by Scott, Raven
Theo hadn’t seen me naked yet— hadn’t seen the huge, ugly, purple mark that was slowly turning a sickly green on my side. My bruise didn’t hurt anymore, or I’d just gotten used to it, and my breath caught when he pulled his hand out from under me to creep his fingers over my thigh.
But his palm didn’t glide south, and I tensed when Theo grabbed my breast and squeezed with a low growl rolling down my spine. Tears instantly sprang to my eyes before I’d even registered the pain, the fiery tug, and I sucked in a whistle of breath through my teeth. My elbow sailed into his face, but the shock rendered his jolt weak against my hips. His palm felt from my breast, and I jumped up to pant viciously as pin needles stabbed my front in waves from top to bottom.
“What the fu— ” Theo’s nasty snarl caught when he locked eyes on my face, but I couldn’t see him beyond the tears that bubbled up to the brim of my lids. My pants turned to hyperventilations as fire engulfed my lungs, and my heart strained as it beat too hard and fast. Grinding my teeth until they threatened to crack, my mouth dried, and my furious breaths became rasps. “Illya . . . ”
“Don’t.” Croaking hoarsely, I blinked hard, and tears boiled on my heated face as pain sent spasms rippling down my chest, which only intensified the pain. “Don’t . . . don’t . . . ”
Turning around sluggishly, I shuffled over to the wall to brace both my palms and I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t breathe deeply, couldn’t attempt to get any control over myself— I just had to endure until it died down. A mangled palm touched my back, and I ducked my head to relieve some of the burning at my sternum.
“I guess I’ll never touch your titties again.” Even beyond the blood drumming in my ears, Theo’s grumble sounded gruff and bitter, and I exhaled a fiery breath through my nose. “Shit, Illya.”
“It’s okay. It-it’s fine. J-just . . . just a m-minute.” I wasn’t mad— I was in too much pain to be mad. Besides, Theo had every right to want to touch my chest, and it was really my fault for not saying something first. After all, it wasn’t his fault for not knowing something I never told him. Scrunching up my face, I crouched down to force the air from my lungs when it caught behind the dense lump in my throat.
“Do you need the hospital?”
“No.” Cracking my eyes open, they wandered dazedly to the right, and Theo’s face dripped in concern. “I . . . I shouldn’t have skipped PT.”
“You can’t use my own joke against me, Illya.” A pained smirk stretched my lips, and Theo sighed heavily as he rubbed my back gently. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Managing a slightly heavier breath than previously, I reached to tangle my fist in Theo’s t-shirt, and he covered it with his good hand. “I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you asking about it.”
My voice shook, but I didn’t stutter, and I craned my neck in an effort to dislodge the ball in my throat. Theo’s face masked in graveness, and he squeezed my hand as I slowly but surely unknotted my muscles. Like I suspected with his arm, this happened a lot. Even the slightest breeze tipped me off, which is why I wore the bandages. They covered my scars and reduced friction, and unexpected touches couldn’t happen anymore.
“I wouldn’t ask about it.” His right hand flexed against my back knowingly, and I leaned over into his chest to wipe the sweat from my forehead on his shirt. “At least yours is easier to hide. I get a lot of looks because of my face and hand.”
“I think it’s handsome.” The truth was that I didn’t notice Theo’s scar all that much— it wasn’t like it ripped down the front of his face or anything. The line was just a jagged, dark line. “The pizza’s not even here yet.”
A particularly violent spasm ripped up my spine, and I hissed even as Theo wrapped his arm around my back firmly. Wincing as pain flared across my chest, I tightened my grip in his shirt, and the neck seam creaked in protest overly loud in my ears.
“You got me real good, by the way.” My brows furrowed in confusion, and I glanced up as Theo rubbed his jaw and cheek with his bad hand. “Who taught you to elbow someone in the face like that? You got me right in the cheekbone.”
“Ooh, my mom did.” Appreciation swirled in his eyes, and I took a rattling breath as I leaned my head against his chest. My mind puttered along leisurely, and Theo sat back on the floor to gingerly wrap his legs around me. “When I was eight, she taught me to defend myself. She was definitely one of those people that saw the glass half empty.”
