by Jax Hart
Liar.
He tugged me forward, testing me.
I shrunk back. “Never mind. I’ll find some prescription drugs from the bathroom cabinets.”
I moved back only to be tugged forward. “You’re serious, aren’t you.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I challenged.
He shook his head. “Go. Go get your fix.” Disgusted, he dropped my hand only to continue his descent. For a minute, he had me fooled. For seconds, I saw him wanting to protect me from the world. It tempted me. Some small twisted part wanted and wondered still what we could be if our fate wasn’t already written across the pages of some bad fairy tale. The kind where the princesses don’t wake up and the villains always win.
Twisting through the crowd I looked for Tati. She was sitting on a couch next to Le Blanc. He shot me a wink.
“Hey! Don’t let her disappear on me again,” he teased, as he dropped an arm around her shoulders.
The weight of another gaze landed on me. It was Johnny. He assessed me, calculating my risk to him and his boy.
I sat, took out my baggie and snorted sugar up my nose. Closing my eyes, it took everything I had not to sneeze or pee my pants since this was funny as all fuck. I kept my eyes closed and exhaled, as if in relief as I put the baggie back into my hoodie and slowly opened my eyes to his.
I guess he decided to follow me and caught my little performance. I took the glass from his hand and let the alcohol burn my throat.
“Thanks.” I let the empty glass roll from my hand to the floor.
“Tati, I’m out. You coming?” I moved to stand.
“We just got here.”
“Yeah we did and it’s boring as fuck.”
“Why don’t we change that?” Johnny taunted.
“Spin the bottle again?” I rolled my eyes. But I was ignored as Johnny and Roque received texts at the same time. Some silent exchange passed between them. It’s hard pretending to be high and getting drunk while secretly observing his every move.
“You wanna handle this now?” Johnny’s eyebrows lifted as his question hung in the air.
Roque gave a curt nod, his eyes narrowed as he tapped out a text and pocketed his phone. His gaze landed on me before lifting to focus on something or someone above my head.
“Ralf?” A soft voice gasped. Her tiny feet crossed the floor and I tried not to size her up as she halted in front of Roque.
She’s me.
Well the B-rated version. She’s petite, fine-boned with hair a deep shade of auburn like mine would be if it wasn’t disguised. Hers hung in loose waves down her back.
Roque’s accepted her soft touch as she leaned up to kiss his cheek. She gasped as he turned his head meeting her mouth instead. He full out kissed the fuck out of her while I watched. His hands held her close before he spun, shielding her body between him and the wall as he devoured her the way he did me.
Jealousy stabbed deep.
I hated him. Wanted to kill him and yet the thought of him feeling passion for anyone who wasn’t me was unacceptable.
My cheeks heated as Johnny busted me staring. “See something you want?”
“I sure do,” I murmured reaching past him to grab a drink off the low coffee table. He caught my wrist. “Tsk, tsk. No underage drinking on my watch.”
“Please,” I rolled my eyes. “You’ve done more illegal things than any of us could do in one lifetime.”
“Easy.” His fingers tightened on my wrist. Another pair of fingers circled my other wrist, tightening around like a vice. Roque’s eyes burned ice-cold as he stared down. The two of them start pulling me toward the door.
“What the fuck? I came here to party,” I protested.
“Oh, we’re going to party, baby. Party like you’ve never seen,” Roque promised with a sneer. My eyes met the girl he left behind. Her fingers were pressed to her swollen lips and her heart was in her eyes. I knew I wasn’t the only one who was caught up in Roque. She clearly was devastated he loved her then dropped her without a backward glance.
“Le Blanc? You coming’?” Johnny barked.
“Fuck no. I’ve just found my princess.” Tati batted her lashes and curled closer to his side. I shook my head pissed as all fuck that the girl I thought was my BFF was just watching me being carted off by two notorious mafia boys and not doing a damn thing to help. I tried not to feel completely crushed, but old wounds open. I’ve always been alone; left to fend for myself why should anything be different.
