Chapter Ten
Zahra
They removed the sling three weeks later and wrapped my shoulder with a smaller bandage. The pain had subsided a little, and the wound was healing but showed signs of scarring.
I locked my jaw to the side, watching the reflection of my fingers softly graze the sides of the bandage. I hated seeing it. It was a constant reminder that I hadn’t completely washed off all the fear I thought I’d gotten rid of.
Anyone who had ever left a scar on me had never lived to tell the tale about it.
Every single scar on my skin had been paid for. In blood.
But that was then; the bastards on my list had been dealt with, and the one that got away was back on my radar.
Dion Juan Pablo.
A sigh left me. I couldn’t touch him, not with everything right in the spotlight with Street and our job for Marino.
I was already building up my mental shields, knowing I would be in the same room with that bastard.
Hopefully Upper would fix me up in a position where I didn’t actually have to be near him.
I hated lying to Street, but there were parts of my life none of them could know, starting with the stories behind my scars.
The first time Devil saw them, he had asked me what happened, and I told him I couldn’t remember. To his better knowledge, half my past had been wiped from my memory because of how traumatic it was.
In some ways it was true. I used to get nightmares, but not anymore; now my nights were mostly dreamless, and I was grateful for that. It only solidified my answers to where I got my scars.
I didn’t remember.
I did.
I just couldn’t afford to trigger it.
I pulled down my shirt, covering up as I locked eyes with myself in the mirror. I stood there, staring at my reflection for minutes before allowing a sharp, broad smile to appear on my face. I held it for almost a minute and then abruptly let it fall.
I sighed. “You’ve got this. When all is said and done, you’ll be soaking up the sun on a beach somewhere in Mauritius with your best friends all around you, and they will understand why you did all you did because they’re family,” I said softly to myself.
“And family sticks with you, through thick and…” I stopped, dropping my gaze, closing my eyes and drawing in a deep breath, holding for a few seconds before letting it out and opening my eyes.
“Fucking hypocrite,” I muttered, turning and leaving the bathroom to find the others.
They were all in the living room. Pizza boxes opened on the table while they strategized.
Milk was sprawled on the floor, reading a magazine about disguise. Dog was also on the floor, checking all the equipment Angelo had provided upon his request. Upper was on his laptop, and Devil was on his phone beside him.
“Wow, who would have thought there would come a day when we’d be all so serious about a mission?” I mused, dropping on the couch, stretching to grab a slice of pizza, and taking a bite from it.
“Wrong, Upper’s on Pornhub,” Dog said without looking up.
“Rot in the burning furnace of hell, Dog,” Upper responded while Devil took a small peek at Upper’s screen before returning his attention to his phone. “I’m checking if my eyes inside Eden are still intact. It’s past one hour, and I’m still not getting live feeds.”
“You think there was a mistake with the wiring?” I asked.
Upper glanced at me. “I never make mistakes.” His concentration went back to the screen.
“Maybe you should take a break. You’ve been glaring at the screen for five hours now,” Devil suggested, his eyes still on his phone.
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion.” Upper didn’t lift his head.
“I don’t remember giving a fuck about you not asking for it,” Devil responded.
“Maybe mind your bloody business.”
“Maybe don’t be a fucking dick.”
Silence.
The pizza was paused halfway to my mouth; Dog’s and Milk’s attention turned slowly towards Upper and Devil, who seemed too focused on their task.
Dog looked at me and mouthed, What the fuck?
I don’t know, I mouthed back.
Milk sighed loudly. “I think we all need a break. We’ve been too focused on planning because this is our first job after the last one, which landed us here. We’re on edge.”
“No shit.” Dog stopped his task, stretching his muscles.
“What should we do?” Milk asked.
“Well.” I finished my slice of pizza, grinning and dusting my hands on my naked thighs. “I’m in the mood to cause some trouble.”
Devil scooted away from Upper. “I don’t know if you remember, but we’re sort of … in danger already?” Devil objected.
“We won’t be harmed,” I assured. “We have so much more leverage than you think.”
“What are you talking about?” Devil asked with a frown.
