him a saccharine smile, “Kill them with kindness, Ro. Didn’t they teach you that in school?”
Roman stays quiet, his eyes cataloguing every breath I take, every twitch of my lips, until he finally gives me a small nod. “Fair enough, Little Moth, but you should know that won’t cut it with us. We need blood. Aldo’s blood.”
Atlas grunts his agreement, and I hear Kor mutter, “Basura cobarde.”
“You want to kill your father?”
Atlas lets out a shallow laugh and nods, “That’s an understatement.”
“Why?” The confusion is evident in my voice as I ask. I thought they would be against my plan to spill Aldo’s blood, but maybe they’ll be my partners. Maybe they won’t hate me after all.
“Because he’s a monster, Mi Corazón. Death would be a mercy he does not deserve.”
I look over to see Kor’s hands shaking and it hits me not for the first time that he’s covered in scars he didn’t have when he left me. “What did he do to you, Kor?”
His fists open and close as his breathing turns ragged beside me.
“He introduced me to the dark, Evangeline. Not the dark you love and crave so much that allows the stars to shine so brightly, but the kind that breeds demons and suffocates you in pain so strong you believe you’re turning into a hell spawn yourself.
The kind that turns you into a monster, a savage so bloodthirsty that you miss what you once were because even a broken misfit could reveal in the light every once in a while. ”
He stands, his body radiating with anger and tension as he hits me with a dark, pleading look. “Now all the light does is burn.”