by Lucian Bane
What did he do when Reggie slept?
“Okay, Bones,” Reginald said, wanting to reassure him in some way. “I’m here for you and with you. Tell me how to help.”
Bones was quiet for a long time before he whispered, “Trust me would help.”
Reginald fought to go slow. “That’s kind of hard, Bones… with you not remembering things. What if the things you aren’t remembering are… you know….” Reginald didn’t want to say nuts. Bones hated that word.
“I’m counting on you for that.”
More dread came now. “For what exactly?”
“You’re my light Reggie. My normal. You have to make sure I don’t do anything that would get us fried, okay?”
Jesus. Christ. “And… you’re sure I can stop you?”
Three seconds of terrifying silence ended with a whisper. “I’m sorry, Reggie… I’m not sure. But what else do I have?”
“You have, we can stop now,” Reginald hurried in panic. “We can stop now and go back to our normal lives.”
“Normal,” Bones muttered softly, maybe even mournfully. “I don’t think I want to go back to that Reggie. I don’t even think the way back is available now.”
Reginald raked both hands through his hair. “Normally, I would say that’s great Bones, but until I know where you’re headed—”
“You’ll watch me,” Bones said.
“But why can’t we just call it off?”
“Because I can’t!”
“You can’t?” Reginald’s air left him. “Why?”
“It’s time to finish this. Not for me, Reggie, for you. You deserve a different life. I won’t make you live in this prison.”
“I don’t care about this prison with you,” Reginald whispered, his heart hot with Bones sincere words. “I’m okay with it. And we can get free, me and you, just… not with her. Please.”
“She’s the answer, Reggie,” he said simply, like he’d pondered it for years and had confirmation straight from the mouth of God. “She’s the key into that lock, I can feel it,” Bones hissed, jabbing a finger at his chest. “She’s going to bust it all wide open.”
The intensity in Bones body said he was tired of being like he was. But what if this brought out things that couldn’t be controlled and sent them go to the fryer? What if whatever Bones needed to forget took him and forced Reginald to do things he couldn’t live with?
****
Winter tensed trying to adjust her wrists in the ties when she heard him finally returning after a very disturbing conversation. Was she supposed to hear it? Was it a scare tactic? Well it worked. Procedures for hurting without hurting? So, torture would be a large appetizer before the main course. But there was no question about it, Christopher did not share Bones’ ideals in this. She felt sorry for him. He was so tormented and had hoped she’d chosen him. Not this. Now she understood why.
“I’m going to be up front with you, Miss Brown. Or is it Mrs.?
She shook her head toward the sound of Bones’ gruff voice nearby.
“I need to discover which road to take on this journey that fate has put us all on. That means I’m going to do things with you in order to arrive at that.”
Do things with her. As in with her body or with her like… have coffee? She thought about the fate part then. He saw it too. The uncanny odds. She considered what it all meant, fate putting her with him and not the other. What did fate have in mind with the three of them?
“Whatever you need to do, Dragon,” she managed.
“I need to know things. I need you to be completely honest with me. I will check everything you tell me, and if I find you lied, I’m done.”
Done with what? She still didn’t know what he had in mind. She aimed her gaze toward the shadow of his figure before her.
“I need to get at Fate’s design in this. What exactly does it want of me? Did it pick me? Because Miss Brown…” he began with a calm warning. “I worked for Fate in the past. I slaved my ass off for her. Then she handed me over to Irony, a cruel bastard with a shit eating grin, and I worked for him too. I slaved for both, all my life, without stop, without wavering. I was a good employee to the universe. And then one day, I quit,” he said. “I’ve been MIA for near a decade. And it seems… I’ve been found.”
The mattress dipped at her feet and she realized he sat. “But now I have Christopher to think about. And I need to make sure… damn sure… that he isn’t hurt by this. In any way. You understand?”
“Yes,” she said, more confused than ever. Mostly with how his words affected her. The darkness she’d sensed in him had returned with his words and yet she found herself hearing what was behind them. Something worse than her current predicament. But what struck her hardest was his concern and care for his brother. The kind she should have had for hers but didn’t. “I…I can help.” The words seemed oddly strange and yet fitting with her poorly orchestrated death plans that fate seemed to snatch from her stupid hands since she couldn’t do anything right.
‘Good.” The rusty springs squeaked as he rose from the mattress. “The first thing I’m going to do, is remove your blindfold.”
Panic hit Winter. If he let her see him, that was surely it, he’d not let her go.
“I have to see your eyes.”
Her eyes? Was he into voodoo? Was he going to take them in some ritual to see the future? She tensed when a shadow crossed before her face and the blindfold slowly lifted. She couldn’t help but keep her eyes shut tight. Maybe because she wasn’t ready to see, she wasn’t ready to meet her final fate. Before this, there was a ray of hope that some miracle would happen she hadn’t thought of, and if she looked at her killer now, or whatever he was, it was done.
“I need you to open your eyes.”
She shook her head without even thinking of the consequences, maybe a final desperate instinct to live.
“Would you like me to get Christopher?”