“You’re going to come in very handy, Blue. Do what we tell you and we’ll make sure you get your next hit, okay?” Johnny croons in my ear.
“I don’t sell my body for drugs.”
“No?” Roque asked huskily. “Then, you’re not like any addict I’ve ever met. They’d do anything to experience the high.”
I shrugged, lifting my chin. “I’m not like anyone.”
“No, you aren’t. Are you?” he replied, lifting the tips of my blue hair and twirling them between his fingers before he let it fall as we walked down the front steps toward a huge black on black SUV.
“In.” His hand, pressed into the small of my back. I turned, craning my neck behind me, hoping desperately someone would stop this madness.
But no one did.
Roque slid behind the wheel, Johnny rode shotgun and the doors locked. Despite my attempts to open them they wouldn’t. The bastard laughed, “Child safety locks.”
A sharp rap came from the other side of the heavily tinted window. Roque grinned as Sebastian stood holding Tati tightly in his arms. “Room for two more?” The locks unclicked and I scrambled deftly opening the door to my left, but Roque was just as fast and caught me. “You’re a feisty one for being so coked up and high, eh?”
His azure eyes were sharp and the corners of his mouth lifted as he stared down into my face bathed in moonlight.
“I see right through you,” his whispered words landed on my lips like the barest caress.
In my mind’s eyes I saw him too. The teen who almost took my life, the man who just held another girl who could pass for the real me; the guy who tried to steal my soul once more that night in the closet. So many emotions, twisted and pulled inside melting into a kaleidoscope of confusion.
“You don’t see jack shit,” I finally spat once my head slightly cleared. His gaze was full of heat and need as it fell to my lips. It lasted only seconds before his mask was firmly back into place. He pulled me forward and I fell into his embrace, plastered against his lean, muscular frame. My eyes squeezed shut as I fought my own body’s desire for my sworn enemy. Damn hormones. They fucked up my plans to bring this devil to his knees.
The backdoor to the SUV opened from behind nudging my butt closer into his hard thighs. “Stop fighting fate, Blue.”
My chin lifted. “That’s what I’ve done my whole life.”
His eyes the color of the ocean at night searched mine looking for the pieces to my puzzle, trying to solve the push and pull between us. His hands on me felt like shackles my body didn’t want to fight but my soul couldn’t forgive his.
His head dipped, his kiss hovered seconds away. My hands pushed against his chest, but it was of no use as his lips captured mine.
He tasted of another. Her lip gloss was overly sweet. Bile rushed up with anger. I ripped my mouth from his. “I don’t do leftovers. I prefer to be the main meal.”
“Putting yourself on my menu?”
“You wish.”
He shrugged. “I’ve already sampled you anyway.”
“And yet you keep craving more.”
His eyes turned black blue. “I want to fucking devour every square inch of you.”
“Too bad,” I shrugged nonchalantly, despite my rapidly racing heart. “I’m not legal.”
His hand slid down my arm, his fingers caressed the inside of my wrist. He felt my pounding pulse and grinned wickedly. “I can still devour you, Blue. There’s more than one way to do that.”
“I’m not some high school
fantasy.”
“No. No you are not. You are a fucking hurricane—my personal storm.”
“No. I’m your fucking worst nightmare.”
He threw back his head and laughed He. Fucking. Laughs. “Blue, my soul is so dark even the Grim Reaper himself shits when I cross his path.”
“What does a sadistic shit like yourself want with a seventeen-year-old anyway?”
“You know what. Go run, Blue. Run, before I decide to take everything from you tonight, just because I can.”
“Define everything? How far will you go?” I raised my brow, challenging him, wanting to know if he’s the same on the inside he was all those years ago. Part of me hopes he’s not, because a sliver of me wanted him to have changed so I could have an excuse to run my hands all over him and let his take what might have always been his to have.
