I threw it in the passenger seat. "Son-of…" I muttered to myself, laying my forehead on the steering wheel, pondering my next move.
Twenty years ago? Get over it? Fuck him!
I remember making sure those bullies didn't beat up that little shit like it was yesterday. I knew he didn't have the best home life, with his mom on drugs, and his dad dead. I felt sorry for him, so I took the little bastard under my wing. Now I was going to have to take his life to save my own.
I shook my head as I slid the gun from my pants, laying it next to my phone on the passenger seat, and waited, rubbing the sweat from my forehead.
Fuck! I shouldn't have brought up his mom.
I knew it was a low blow.
"Fuck!" I yelled, slapping the steering wheel with my palm.
Fuck that. He made me say that shit. It's his fault. Fuckin', Hunter.
ULTIMATE BETRAYAL
CELESTE
"That low-down, dirty, backstabbing, asshole," Hunter cussed as he hung up the phone, visibly angry after the call.
"Ari?" I asked.
"How'd you know?" he asked, shaking his head.
"Just call it women's intuition," I joked, trying to diffuse the situation.
"He said Torello wants you back."
"You think he went to Torello? How else would Torello know about Ari?"
"He didn't stay on the phone long enough to ask, but Ari would never betray me like that."
"Are you sure?" I asked, as the worry collected in my stomach.
"I'm sure he wouldn't, but we gotta get going."
"I'm ready whenever you are," I said, standing up.
"I just don't understand why he is the way he is," he mumbled under his breath as he walked by me.
The hurt on his face was apparent. I laid my hand on his shoulder and coaxed him to sit down on the couch. "You can't expect people to react to situations like you do; especially since you've been trained to handle these sorts of situations."
He nodded. "You're right," he said, anxiously rubbing his jaw.
"It's been known to happen," I said with a smile.
"I'm gonna go grab a few guns from Citadel before we head to Phoenix. The way Ari was talkin', there's a storm coming for you."
The fear came over me like a roaring wave. "What if they come while you're gone?" I asked, digging my nails into his flesh.
"I won't be gone long, and Torello still doesn't know where you are."
"But what if Ari told him?"
"He wouldn't do that to me," he said confidently.
"Just like I could trust him when you left us here alone?"
He frowned. "I'm sorry about that, but this is different, and he knows Torello would kill you. He's not that fucked up."
I shook my head slightly, not believing what he was saying for a moment. I knew Ari was a snake, and I'd only known him a day. His trust was misplaced, but it wasn't my place to tell him.
Smiling as he leaned in, he pressed his lips to mine. I raked my fingers across the back of his neck, grabbing a fistful of hair as I went, squeezing tighter the longer, and more passionately, he kissed me.
Slowly, he pulled away, still caressing my cheek with his thumb. "I'll be right back," he whispered.
"Please hurry. You don't know what Torello is capable of," I replied softly as I watched him walk to the kitchen.
"He doesn't know what I'm capable of," he said, grabbing his keys off the table before walking out the door.
The sound of his car driving off made my stomach churn. I sunk back into the couch, trying to steady my quivering body, when I felt something hard next to my hand. He had forgotten his phone.
"Shit," I muttered under my breath.
I grabbed the phone and ran to the door, but heard the screeching of his tires zipping out of the driveway the minute I wrapped my fingers around the door. I was too late.
ARI
Just outside…
I knew that if I waited around long enough, Hunter would leave himself vulnerable. My chance came when Hunter took off, leaving Celeste alone in the house. I parked the car, and made a break for the massive living room window, with my gun in hand, I peered in.
Why would Hunter leave her? Is he planning an ambush or is he just crazy?
I spotted Celeste sitting on the couch alone. This would be the time to make my move since she wouldn't be expecting me. Making my way to the door, I silently slipped in and crept around the corner, peering into the living room where she sat alone, looking out the window with her back toward me.
I ran up and positioned my arm around her neck, flexing my bicep to choke her. She struggled against my tight grip, clawing at my arm as I rested the muzzle of the gun on the wildly pulsating vein in her neck. This action stopped her struggling cold in its tracks.
"You smell like fuckin' sex. Puta," I said in her ear.
"Ari?" she gasped.
"I told you to go back. You should've just gone back."
She begged, "Please, stop!"
"No! Torello wants you back, and if I don't do what he says, I'm gonna have a bullet exploding out the back of my head." I angrily gritted my teeth. "Where the fuck is Hunter?"
"No, leave him out of this," she begged.
I tightened my grip, "Oh, you care about that asshole? You didn't care enough to leave him alone and out of the shit you were into with Torello," I said angrily, pressing the muzzle further into her neck.
She winced, trying to reposition her neck to move it away from the tip of the gun. A large hand gripped my shoulder and yanked me backwards, knocking me into a wall. Hunter had come home, and judging by the way his eyes bulged from his head, he was not happy to see me.
"You're back," she screamed, rubbing her neck.
"I forgot my phone," he said, holding his hand out for her to grab.
"What the fuck, Ari?" Hunter bellowed.
My voice crackled, "You messed with Torello's girl. What the fuck was you thinkin'? You think he's gonna let you two just walk into the sunset?"
