by T. L Smith
“Thank you,” she says pulling back and dragging me into the house. She takes me in a different direction than I usually go. I hear ruffling on a bed then Kazier greets me, my mouth forms a smile, but it’s forced. He thanks me for coming, which is very unlike him, then Elina asks how I’ve been. I don’t want to burden her with anything so I simply shrug my shoulders. I hear the sound of kissing, then she’s pulling me back out and into the main area of the house. Sitting me on the couch, with her next to me.
“Spill, take my mind off it all.” I shake my head at her. “Spill Pollie, tell me what it is with you and Death. Don’t deny it.”
“I don’t even know. It was good, so good. Then it was just…”
“He told you what he does, I take it?” I nod my head. “He’s very… unique, I guess you could say.”
“Or evil,” I say shrugging my shoulders.
“Yes, but I have seen him with you. I don’t think he is when you’re with him.”
“He did try to slice my throat open, remember?” I reply sarcastically.
“If he wanted you dead, Pollie, not even Kazier could stop him.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“I’m just saying how I see it. I don’t know him, I’ve only heard about him. And not one thing has been pleasant. Though with you, he’s protective, and I actually believe he doesn’t even know what it is that’s affecting him. Maybe you need to make him see it.”
I let her words sink in. I do believe with me he’s different, if there’s a difference. I don’t know the real him. Only what I feel, and hear.
“I don’t know if I want to do that anymore. It’s all so tiring, and I'm not sure if I can get past any of that…” I trail off, and a shiver breaks over me thinking about those dead bodies I touched. I hate it. Yet, it’s something he’s used to doing.
“Well, at least tell me the sex is good?” She laughs.
I hang my head. “It’s the best. I’ve never, you know… never had someone so… into me.”
“I’ve slept with a lot of people, ain't no denying that. But I knew something was different when his hands were on me. Even if I fought it for as long as possible,” she says referring to Kazier.
“Sex can’t be everything,” I groan laying into the couch.
“But what a great way to start.” She laughs. “Got to make sure he knows how to use it.”
“I touched one,” I say my head falling down, I don’t know if it will ever leave me.
“He isn’t killing them, Pollie. He is simply doing what he gets paid to do. He may love it, but maybe you don’t understand why he does. Have you asked? Have you tried to be near him when he does what he does? Maybe get a feel for it all?”
“No way… no way…” I panic.
“If you like him as much as you’re trying to deny it right now. Why not at least try?”
“What if he gets over me… you know, in the future? What if I become just another thing in his life?”
“I doubt that, but when that time comes, you’ll know what to do. You just have to ask yourself is he worth it? Is your heart worth it? Because I’m telling you now, love is better than running away from it. If I had to choose life or love, it would be love every time. Without a doubt. He fills me up like no one has ever done before. Don’t you want that?”
I nod my head. I do. I so badly want that.
“Go! Go home and think. All I can tell you is that it’s always worth it in the end.”
“I’m sure you weren’t thinking that the other day.”
Her hand comes to lay on top of mine. “If he died that day, I wouldn’t regret a single thing. Every milestone put me in a path for him, it was my walking stones.”
“What about your family? Have you heard from them?”
“Only Maso, that’s all I need… Kazier, you, and Maso. I don’t need anyone else. You three fulfill me enough.” I stand and lean in to cuddle her. “Now go. I need to see if I can ride my not yet husband's cock without hurting him.” She laughs following me to the door.
Chapter 22
Death aka Dmitry
The pain was there, I caused it. How did I cause it? I don’t even know. The break in her voice, as she asked me to leave. I didn’t understand it. Women don’t cry around me, they usually run. I’ve never dealt with such things. Ever. And Sebastian, I don’t even know why he was there, how he even knew where she lived.
I don’t trust him, not around her. He would see her, I know he isn’t blind. She’s unique. She hardly sees the bad, until it’s forced upon her, like the bodies.
Was that her turning point? Touching them, the lifeless corpses that were mine for me to do my work. I didn’t know. A part of me was screaming not to care. How did I come to care, even in the slightest for her feelings? I have no idea.
The sex was great. Her body, her skin, were mine. I wanted to claim every inch of her. Like it was my last breath. I intended to. I’ve started to put a plan together, to kidnap her, lock her away for only me to see. She could be my little doll, to do with as I please. Maybe so I could search her, insides as well as out for what she has and how she has a hold on me.
Then somewhere in my fucked up brain, I knew it wasn’t the way to go with her. I would never see her again if she managed to escape. She wouldn’t have that strong grip she has on me when I take her, she wouldn’t bite me until I bleed if I did that. And I needed that pain she would inflict in the heat of the moment.
My car comes to a stop out the front of a house I never want to go into ever again. One I said I would never enter again. But I need him gone, or dead. I haven’t decided which yet.
The gates open, and I know he’s in there when I drive up to the front of the house. The door is open, and no one stands there. My hands squeeze the steering wheel, willing it to pull around and drive away. I don’t want to go back in there. I hate it.