His fingers stroked up my arm and circled my throat. It was a devious caress. His thumb found the hollow and pressed hard. His lips descended as he stole my breath both ways. It burned. The stealing of air. I was sucked backward in time. I felt the cool crunch of leaves under my feet as I struggled. Opening my eyes, I blinked finding him aptly staring at every expression moving over my face. Thoughts raced one by one. The first was: All my training was for nothing, because once he puts his hands on me, my mind goes back in space and time. My body is trained to fight but my mind can’t break free enough to do it.
Finally, his lips and hand lifted.
“What the fuck was that?” I gasped for air sucking down the crispness of the autumn night.
“Me doing what I do best, Blue. Devouring.”
“I don’t just want sex from you. Figure that out yet?”
Johnny cleared his throat. My head twisted, meeting his smirking grin, “Enjoying the show, creeper?”
“Immensely. Now get the fuck in the car. We have somewhere to be.” Johnny checked the expensive watch on his wrist. Roque shoved me back, pinned me to the seat but took his sweet ass time buckling me in. “I need you in one piece, Blue. Because the pleasure of breaking you apart will only belong to me.”
“You already have,” I murmured softly. But he shut the door on my slowly drifting words and rounded the car, sliding into the passenger seat.
“Holy shit.” Tati breathed, as Roque unholstered a gun from apparently his ankle and checked the clip. The sliding of the rack brought back memories of Italy… of the life I left behind but still managed to remember.
“Easy with that shit. If you fuck up my scholarship or chance to get drafted—”
“Relax, Le Blanc. I’ll buy a friggin’ NBA team and make you my star bitch.” Johnny snorted, peeling around a corner and pressing down on the gas.
“Jesus,” Le Blanc shut his eyes and put a hand to his temple. “I’m sorry I got you mixed up with these two assholes, baby.” He linked his hand with Tati’s.
I leaned over. “Help us get out of this mess, then,” I hissed.
“No can do. You’re his girl. And I might not look like one of the bad guys, but I roll with them.”
“Wannabe.”
He shrugged. “They got my back once and I never forgot it. It’s ride or die with them.”
I shivered. I wasn’t the only one who knew their dark secrets or saw the two devils sitting in front for exactly who they were. They sit side by side, broad shouldered and cocky as fuck driving us into god knows whatever mayhem lies ahead.
10
His eyes are deadly, locked onto the beady ones begging him for mercy. The man raised his hands and pleaded his case. “It wasn’t me. I called an Uber and crashed at Chief’s place.”
He’s lying. His voice got higher by an octave with every word he spoke. Even now his raised hands shook slightly.
“You knew the rules. No one fucks with anyone on our campus.”
“Your campus? Your fraternity doesn’t rule. We’re all equal.”
“We belong to more than just a frat,” Johnny spits. “We run the whole game, bitch. East Coast and soon West. Our word is law, you feel me?” Johnny’s open hand smacked the guy in the face.
“Fuck you,” he spat. “You’d be nothing without your Daddy spoon feeding you money and power.”
Johnny grinned like the devil himself as he entered the tiny kitchen area of the apartment and came back holding a spoon. “Open up, bitch and take your medicine.”
Tati screamed and buried her head in Sebastian’s arms. But me. I watched wide-eyed and fascinated as Johnny shoved the metal spoon down the guys throat. He gurgled. Gaggled. Wretched and writhed.
Roque watched me watch them.
“What did he do?”
Roque came closer. “He drugged a girl at our party. Took her in the woods and had her half naked with his dick out.”
“Did he—”
“No, he ran. Like a coward when a couple stumbled upon him. But we picked him up on our surveillance. The girl was able to remember his clothing before she blacked out.”
I popped my shoulder and sauntered forward. I’ve spent years training to kick ass. Roque might render me defenseless but this schmuck? Damn he can have every piece of vengeance meant for someone else.
I stopped next to Johnny, placing a hand on his arm. “May I have a turn?”
He cocked his head assessing me. “You think you can do better?”
“I know I can.”
Johnny removed the spoon from the guy’s throat who in turn, immediately vomited as he gasped for breath. Johnny’s shoes were covered but he didn’t even flinch as he held him by the collar of his shirt.