“No,” she gasped. He knew she didn’t want that. “I’ll do it.” She slowly opened and blinked at the man. She blinked many more times, terror slamming her. “Oh shit,” she nearly shrieked. The room spun suddenly as oxygen left her brain too quickly. “Reginald?”
He shook his head. “Bones.”
“Bones? Oh God,” she gasped, fighting the spin of the room. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t,” Bones warned.
The darkness in his command was just what the doctor ordered, helping her pull her shit together. Bones. Bones. She recalled that name. He’d called himself… Reginald Bones. She fought the terror slowly growing into a monster again. There was something not right about it. Not him. He wouldn’t. Oh shit, he was crazy! Why was she so stupid! Why didn’t she ever listen to the majority for once in her life? “You prefer… to be called Bones? Not Reginald?”
“No, I am Bones. Christopher is Reginald. My twin brother.”
She couldn’t stifle her gasp of relief. She was right about him. He was good. This wasn’t him being psychotic, this was Bones. Thank God. She wasn’t sure why she was thanking Him, but everything could end now that she knew that Reginald was the good man she’d always thought him to be. It seemed like a resolution for her life somehow. Like being right about just one good thing meant she was wrong about all the bad things.
How did the town not know he had an identical twin? If they dressed the same and… wait, they’d have to have the same tattoos too. If they did, then nobody would ever know they were seeing two people, unless they spoke to them. They were night and day.
But why? Why would they want people to think they were the same person? What could that possibly gain? She was never good with puzzles, but something nagged at her brain about that. Probably some convoluted plot, like the ones you hear about that blow your mind because it’s that crazy good. The kind of crazy that’s actually brilliant. So brilliant, the average mind would never see it or think to look for it. She definitely wouldn’t put something like that past this Bones brother.
&nbs
p; “I didn’t… have an identical twin,” she said, hoping for confirmation just in case she was wrong about her theory.
He looked around and she hurried her gaze over his black long john shirt and baggy blue jeans, trying to remember details about Reginald. Anything different that would stand out.
“This is the gardener’s quarters,” he said, ignoring her brother remark.
Her eyes flew back up and stopped at the tattoos covering his neck. Her brain decided to give her a vivid flashback of the morning she’d met him when he was half naked. God, she’d all but swooned. Only it was Reginald, not him.
“It’s a full house, has everything you’ll need while living here.”
While living there? She finally met that pensive gaze. It looked almost black in the sad single bulb light behind him. “Are you going to kill me?” She suddenly needed to know, she couldn’t just linger here indefinitely. The Professor would come hunting her. She needed this job over with as soon as possible.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Bones had to grin at the bold question. “While your death does seem to be fated, I need a little time to arrive at the details since it’s not some game to me.” He spread his arms out, gesturing around, not missing the feel of her hungry sneak peek of his body, irking him. “I seem to have been fated to be in the death business.” He looked back at her, not wanting her eyes in the wrong places. “If I’m not ending a life, I’m putting the ended ones in the ground.” He dropped his hands and placed them between his open legs. “It’s always been there. Like close family. I used to feel like it was a curse.” He gave a light chuckle and her gaze dropped to his mouth. “Then I realized…” he went on, letting his smile fade. “Somebody’s got to do it. Whether it’s an accident, a murder, or just plain old killing, it’s got to be done. And there’s the clean-up, which this business is about.”
He regarded the disturbed look she gave him. He didn’t like her. He needed to figure out why. He had inklings, but there seemed to be something more, something deeper that said he hated her with good reason and just measure. And he sure as hell didn’t see what Reginald saw in her, but saw it the little fucker did. One of the reasons he was going so carefully.
“What?” he finally asked her.
She shook her head a little, like she didn’t want to say or wasn’t sure.
“What,” he repeated, letting her know not answering wasn’t an option. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You just… talk like it’s all… it’s nothing.”
He considered that while holding her timid stare. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess you get used to it after a while.” The hint of judgment flickered in her eyes, making anger crawl along the tattoos on his neck. “I’m sure you know what that’s like. Getting used to doing the things that are frowned upon by society?” At seeing shame take over her body language, he stretched his legs before him, crossing them at the ankles. “I did what was required to protect Reggie.” He clasped his hands behind his head then. “As long as I needed to, whatever I needed, I did it.” Bones looked into her eyes, letting the maps in the depths of her irises show him the way. “Reginald had to be protected, and I was his older brother. Who was older out of you and your brother?”
She stared at him wanting to be angry he could see but knowing she had no fucking grounds. “I was,” she said lowering her gaze.
“Look at me when we’re talking,” he said lightly, pointing to his eyes. “I have to see you.”
She raised them again and he studied with an angled gaze. Fascinating. He never did understand how something like guilt could be seen in the eyes.
“What?” she whispered, her brows drawing a little, indicating she was seeing something in his gaze as well.
“Do you see it in people’s eyes?”
“See what?”
“Emotions,” he said. “Anger. Guilt. Fear. Lust. Guilt…” He raised his brows at her.
“I have a lot of that.”
“I know you do.”
He watched her search for that justified reason to be angry at him for making her talk about things she wanted to forget. Typical coward. Always looking for somebody to blame or be angry with for their own shortcomings and fuckups.