I shrugged. “If Marino wanted us dead, we would be dead. The first mistake he made with us was keeping us alive.”
“That sounds like a fucking blessing to me,” Dog countered.
“I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant is that he kept us alive because he needs us. That means, as much as he wants to put a bullet through our heads, he has to wait until we are useless to him.”
Devil eyed me suspiciously.
I knew I sounded so assured, as if I knew something they didn’t.
Devil’s connection to Elio was the only thing keeping us alive. We were Devil’s family, and if Elio touched any of us, he’d lose the only family he had left. We were pretty much set to wreak havoc as long as Devil was by our side.
“Everyone and everything is replaceable to Marino; don’t be fooled,” Devil said.
“I doubt that,” I said, my eyes searching his. “Look at us; we’re treated like guests instead of prisoners. I mean, we’re eating fucking pizza. We have access to our phones and the internet. What hostage eats pizza and accesses the internet? That should tell you something.”
“Yeah, or maybe he’s got a fucking pet crocodile, and he’s treating us good because his crocodile loves fresh, well-fed, happy meat. And by happy meat, I mean us,” Dog said.
Milk lightly slapped his arm. “Who has a crocodile for a pet?”
“You’d be shocked, Pinky Brain,” Dog said.
“So.” Upper sat up. “You wanted to cause trouble, what did you have in mind?”
I curved my lips into a sly smile.
The loud music from Elio’s casino was the relief my body needed, and from the looks on the faces of my beloveds, it was exactly what they needed too.
“This better be a good idea,” Devil muttered beside me.
“Do you smell that?” I asked him, and he frowned, sniffing the air.
“Weed?”
“No. It’s the smell of a great idea.”
“Nah,” Dog said. “I just smell another bullet coming; this time, I don’t think he’ll miss.”
“I love it,” Milk said. “I want to get very drunk and steal some money.”
“No stealing,” Upper chided her, but his eyes were filled with mischief. “We’re gonna cheat ourselves some cash, and I might find myself a hot guy who will buy me beer.”
Devil shook his head, his frown hardening.
I ignored his low spirits, feeling the rise of excitement in my stomach. “This, guys … is our zone. Let’s make as much money as we can. And maybe we might be lucky enough for it to end in a huge casino fight, cross that off our bucket list.”
Dog threw his arm around my shoulder, careful not to hurt my arm. “I’m a zombie slut for that genius brain of yours.”
“Hm, talk dirty to me.” I leaned into him as we began walking amongst the crowd, who didn’t pay heed to us. Yet. Soon, they’d notice.
“How long do you think until they realize the soldiers assigned to watch us are no longer watching us?” Milk asked.
“An hour or two,” Upper said. “Should supply us enough time to cause some trouble.”
“That is if we don’t get reported to the boss himself, seeing as we are simply walking into his turf like his guests. Wonderful,” Devil said.
We stopped in the middle of the club, and Dog distributed some cash he’d stolen from the wallets of every soldier we’d encountered before reaching the casino. “The goal: use these to win big.”
“I’ll hit the tables,” Upper said, going east.
“You guys are gonna get me killed one day,” Devil muttered.
“I call roulette, my specialty,” Milk said, already heading in that direction.
Devil sighed, backing away. “I’ll be at the poker tables, away from all of you.”
Dog and I looked at each other, speaking at the same time. “Blackjack?”
An hour later, we had more than fifty eyes on us. We were winning, we were loud, and we were pretend-drunk as fuck.
The exhilarating feeling of winning and pissing so many people off never gets old. We had bagged so much money and almost caused a massive fight in the casino, but it was settled thanks to Devil.
We had been noticed. There was a lot of whispering amongst the soldiers, and I was sure someone had gone to inform the bosses of the chaos we were creating.
Two hours flew by, and we were still winning; Milk was already worn out, and that was our cue to leave.
“All right. Let’s wrap it up,” Dog said, Milk appearing by his side as Upper joined Devil and me.
“Yeah, we did good,” I praised.
Upper held the bags of money we had collectively won for the night. “I think it’s pretty weird that no one—”
Silence slowly stretched through the casino, cutting Upper off.