My hands perused the various cutlery…. lingering coolly as I traced the sharp tip of a paring knife. I put it down. It’s too ordinary, too predictable.
“What’s his weakness?” I asked, circling the quivering, angry piece of shit sweating like the pig he is.
“Play any sports?” He shook his head.
I stepped in close, grabbed his hand and popped each joint one by one, instantly dislocating his fingers. “Good. Because you never will now.”
“Bitch!” He screamed cradling his injured hand. My upper cut took him by surprise; his head snapped back and rolled.
“Damn, Blue. He’s out cold.”
“What a pity, he’s such a lightweight. He deserved to feel more pain.”
Roque’s watchful eyes were on me as I went back to the paring knife. Using scissors to cut his shirt off, I crouched by the bastard’s side and bit my lip. Purposefully, I brought the blade down with pressure, watching the blood come out slow at first, then watched in fascination as I carved words into his chest, branding him forever.
I love dick.
“Nice, Blue,” Johnny, inspected my work.
Roque stood at my side and slipped the bloodied knife from my hands. “God, you’re perfect.” he murmured meeting my eyes. “You enjoyed that? It turned you on? Made you feel alive holding his life in the balance? Getting to choose how far to take things?”
I looked up from the bloodied chest I created; the piece of disfigured art to meet his hot gaze. Our eyes connected. I felt it again. The oneness. The fucked-up rightness of us connecting. I understood his high. His need for power. The absolute god-like seconds of time when you became a monster stealing life and getting high on the thought that you could.
His nostrils flared. I was caught; mesmerized by the dark promise in his eyes as he advanced, lifted me from the floor and in front of everyone—backed me into the wall and hooked my legs around his hip. “Fuck that was so hot, Blue. Fuck. You make me forget who I need to be and at the same time remind me of what I always was.”
His tongue traced my parted mouth. I gasped as he bit my lip causing my own blood to flow as his tongue lapped it up and swept inside. I clutched his head, helpless to the one soul who always had mine in the palm of his hand.
I could love him.
Do I love him?
Did I recognize the dark one, fated to be mine the way I’d always been his. Maybe our fate was already written. Maybe that’
s why he spared me, because he saw it too; knew there was a day yet to come when we’d meet like this… a twisting, bloody heap of need like no other?
“Do you want this?” He pulled back and my heart almost stopped mid-beat as my beast turned vulnerable man as he asked if I could want him? Accept him and his darkness for what it was.
“Leave us.” He commanded. The room emptied except for Johnny.
“You sure. If she talks—”
“She won’t or I’ll personally cut her tongue out and she’d let me.”
Johnny dipped his head and left.
Roque lifted the gun from his holster and handed it to me. “What do you say, Blue? Shall you do the honors or me?”
The gun was heavy in my hand. I raise it pointing it straight into his chest. “I hate how you make me feel. How you’ve turned everything upside down.”
“Do you?” He breathed “Do you hate it? Or hate that you crave it. Desire it. Want it like I want you.”
I mewled as I melted against him, felt his hardness jut into my tummy. Roque took the gun from my hands added a silencer and popped two shots in the guy’s knees.
Roque exhaled almost like it was a release as powerful as coming as he took my hand and walked out.
“Everything good?” Sebastian wondered.
“Everything is perfect,” Roque replied gripping my hand tightly in his. I sickly realized I’m grossly outplayed in his presence. I wanted him, yearned for him—this man-monster of mine. But this whole time I viewed myself as the good one. The light so bright it’d snuff out all evil. And yet tonight, I learned who I really might be—his dark queen destined to rule by his side and carry out judgements of those who would cross our reign.
Silently, we walked back outside. An owl hooted from his perch overhead. The clouds moved past the moon and casted its glow upon the hard planes of my dark one’s face.
I got in the SUV and was surprised as Roque squeezed me into the third row next to him and tipped my chin. “Who are you?”
“Lost.” I answered honestly. “All this time I thought I was something else, someone else.”
“One look and I knew, Blue. Don’t worry if you don’t know who you are yet, you’re still so young. But I do. I know who you are.”