“Anger,” he named, pointing at her when he saw it. “And more anger,” he mumbled when it multiplied with his observation. “Ah,” he mused, angling his head. “Is that wounded pride?”
“Everybody has these emotions.”
“I never said they didn’t.” he admitted lightly.
“You sound accusing.”
She’s right. You do, Reginald threw in, sounding like he was pacing behind him.
“You sound defensive. Do you think everybody is accusing you? Does your guilt demand everybody accuse you?” She looked down. “I don’t even need to see your eyes to know they’re loaded with shame.”
She shot sparkly eyes back to him. She did have good eyes for studying like this. Expressive. Open. “Back to angry. You’re just a mess of emotions.”
Why are you antagonizing her?
“So what,” she muttered, getting more pissed.
Sit down, he told Reggie, or I’ll conduct this while you sleep.
He counted on his fingers then. “Anger, guilt, shame, regret. Zero self-worth,” he said at his pinky. “Misery loves company, doesn’t she?” He smiled. “Wonder what you look like when intelligence fills that gaze of yours.” He nodded with a grin. “We can add fight to that list now.”
That was low.
“Isn’t that the same as anger?”
Oh, she got you there.
“Now sarcasm.” Reggie, back up.
“This is stupid,” she muttered.
“It’s stupid alright,” Bones said. “Me and you, here with you wanting to die because you feel poorly about how you fucked up everything. You, asking to be tied up, asking to be snuffed out? You’re a god…damn…genuine… idiot,” he whispered.
You’re an ass.
Anger lit her eyes again, making her face hard this time. “So what? I’m stupid. We both know it. I’d clap for you but I’m tied up. Tied up because I’m stupid. Let me add useless to your list of ridicule. The only thing I do on this planet is fuck everything up. I kill and hurt all the good people and I let the bad ones do it back to me. Because I’m guilty about how stupid I am.”
“Why?”
“Why what!”
“Why are you guilty about being stupid?” She stared at him and he pointed at seeing it. “The lightbulb look. That’s a good look. Now answer the question. Why are you guilty about being stupid?”
“Because I hate who I am.”
He shook his head. “No. Now you’re being stupid. Hate is not guilt. Why are you guilty about being stupid?” He noted the twitch in her jaw and warned Reginald. One word. And I swear to fuck you are out entirely. I’ll do this whole affair while you sleep.
He went on, “Do you ever have that urge with the men you open your legs to? To tell them what’s really on your mind? No, no. Don’t get the squirmy shame with me. No hiding here.”
Reginald paced and Bones dared, Do it. Say it. One. Fucking. Word.
“I have the urge to do much more than tell them what’s on my mind.”
“Ahhh,” Bones nodded, finally feeling Reginald back way up. “But… let me guess… you never say a word. Because… you’re afraid of pain?”
“Because I’m afraid of pleasure,” she retorted.
At this, Reginald returned to Bone’s head space. I think she’s telling the truth.
Well if she is, she’s oblivious. “More sarcasm.”
“So…” she angled her head and Bones saw it coming. “Have you ass-certained enough information through my eyeballs to put me out of your misery yet? Or will you need to make me stand on my head and see which way my legs lean? Stand me out naked in the cold and find my future in the goosebump patterns?”
Bones and Reginald both laughed at that. It was too damn funny not to. Bones finally poi
nted a finger as he chuckled. “Comedian. Did you know you had this talent?” He leaned forward and put his elbows on both knees. “What kinds of talents do you have, Miss Winter?”
“Besides the stupid ones?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling still, kind of glad she had a little spunk. He wasn’t sure, but something he’d forgotten indicated that it was better to go down fighting than to go down crying like a weak, stupid bitch.
She only stared at him for many seconds, calculating her next angle.
Bones slid his chair next to the bed and leaned his face next to hers. “That’s it,” he said, his proximity bringing it all back into her gaze. “Reset those morbid goals of yours.” He tapped her temple and whispered. “Remember your lame agenda. Keep your dumbass on track. I do hate that you’ve chosen to make stupidity your number one strength but fuck, Winter. If you must, then make it work for you.”
He kept his face close to hers, enjoying the view of her eyes at the invasive distance. It was oddly… familiar. Being up close in her face like this. He waited for a memory to tell him why, just as she jerked forward and planted her lips on his.
It was like being decked in the mouth and Bones jerked back, staring at the new look in her eyes.
“How you like them stupids, Mr. Bones? Oh, your eyes say not a whole lot,” she mocked. Her breathless words said she’d taken a big risk and was prepared to accept the consequences. “Not so fun having your demons poked at, huh? Maybe I’ll get my tongue in your mouth next time and really tickle your devils. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a frigid man before, but damn,” she whispered in mock curiosity, “I think you might be the bastard child of Father Winter himself. Not that I’m judging you. To each his own.”
Bones eyed the fury in her eyes as he fought the need to go rinse his mouth off. She’d love that, wouldn’t she? But what amazed him, maybe even annoyed him, was how she would fight him and not all the other losers she should have.
“My brother would be hurt that you did that,” he said, feeling Reginald’s jealousy stabbing him in the back of the skull.