People’s attention automatically shifted to the stairs. Devil was the first to turn. “Shit,” he muttered, “he came down himself.”
I turned to see Elio descending the stairs at a leisurely pace in his usual all-black outfit. Two soldiers followed behind him, with one holding a black briefcase in hand.
My back straightened as they walked directly towards us. I was nearly sober just by the sight of him; the last time we’d seen each other, I had mouthed off like an idiot. I didn’t know what to expect, and the thought alone made me nervous.
The intensity of his presence doused the room of whatever fire had gotten people going before. Some faces around us paled as he stopped before the guys and me.
The DJ had even lowered the volume of the music.
I could sense fear in the air, but none of it was coming from me. Maybe it was the fake alcohol or the fact that I had pictured a thousand ways I could deal with him, but I found myself looking him in the eye.
And …
Why does he have pretty eyes? He was a terrible person, and terrible people shouldn’t have pretty eyes … He didn’t look too bad either … He didn’t look bad at all. Fine. The man was something, all right, I admitted it; and the challenge in those dark grays seemed to look even deeper tonight.
“Fine evening … Street. My people tell me you have made big wins tonight,” Elio said, his face expressionless.
“It’s a really lucky night,” I answered.
“Isn’t that just fabulous,” he stated, eyes quickly running up and down my form. “I am pleased to see that you are all enjoying your freedom in my compound. It must feel like a vacation for you.”
“You have no idea,” I responded.
Devil stepped forward. “We don’t want any trouble; we just wanted a break from—”
“It’s okay,” I cut him off, smiling. “He knows we don’t want trouble; he’s only commending us for how lucky we were tonight, right?” I threw the question at Elio, and his left brow twitched, but he nodded.
“Indeed. It’s truly outstanding, this thing called luck.”
I laughed in mock wonder. “Right? So crazy.”
Elio’s gaze remained solely on me, my brows, eyes, nose, forehead, lips, jaw … his staring made me even more anxious, aware that he was singling me out. It took everything in me not to shift on my feet and give away the fact that he was getting to me.
Finally, he nodded. “Yes, in fact, I was so inspired by this luck of yours that I decided, why not come down to see if I can interest you in a small game of chess, nothing serious.”
I watched him as I locked my jaw. We didn’t break eye contact for about a minute, and I knew he dared me to say no. He wanted to teach me a lesson.
I knew that look so fucking well.
Tilting my head a bit to the side, I asked, “What’s the catch?”
With his eyes still on me, he signaled to the soldier who held the briefcase, and the man stepped forward, opening it. I almost doubled over at the sight of the clean stacked bundle of cash arranged perfectly in a mouthwatering way.
Fucking greed.
Elio straightened. “We play five single rounds. Best-of-five winner takes your earnings for the night and the briefcase.”
It took a lot of willpower to drag my eyes from the money.
It was risky; we could lose all we’d earned tonight if I agreed.
“And if I don’t agree?”
His jaw clenched, and he paused two seconds before taking a step closer to me. I sucked in a breath, raising my chin a little so I could meet his gaze as he buried both hands into his pockets and gave me that degrading look again, the one where it seemed like I was only a grain of rice on his shoe.
“Allow me to reiterate, Sport. You do not have a choice in this proposal.”
“Fuck,” Dog cursed.
I stepped closer to Elio, looking up at him with determination.
“If that’s the case, allow me to add a new catch.”
His gaze flickered between my eyes. “What would that be?”
“A chance to renegotiate the terms of my and my people’s service to you.”
He thought about it for only a few seconds before nodding. “Okay. I would also like to add a catch.”
“I’m listening.”
“I get to tie you up, shoot your good shoulder and kneecaps, and then throw you off that roof. In simpler words, I kill you.”
I didn’t flinch.
Devil shook his head. “Zahra, don’t—”
“Deal.”
Elio’s eyes widened a bit, and I briefly saw surprise in them before it was masked with indifference.
He exited my personal space, and I let my breathing flow freely once more.
Straightening his suit, Elio outstretched his hand in the direction behind me. “Very well. Let’s play.”