The house is exactly as I remember it when I left. It’s big, old, and magnificent. My father used to tell us never to touch anything. That our mother decorated this house and if we destroyed something, we would get a belting. It was like living in a museum, that was my mother. Her frames still hang on the walls, her beautiful smile, that I wondered if it was ever forced, stares back at me.
How could someone so good, love someone so evil?
He was, evil. I have no doubt about him in my mind. Not once did he care for us, not once did he tell us he loved us. It made us both who we are today. Cold-hearted bastards I guess, just like him.
I hear a voice in the foyer, my boots drag on the white tiled flooring as I enter. Sebastian is there, a glass in his hand, smiling at me. He places his cell in his pocket, holds up his drink then places it to his lips.
“You haven’t been back have you?” His fingers brush along a table, picking up dust that has accumulated from years of neglect. “I went downstairs. You didn’t take any of my tools, not one. Or anything from your room. Did you hate this house that much?”
I scoff at him. He did as well, but for a reason. It wasn’t only so that he wasn’t under Kazier’s father. He hated it here as much as me.
“Why were you there?”
My fists clench into my hands, I release them, then clench them again. Digging them deeply into my skin, so my nails break the skin. Blood.
He walks around the dusty table, his finger dragging along it wiping off the dust then he turns to me. “I can see why you’re fascinated with her… quite lovely isn’t she. She may be blind, but she sees things we don’t, doesn’t she?” He looks at me then checks for my reaction. “You may say you don’t love. But I have news for you, you love her, so fucking much. I can see it in your eyes with the mere thought of me mentioning her name.”
I take a deep breath and attempt to calm myself, trying hard to not pull the gun out that’s in my back pocket and aim it at his head. To kill him.
“Why. Where. You. There,” I ask again.
“I like her…” is all he gives me.
I shake
my head like I didn’t hear those words and scrunch my eyebrows, just trying to make sense of everything.
“She’s scared of you. Did you know that? Have you been inside of her yet? I bet it’d be heaven.” He whistles that last part.
Three giant steps and I have him by his neck, holding him up. His hand clings to mine, striving with his fingers in an attempt for me to release him. Then a slice is made with his other hand on my arm. Blood starts to slide slowly then drop to the floor, and I release him.
“I know about your blood play,” he says coughing, my head swings to his. “You don’t think I didn’t fuck that hooker as well? That I didn’t know what she was doing up there with you in that room?” HHe points up the stairs to my old room. “I was the one paying her, Dmitry.”
I had no idea he knew. I didn’t think she told anyone. The only people who knew were those I’d fucked, or so I thought.
“They will be coming for you, and I won’t stop them,” I say stepping back from him.
He laughs, but it’s hollow. “Do you not know… by now, who sent me?”
I do know but choose to ignore that fact.
“He’s been working for Parkhan ever since he covered up his own death. He wants Kazier dead just so he can come home. Take the reins.”
“It won’t happen.”
“But it could. Tell me, what’s the easiest way to get to him? Would it be by killing his men?” I don’t answer him, it wouldn’t be. “Or would it be by that sweet piece of ass he has with him all the time?” My brother’s lips twitches, he knows he’s right.
“I won’t kill you today, I won’t give you that satisfaction. I will let him do it. But remember, at the end of the day, it’s your body that will be in my basement.” I turn to leave when his voice follows me behind me.
“What about when it’s his? It is him you really want, isn’t it? I am just a pawn he has used all his life. Think yourself lucky, Dmitry, that you could get away,” he says referring to our Padre.
I don’t wait to hear anything else as I leave that house, I don’t want to hear any more. He may be a tool in the game, but it’s a dangerous game he’s playing. He’s on the wrong side. And for that, he will end up where they all end up, in my basement.
****
When I arrive home, both bodies have been drained. I remove one, pulling the body down from the hook and placing it on the table. I grab my saw. Music blares, blocking out the noises in my head as I start to chip, break, and tear away body pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. Just as I remove the first arm, a shoe appears in my doorway at the bottom of my steps. Then I watch as that person comes into view. No one would be crazy enough to come down here, let alone come down here with the knowledge of what happens. If it were a threat, they would end up only one way, the same way everybody ends up who enters, in a barrel full of acid.
“Fuck!” Anton screams as he looks at the last body I have drained. I turn to see what he’s swearing at. Nothing is out of the ordinary. The body has cuts all over it, dark red stains the skin from the dried blood, a clear mat and buckets are underneath hanging by the hooks. Less clean-up for me.
Shaking his head, he grabs a mask holding it up to his face as he walks over. He leans over to the man who now has one arm removed and his eyebrows rise. “Can I have a go?”
I shrug my shoulders and pass him the saw. Watching as he passes through the skin easily, then when he reaches the bone, he doesn’t get far as he struggles.
He shakes his head, passing it back to me. “That’s crazy man.”
It is, and it’s fucking hard work. An electric one would save me so much time, but I don’t care about time. Me and time aren’t friends.
“What?” I ask looking up as he watches me finish what he started. The trick is to use all your body weight, as much as possible to hack through the bones.
“Viktor has your brother…” My eyebrows scrunch, I was talking to him.