Hunter turned to Celeste. "Are you okay?"
Coughing and rubbing her throat, she said, "Let's get out of here."
"Fuck no! I'm gonna kill this muthafucker," Hunter yelled.
"You ain't killin' no one!" I yelled as I got up and charged toward Hunter while Celeste had his attention.
Having dropped the gun when I flew into the wall, I only had my fists to use as weapons, and against Hunter, that was never going to be enough. When I thrust my body toward him, Celeste screamed, alerting him to the impending assault.
Hunter grabbed my wrists as we struggled to the ground, jostling against one another. This wasn't like when we were children, play fighting on the lawn. I knew I was going to have to kill him in order to save myself.
"Hunter!" Celeste screamed in the background.
"Get out of here, Celeste," Hunter yelled, looking back at her.
I brought my knees to my chest and used my feet to kick him as hard as I could, propelling him off me. I stood up but quickly lost my balance when I backed into a table in the middle of the room.
Hunter took the opportunity to grab Celeste and flee the house.
HUNTER
I ran out of the house, dragging Celeste behind me. We didn't have a weapon or the keys to any of the cars. The sky had turned dark from gray clouds that had rolled in from nowhere. Bolts of lightning indiscriminately shot out from the pouring clouds at the ocean and the beach.
"Fuck, when did it start raining?" I yelled, looking for somewhere to hide Celeste so I could go back in and kill Ari.
"What are you looking for?" she asked.
"Somewhere to hide you."
"Let's just go."
"Just run and I'll keep him busy."
"I won't leave you. We go together or we stay together," she yelled over the sound of thunder.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ari approaching, maneuvering past his injuries from the earlier fight and now holding a gun. His face was ravenous and intent on
blood…our blood. I shifted my gaze back over to Celeste, cupping her cheeks; I pulled her close for one last kiss.
"Stay here," I whispered as I turned to run toward Ari.
"No, Hunter," she called out from behind me.
I ran toward Ari and leapt on him, shackling his wrists in my grip as we flew to the ground. The gun, still in his hand, was now wedged between our bodies.
Bang!
The gun went off and silence fell over the scene. Even the thunder seemed to quiet itself out of respect for the loss of life about to take place.
"Hunter!" Celeste screamed.
ARI
We both lay deathly still on the concrete, our hands wedged between our bodies. It all had happened so quickly. The waterfall being released from the clouds slowed to a light drizzle, and just as quickly as the storm had started, it stopped.
Hunter slowly released his grip from my wrist, staring quietly into my eyes as I returned the honest look. He rolled his body to the right, off of me, and on to the ground. Suddenly Celeste was standing over us, her demeanor frantic, as she picked up the gun, pointing it toward me, wiping the tears streaming from her eyes.
I wasn't worried about her; she was too scared to shoot a fly. Looking toward the sky, I exhaled in relief, knowing that I had been victorious in the fight, and Torello would be happy that I was going to bring his property back. My body was still filled with adrenaline, and the only pain I felt was in my head from when I knocked it into the wall. I pushed myself off the ground and stood up, poring over Hunter's body, admiring my kill.
"Not a big boy, huh?" I asked, spitting on him.
Where's the bullet hole? Where's the blood? Maybe the rain already washed it away.
Celeste helped Hunter to his feet, and that's when the realization came over me like a tidal wave in the night. Fear filled every cell in my body with a fiery warmth I had never felt before. The sudden ache in my belly called for me to look down, and that's when I saw it…the river of blood that had already made its way down my leg, puddling around my foot.
I hadn't been victorious against the great ex-SEAL. I was the one that had taken the bullet. My gaze shifted back to them, but I said nothing. Wasting my last moments on words wouldn't bear any fruit. Turning to the sea, I walked toward the beautiful waves, holding on to the bullet wound as though that would help.
My vision blurred and my head felt light from the lack of blood flow. I fell to my knees as a soft breeze blew by me. My lungs burned as I gasped for every breath, which came few and far between.
I fell to the ground, my cheek laid against the warm concrete as the world began to dim.
CELESTE
I held on to Hunter tightly as we watched Ari die, his eyes fluttering open, then closed. I could feel Hunter's body edge closer to him, and I loosened my grip so that he could be with his friend in his last moments.
Hunter kneeled next to him, laying his hand on his back. "Why?" he asked.
Ari could only gurgle at this point. Hunter sat down next to him, and picked up Ari's body, cradling him in his arms. "Why, Ari?" he whispered.
Ari didn't answer as his eyes closed for the last time. I stood there paralyzed, not knowing what to say to comfort Hunter. He had lost his friend because of me, and the guilt was eating me alive.
After a few moments, he looked up at me. "I'm gonna kill that muthafucker!"
"No! Let's just go."
"There is nowhere to go. He's going to keep coming. Don't you see?"
I shook my head as the thought of having to see Rez again frightened me to the core. He laid Ari's body on the ground, and walked back into the house, coming back out with keys and his cell phone.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Calling, Riley. I need guns. Get in the car," he ordered, holding the phone up to his ear as he unlocked the car doors.