“My mom is the kind of woman that’d buy takeout and pass it off as her own so she can impress people at Thanksgiving.” His hand swept up into my hair as he spoke, and Theo kneaded my scalp despite the dye that’d rub off on his skin. “When I decided to go into the military, she threw a party. When I got deployed for the first time, she wasn’t nearly as excited.”
“Was it scary?” Sniffing hard, I closed my eyes and wiped my face on his shirt as he chuckled a little cynically.
“I almost shit myself when they announced we were landing. Those transport planes aren’t the most smooth things to ride through the sky at two hundred miles per hour. I didn’t used to be like this when I was nineteen and twenty years old. I was different back then. I always thought that I’d end up like one of those guys in the USAA commercials with a small business and a perfect family and all that shit.” My gaze flickered up at the sourness that dragged down Theo’s lips, and he pressed his chin against my crown with a faint grunt. “I mean, there’s a reason why it’s ‘young and stupid.’”
“When I was little, I wanted to be a cop.” My mom had been a cop, and the incident that led to her and my father’s deaths had been investigated into the ground and ten feet more. Everyone suspected foul play, but it’d simply been faulty wiring in the house they rented. “After they died, my aunt took me in and sued the property manager for everything she owned, and when she spent it all, she kicked me out. I went into foster care for about seven hours, which was just sitting at the police station, getting sad looks by everyone. I ran away.”
“That’s some shit, Illya.” I didn’t really reply, content to just soak up Theo’s warmth until a light knock sounded at the door.
22
Theo
“We’re going out.” Under my headphones, I barely made out Mateo’s garbled grumbled, and I glanced up from my phone as he stood up. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and stress lines around his mouth, and my lip twitched faintly. Working my headset off one ear, Sylvie’s bloodcurdling shrieking echoed instead of sweet, sweet silence, and I leaned back to cross my knees.
“If you leave this house, Mateo, I’ll kill her.” My matter-of-fact declaration made Mateo pause, and he scowled darkly at me. Sylvie had been screaming non-stop for, like, seven hours now, but I had noise-canceling headphones. A wondrous investment. “Step one foot outside, and I’ll blow her brains out. You wanted this, didn’t you? So deal with it.”
Truth be told, I didn’t want to kill Sylvie simply because Mateo was a dumb piece of shit. I was sure there were other reasons she deserved all this crap, but I didn’t know about any of that. Illya refused to talk about Sylvie, and I knew the pain and betrayal was still very fresh. Certainly, she didn’t do anything to warrant dying— otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Plus, I would have to tell Illya, and that could go a few different ways. There was a lot of bitterness.
And why wouldn’t it be? They’d been through a lot together, and Sylvie had ruined it for an insanely stupid reason.
“So you’re allowed to leave, and I’m not?” Mateo sounded so infantile at that moment that I snorted a laugh, and his slightly swollen nostrils flared in anger. Standing up leisurely, I blocked out Sylvie’s screaming as I loomed over him, but I knew he couldn’t do the same. Either she’d drive him nuts, or he’d storm out, not thinking I’d do anything about it.
“You want her around, Mateo. This is only the beginning, too. Either get rid of her or suck it up.” Jabbing him in the chest to prove my point, I glared at him from under furrowe
d brows. “You don’t have the option to run away. Imagine what’ll happen if that baby is born addicted to heroin? Imagine how much it’ll scream, and no one will take care of it but you. Do you want me to get you one of those practice dolls?”
I couldn’t help adding the jibe, and Mateo tensed as fire flickered in his eyes. The blatant, candid truth was that parenthood wasn’t understood from the outside. He seriously thought Sylvie would get better, would be the perfect mom, and he’d have the perfect family. But he was wrong.
“I’m going out.” Arching a brow quizzically at that, I rocked back on my heels and nodded flippantly. If Mateo left, I’d keep my word, and then I’d go hang out with Illya because, unfortunately, her tips hadn’t picked up since Wednesday. Friday and Saturday were her best days, but I wasn’t sure that she was doing too well on that front.