“He followed you,” he says answering my question. “Well, we both did.” He smiles like he’s proud of it.
“And?”
A simple shrug is all he gives me before saying, “Just thought you should know, in case you wanted to say goodbye.”
Do I? I don’t even know. I don’t seem to know much anymore. I preferred my previous life, before her. Send me the fuck back in time, before Pollie, before I had to leave this house to become one of Kazier’s four trusted men.
“Where is he?”
Anton smirks. “At mine,” he answers walking up the stairs, leaving me here with the bodies, my only constant.
Chapter 23
Pollie
I’m wallowing, is that a word? I don’t even know. I can’t stop thinking about what Elina said. Should I? Or shouldn’t I? A part of me wants to follow my heart and stuff everything else, then my head comes into play. Raging thoughts about how bad it is and that I shouldn’t be associated with that, or even be near that, ripple through my brain. My life was happy, flowers and rainbows and all that shit. Then came a spark, a spark I didn’t know about when he touched my hands, holding them like I’m his lifeline. That spark is still there, I don’t know if it will ever go away. I just don’t know what to expect from him. What I should expect? He has saved and protected me on every given occasion, never thinking twice, but then there’s the fact that he also tried to end me. I feel, no I know, I’m safe with him around, without a doubt.
It’s been two days since I kicked him and Sebastian from my house, I haven’t heard from him at all. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, thinking he will be back, knocking on my door, or beside me. Neither has happened. I decide today is not a day to dwell, so I head to the shops, intending to buy myself something, anything, in an attempt to make myself feel better. I ring Elina to join me with no answer.
When I arrive at the shopping center, I sit down on a bench. I like to listen to everyone, to their conversations. Some people like to people watch, I like to listen. If you listen closely, people let a lot of things slip when they think no one is listening. I feel someone take a seat next to me, which is not unusual; I’ve probably been sitting in the same spot longer than thirty minutes.
“Interesting aren’t they?” the voice speaks.
A shiver runs down my spine. Whoever this person is, I don’t feel comfortable, nor safe. I nod my head not making conversation, but being polite. I’m never rude or mean. I don’t like the effect it has on me. Pulling someone up is so much better than bringing them down.
“I’m Boris,” he says.
I turn to the direction and smile. “Hi,” I say turning around, away from him. I grab my cane and open it. As I stand, I can feel him watching me. I don’t look back as I walk away.
I decide that my plan didn’t work, no boost was given. I think it’s time I sat down with him and talked. Otherwise, it’s just going to continue to eat at me.
Making my way outside, I wait for a taxi. As one pulls up, I open the back door and recite my address. Just as we pull away, I know something is wrong. I can feel it like it’s eating away at my core. I need to get out, now.
“Fancy running into you again.” The voice jumps from right next to me. I reach for the door handle, but it doesn’t move.
I’m not even in a taxi—the inside is leather, this is a luxury car.
How did I miss that?
How did I not feel that when I got in?
My mind is too occupied, my usual senses not kicking in.
“You didn’t tell me your name?” he asks again, this time closer. I hear him take a deep breath as he breathes me in. “I can certainly see the fascination with you.” My head swings to him. “Ahh… you’re slowly putting it together, aren’t you? You know why you’re here, right?” I shake my head. “I need him to do something for me. But he doesn’t listen to orders unless they come from one person… Kazier. I believe he will listen when he hears your voice, though.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” I say backing up to the door, away from him. I hear his phon
e pressing numbers, then he places it to my ear. Then I feel something cold pressed to my stomach—a gun.
“What,” Dmitry’s voice sounds through the phone. He sounds… broken, in a way. The gun presses harder into my side.
“Dmitry…” my voice squeaks.
“Pollie?” he asks shocked.
“Yes. Yes, it’s me.”
“Why are you calling me from an unknown number, Pollie. Where are you?”
I squeeze my eyes shut tight. “This man said you have something or someone he wants.” I hear him swear.
“I’m coming, Pollie, I’ll find you,” he says just as the phone is lifted away from my ear.
The man next to me speaks into the phone. His voice calm, and collected. “My boy, lovely to speak to you…” he pauses, and I can’t hear Dmitry’s response. But I hear the man’s chuckle. “You see, they have him. If you want her… alive that is, or possibly untouched, you’ll bring Sebastian to me. But Dmitry, if I see anyone else but you, I have a bullet just for her.” I hear him end the call then relax back into the seat.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“I’m Boris, love, I don’t lie.”
“Yes, but why me?”
“He doesn’t care for anything or anyone. He would kill his own brother if he had to. And not blink twice. I didn’t expect that from him. He was, after all, my youngest son. He didn’t speak much growing up. Then I heard of you. What a pretty little toy you are to him.” His fingers brush through my hair.
“You’re his father?” I gasp.
“Yes, and I came back to take what’s mine,” he says just as something covers my mouth. I fight against it, but his grip is too strong.
****
I wake to feel my legs and arms strapped together, and it hurts. Cold tiles sit beneath me. I attempt to break out of the bindings, by pulling on them when I hear his laugh close by.