Slowly, I walked past Ari's body, contemplating the impact of my decisions on the lives of others. My parents, Ari, and now Hunter, had put their lives on the line. How could I justify all this death for one life? One insignificant life.
"C'mon, Celeste," Hunter called from the car.
REDEMPTION
The drive over the Coronado Bridge toward North Island was a short one. The water below was calm in comparison to the chaos we were entrenched in. We pulled into a parking lot in front of a big gray concrete building hidden behind some boutiques off the main drag. You would have never known it was there if you weren't looking for it.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Citadel," he said, stepping out of the car.
"Should I come?"
"Yes."
I stepped out of the car, and followed him through the heavily secured metal door, where Hunter had to enter a code, place his thumb over a small holographic screen, and have a retinal scan before the door clicked open. The security was impressive. Fort Knox could've been secure in this building. The minute I walked in, and the door locked behind me, I immediately let my guard down. I felt safe behind Citadel's fortified walls. Who wouldn't?
We were greeted by a beautiful woman with blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun, dressed in a tight, sharply pressed, black, pencil skirt, with a white chiffon short-sleeved blouse. Her look was finished off by a pair of thick dark-rimmed glasses which hid her striking hazel eyes.
"Hello, I'm Riley," she said, holding out her hand to me.
I shook her hand. "I'm Celeste."
Hunter chimed in. "I need some guns Ri—"
"Already having them loaded into your trunk," she interrupted.
"And I need—"
"I have a room already ready for her."
"Is there—"
"No, there is nothing else you could need that I haven't thought of," she said with a grin.
I was impressed, and I wondered if, in another world, I could be her?
"What did Jackson say about me taking on Torello?"
"What does he always say?" she laughed.
He nodded. "Right."
I was curious. "Wait. What does he say?"
"Don't get dead," a deep voice came from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder to a tall, older man, with flowing salt and pepper hair and a matching goatee. Although he was older, he still looked like he could take on Torello, and his men, all by himself.
He held his hand out. "I'm Jackson, the owner of all of this," he said, motioning around the building.
I shook his hand. "Celeste," I replied, still in awe of his imposing presence.
"I can see why Hunter is willing to fight the mob for you," he said with a wink and a smile.
"That's enough flirting, Jackson," Hunter chimed in.
"Flirting? I would never," Jackson said, pressing the back of my hand to his lips.
"Let me show you to your room, Celeste," Riley interrupted.
"No. I want to go with, Hunter."
"You can't go with Hunter. You'll get yourself killed," Riley said, looking to Jackson for help.
"I'm already dead. At least this way I can watch Torello die, too. I need this," I said, earnestly looking to Jackson for approval.
Riley shifted her gaze over to Jackson, who nodded.
"Okay, I guess we should at least get you a vest," Riley said.
"Jackson, what about Ari's body? It's laying in the middle of my driveway," Hunter asked.
"That's been taken care of," Jackson replied.
"I appreciate it," Hunter said.
"We don't need any questions, that's for sure. Riley took care of it the minute you called," Jackson said.
"Please take good care of him?" Hunter asked Riley.
"Of course, although I don't see why. He tried to kill you," Riley said, shaking her head as she fitted me with a Kevlar vest she had produced out of thin air.
"Where did you get this?" I asked, holding my arms up as she strapped me in.
"It's my job," Riley replied with a wink.
"He was my brother. I just want him taken care of," Hunter replied.
"Are you going to need a team?" Jackson asked.
"No. I don't wanna drag anyone else into this. I'll take care of it."
Jackson walked over to me, laying his hand on my shoulder. "Take care of him. He's my best."
"I'll try," I replied, worried I wouldn't be able to keep my word.
"I have other business. Hope to see you two later. Riley, you're with me," Jackson called.
"Yes, sir," Riley replied, turning, and walking down the hall with Jackson.
"They are certainly a pair," I said.
"They're the reason Citadel gets all the government contracts. They're always one step ahead of everybody," Hunter said, walking toward the exit.
I turned and followed him out the door.
HUNTER
"You need to stay in the car," I said, driving over the bridge.
"No. I want to go in."
"I can't do what I have to do, and think about keeping you safe at the same time. It's gonna get us both killed," I shifted my gaze from the road, looking deeply into her eyes, her need for revenge apparent.
She turned toward the window, shaking her head. I knew she was mad.
"Where do I need to go, Celeste?"
She didn't speak the rest of the way, only pointing a few moments before I needed to turn right and left.
"I know you're mad," I replied.
"You don't know how I feel."
"I promise. I'll kill him for the both of us."
"I want him to suffer, and you won't make him suffer. You'll just kill him."
"You don't know what I'm gonna do, baby girl," I said, taking a corner too fast, my back wheels sliding across the intersection, leaving a trail of rubber and smoke.
"We're here," she said, pointing at an old dilapidated restaurant.
"All that money and this is where this asshole hides?" I asked.
She nodded.
Parking in the alley, I pulled out two Beretta 92's from the trunk, attaching a suppressor to each one. Riley always thought of everything. I stuck a mag in each side pocket, and shut the trunk, looking through the back window at Celeste.
Indecency: A Bad Boy Romance Page 7