Mateo hadn’t moved from his spot, though, and I rolled my eyes as disgust soured my tongue. Sucking my teeth, I dropped back down into the recliner, but even then, he still seemed small and meek. He’d never suffered any way he didn’t create, and he just stood there, shooting daggers at me with his eyes.
“Sit down and shut up, Mateo. You’re not gonna do shit, and you know it.” Pulling my headphones over my head, I turned my attention back to my phone. The stupid matching game kept me occupied this long, there was no reason it shouldn’t continue. As soon as I looked at the screen, though, my mind started to wander, and Mateo sat on the sofa to hold his head in his hands between his knees.
I’d be laughing my ass off if this wasn’t damn inconvenient.
There were so many other places I’d rather be on a Friday night, like Illya’s club, watching her shake her ass. At the very least, she wouldn’t be able to deny any tips I gave her. I still couldn’t get that notion out of my head. She really ate cat food from a can rather than buy a carrot or something.
Obviously, Illya had done it for a long time and gotten used to it, but . . .
A shiver lodged between my shoulders at the idea of being so damn desperate that Illya ate cat food like it was a bag of chips. She only nibbled at the pizza I’d ordered and said something about saving it, but I refused to bring her to work until she ate at least two slices. That kind of shit, I couldn’t stand it.
Anything I tried to do for her usually backfired, though. I had to be careful about how I brought up things, so she didn’t shoot me down because of cost.
Anything that goes into that can doesn’t come out. Those were her exact words when she pulled out this huge coffee can from under her cot. The top barely fit on because of all the neatly folded bills, but she only put in, never taking out. The role she’d demanded from me had been in there, too, so I couldn’t feel bad about it.
Illya would be the death of me. Of that, I had no doubt at all.
“The Hell is with all the screaming?” The hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the muffled tone, and I tore my gaze away from my phone. Carlyle stood in the entryway, a grumpy, exaggerated expression on his face, and I gestured wordlessly to Mateo as he popped up from the sofa. Carlyle gazed at me steadily, but I kept my expression blank as I turned back to my phone. “You know, I could’ve killed you before you even noticed me, Theo.”
“Go ahead. I fucking want to kill me right now, too.” Out of the corner of my eye, he smirked maliciously, if not grimly, at my grumble. “God damn.”
“What are you doing here, Carlyle? Why didn’t you t— ”
“Why would I warn you and give you time to cover up whatever fuck up you managed this time, Mateo.” Carlyle’s harsh snap whipped over my head, and Mateo tensed as his big brother slammed the door shut. The screaming continued, almost in the background of my mind, like it was on the television or something. “I told you to get rid of that thing, and here you are— disobeying me yet again.”
“C— ” His hand shot up to silence his brother, and Carlyle shot him a frosty glare as I turned off my phone display to watch. Mateo and Carlyle were full-blood brothers, but they obviously took after one parent more than the other. Mateo was tall and lanky, and Carlyle was built like me— broad, muscular, but a little shorter and stocky. Definitely not a guy I wanted to get trapped in an alley with, for sure.
“Theo.” Clenching my jaw as he turned to me, I didn’t dare blink as Carlyle scanned me through pupils narrowed into slits. “Go shut that bitch up so I can have a serious conversation with my kid brother. Don’t kill it— I agree with you on that. He wanted this, he’s going to suffer the consequences.”
Ah, he tapped into the audio. Of fucking course, Carlyle tapped into the surveillance system before coming in here. Hoisting myself up, I left my phone and headphones on the seat to head upstairs. The closer I got to Sylvie’s room, the louder her gut-wrenching cries became. Popping open the door, I ground my teeth as the stench of shit, piss and vomit slammed into me.
I don’t know what the fuck Mateo was thinking, but no one was taking care of this girl. Honestly, it was surprising that she hadn’t suffocated on her own puke yet.
Tied to the bed, Sylvie was drenched in sweat, and her own shit covered her thighs and hips from her struggling. For some reason, she was naked, and vomit pooled in the hollow of her neck and crusted her short hair to her cheeks. My fingers tingled in disgust at the idea of touching her, and my stomach roiled as I searched the room for something. My gaze settled on a wide, square hairbrush, and my cheek twitched in foreboding. I better not get thrown up on. At least the first time was voluntary.
