But when the cab stopped outside the restaurant I was shocked to find the sign hanging on the door turned to CLOSED and all the lights off, which was odd since most nights Mo’s was open until midnight.
I glanced down at the phone again, making sure I hadn’t misread the message.
But the words were still exactly the same.
With a sudden bout of clarity, I realized what she was up to. She was trying to force me to talk to Liam. I knew I should have had the driver take me back to her apartment instead, but I selfishly wanted one last glimpse of him.
I paid the driver and stepped out of the car. He sped off, leaving me alone in the darkened parking lot.
There were a few cars parked around, but none I recognized.
I glanced up at the sign above the door with the restaurant name. Instead of an O in Mo’s, there was a smiling multi-colored monkey. I always found it to be cheery and quite funny, but something about it today seemed ominous.
Dismissing my paranoia, I opened the door and stepped into the restaurant. The chime above the door signaled my arrival, and I blinked several times, trying to let my eyes adjust to complete darkness.
I took a few steps, squinting as I tried to see.
After a few steps, my foot hit something solid where I couldn’t remember there being anything on the floor.
I looked down and after a few seconds I was horrified by what I saw.
A body lay on the floor with blood pooling beneath the torso.
“Oh God,” I choked, my hand flying to my mouth. “Talia,” I breathed. “No.”
I bent down, touching my hands to her clammy cheeks. “Talia,” I begged, “please. Open your eyes. Please.” Tears began to course down my cheeks and panic seized my body. There was only one person who could’ve done this. “Talia, can you hear me? If you can hear me, focus on my voice, please listen to me.” I smoothed her hair off her forehead and searched for a pulse with my other hand.
“She’s dead. They’re all dead,” spoke a chilly voice from the shadows.
I stood upright so fast I felt lightheaded. “What have you done?” I spat in the general direction of the voice.
“Only what had to be done, my dear.” His voice was cold and smooth like an alcoholic beverage. He was just as bitter, too.
“What do you want from me?” I cried, backing toward the door.
“Your loyalty.” His tone was still as calm as ever. Blaise rarely ever raised his voice. I heard him say once that calm was more frightening than anger, because calmness shows a lack of care or emotion. In other words, an angry person can be persuaded, but a calm one already knows their mind.
“Why?” I sobbed. “Why me?”
“You know why.”
I shook my head. “I’m not your property.”
“But you are.”
I eased closer to the door, but when I was about to make a run for it, two large hands clamped around my arms and held me prisoner.
“Not so fast, Scarlett.”
“My name’s not Scarlett,” I shouted, tears drenching my face. “And I don’t belong to you.”
The hands dragged me back into the room where I found myself shoved roughly into a chair.
“Thank you, Felix,” Blaise addressed the man that had forced me into the chair. “Look around you, Scarlett, what do you see?” Blaise spoke to me again from whatever shadow he hid like the fucking leech that he was.
I kept my head stubbornly turned in that direction.
“I’ll make it a bit easier for you. Raymond, turn on a light.”
When the light filtered into the room, I saw that I was facing the bar. Talia’s body lay to my left a few feet away—unmoving.
But across from me?
There was more.
Complete and utter carnage.
“No,” I shook my head. “No. This isn’t real.”
“It’s very real, Scarlett—there’s a reason I gave you that name, you know,” he mused. “It’s because I always knew that it would come to this. You’d need to see the world painted in red before your mind could be tamed. Before you’d truly be one of us.”
“I’m nothing like you,” I cried, staring at the body of the man slumped on the bar. There was a bullet hole in his forehead, going straight out the back, execution style.
“Maybe not at first,” he mused from whatever hole he hid in, “but anyone can be made into a monster. Even you, Scarlett. Even. You.”
“Stop calling me that,” I begged uselessly.
“Why? Because you secretly like it? Because that name suits you more than the name your spineless parents gave you?”
“You have no right to talk about them. None.”
“Don’t I?” He chuckled, like the conversation was amusing. “They’re the reason you’re here after all. Or, at least, your father is.”
“No,” I shook my head, “you’re the reason I’m here.”
He made a tsking sound. “Such fire; I admire that in you, and that’s why I’ve decided you won’t be marrying my son.”
“What?” My brows furrowed in confusion.
“You’ll be marrying me instead.”
Blaise finally emerged from the shadows then. He was a man of average height, but wide shoulders, and muscular for this age. His eyes were a dark, lifeless brown, more closely resembling the color of dirt. He wore a custom-tailored suit in black and beneath it even his shirt and tie were black. I’d never seen him wear any other color before.
I looked him up and down with a glare on my face. “If you think I’m marrying you, you’re sicker than I’ve always believed.”
“Chair, Raymond.” He motioned with his hand and the man quickly grabbed him one of the dining chairs to sit in across from me. Settling into it, he balanced his one foot on his knee and leaned back, completely relaxed despite the carnage around him.