23
Illya
“Illya, can you come here a sec’?” Glancing over at Marcella, I nodded before twisting to smile at the guy sliding dollars bills into the neckline of my leotard. I excused myself, and he was too drunk to stop me from getting up as Marcella hovered by a small, round table. “You have a request from VIP four. Remember that guy that knocked me over? It’s him and his bodyguard again, and some other guy I don’t recognize. He’s pretty hot, though.”
“Ohhh, okay. Let’s go.” But Marcella grabbed my arm and shook her head, and my brows furrowed as my gut clenched in foreboding. “Don’t tell me I’m going in there alone. What did Roge say? He knows, right?”
“Of course he knows. He said he knows this stranger guy personally, and to not worry. But I’ll be in room three, okay. It’s empty right now. If you need help, just bang on the wall, okay, Illya.” She shot me a firm nod, and I glanced up wearily at the second-floor balconies that circled the entire second floor. Blacked out windows shimmered against the strobe lights, and the knots in my abdomen intensified. Shaking my head a little, I straightened my shoulders and licked my lips before starting for the stairs.
“At least, I’ll probably get some good tips today, maybe.” This week had just been so difficult for some reason, though, I couldn’t put my finger on why things had lulled so badly. Friday was usually booming, but the club was barely half-full as I glanced around. Of course, our regulars showed up, but that wasn’t a good thing because they were so comfortable that they tipped horribly.
Looking over my shoulder, I watched the guy I’d just been with drunkenly talking to his friends as he replaced me with some no-name prowler. Reaching back to pull out the crumpled bill from my leotard, I paused at the bottom of the stairs to scowl. Two one-dollar bills were all I got after listening to him for almost seven minutes complain about how his wife wouldn’t put out now that she was pregnant.
“Jesus, I need a better job.” I should invest in a laptop and learn some useful things myself. Maybe, I’d get lucky and find some free online classes. Taking the stairs carefully in my four-inch heels, I rolled my lips as I tried to wipe the sourness from my expression.
Knocking on the door that led to room four, I waited for someone to open the door, and a little bubble of excitement floated up in my chest. Mateo, I wasn’t so keen on seeing again, but Theo and I seemed to have a real moment the other day. When the door swung open, I was hit with a sense of deja vu, and a bright smile automatically lifted the corners of m
y lips.
But it wasn’t Theo at the door, and I forced down the surprise that jolted my chest. The bulky guy that took over the whole entryway smiled warmly at me, leaning with his arm high, and I met his gaze firmly. He wasn’t taller than me in my heels, but the malicious glint in his eye was scary casual and sent shivers lodged between my shoulder blades.
“Aren’t you just the cutest.” The deep, dark purr rose goosebumps down my arms, and flames licked my cheeks when he held out a hand for me. “Come in.”
“What a gentleman.” His palm was warm and soft against my fingertips, and his smirk widened to reveal shallow dimples. The brightness in his eye flared, and I ignored the sudden urge to turn around and run away. I couldn’t pinpoint what this huge rift in his presence was, but I sure as shit felt it wrap around me to bristle the bridge of my nose.
“I understand that my little brother liked you the last time they were here. What’s your name?” My gaze flickered to Mateo to find him pouting on the sofa, and I arched a brow quizzically. I didn’t dare look at Theo, but his glaring burned holes into the side of my face. Only, it wasn’t his usual stare— it was a lot more dangerous— and the tension in the room could suffocate me if I tilted my head too far back.
“Illya. I’m glad I made a good impression.” Turning back to the stranger in the room, I smiled, and he released my hand to gesture to the sofa. “You know my name. Can I ask yours?”
“No wonder Theo likes you so much.” The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the danger that laced his tone, and my eyes widened as I paused. Carlyle. Straightening my half-bent stature, I cocked my head as I scanned him. He wasn’t at all what I thought of, but that was not a good thing. “So, you know a bit about me, too.”