“I know you’ll do it, Scarlett. You know I’ll do anything to get what I want. I killed your pretty friend over there, didn’t I?” He pointed in the direction of Talia’s body lying on the floor. “And your other friend, Rebecca I think her name is? The one that was so kind to let you stay with her? You know who I’m talking about.” He grinned sadistically when my facial expression didn’t change, but his eyes fell to my neck and zeroed in; I was sure it was obvious how fast my heart was beating. “She put up a fight, that one. Scratched Felix in the face.” Leaning forward, his lips arched into what one might assume was a smile, but it looked more like a grimace to me. “I let Felix fuck her before he killed her because of that. My men don’t deserve to be treated so poorly, so they might as well get something out of it.”
I held my breath, trying to contain the sob that wanted to break free.
Rebecca. Oh, Rebecca. What have I done? This is all my fault.
I tried my best to hide my fear and anger, but Blaise always saw straight through everyone.
“You’re afraid,” he mused, touching his finger to his lips. “You try to pretend that you aren’t, but you are. I know you, Scarlett. I know you better than anyone else does.”
“You don’t know me at all,” I countered.
His lips twitched. “Is that so?”
He stood from the chair and walked around me, like he was evaluating me. “You think you’re so much better than me, that you’re good, but that’s not true. Everyone has darkness inside them.” He stopped behind me and lowered, touching his cold fingers to my cheek.
My natural reaction was to flinch, but I held my head high and didn’t move. I refused to give him the satisfaction.
“I’ll tell you what makes us different.” He circled back around to stand in front of me. “You have a weakness and I don’t.”
I stared up at him unflinchingly.
“Raymond?” he prompted, tilting his head to the side. “Bring our guest in. I think Scarlett is going to need a bit more persuasion to see things my way. I knew she would.” He winked at me.
I’d never known the lowering of an eyelid could seem so menacin
g, but on Blaise, it was downright chilling.
“Felix,” he spoke to the man behind me, “restrain her.”
“Hell no.” I jerked upright out of the chair. I hadn’t been standing more than a second when a fist slammed into the side of my face, and I crumpled to the ground. The breath had been knocked out of my lungs and my cheek throbbed painfully. Pressing my hands to the floor, I spat out a wad of blood. A large hand closed around my arm and yanked me up so fast that I screamed when it felt like my shoulder had been torn from the socket.
“Ari? Ari.”
I was shoved down onto the chair and saw Liam being dragged into the room by Raymond. My arms were jerked behind me and my hands bound by a thin, coarse rope. Felix tied it so tight that my I could feel my fingers beginning to go numb.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked me as he was pushed into the chair across from me.
There was a large bruise spreading over the left side of his face and bruises on his arms from fighting back, but other than that, he looked okay, which allowed me to breathe the tiniest sigh of relief.
I nodded. “I’m okay,” I squeaked. “You?”
“Well, isn’t this exchange sweet.” Blaise chuckled, and even his laugh sounded like ice falling from the side of a building. Standing between us, Blaise clasped his hands together, positioned in front of his stomach. I knew it to be his “non-threatening” stance. “Chair,” he demanded again and Raymond quickly slid one over to him.
Blaise sat down in the chair so that the three of us formed a triangle with him at the head.
“My sweet, sweet Scarlett, I’m going to tell you a story. Now listen close, I want you to understand.” I swallowed thickly and stared straight ahead at Liam. “I want you to listen too.” I saw him swing his gaze toward Liam. “In fact, I think I’ll start at the very beginning so you’ll understand her better.”
I lifted my head to the ceiling and tears leaked out of the corner of my eyes.
Please, I begged, let us get out of here alive. Please. Liam doesn’t deserve this. If someone has to die, let it be me.
“I know Scarlett’s told you she was ‘kidnapped’ but that’s not true.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed thickly.
“She was traded.”
“Traded?” I heard Liam speak in a surprised tone. “What the fuck does that mean?”
I lowered my head and rolled my shoulders, trying to get some feeling into my slowly dying limbs.
“I’m a very powerful man, Mr. Wade. Lots of people owe me, and when they don’t pay up, I come to collect. Be it a car, or a house, or whatever I deem worthy enough to fill the debt. In Scarlett’s case, her father owed me a lot of money, and his time was up. When I came to collect and he couldn’t pay up, I decided I wanted her,” he pointed at me, “and I always get what I want.”
Liam stared at me questioningly, and I closed my eyes, unable to look at him.
“So her father and I made a trade. I got Scarlett, and he got to walk away debt free. Now, of course, we had to make it look like she was kidnapped for the benefit of her mother. That was part of our agreement, that her mother never know the truth of what her father had done.”
More tears came.
I hadn’t known that.
Oh God.
“You’re lying!” I spat.
Blaise’s dark eyes swung to me. “Why would I lie? I have nothing to lose.”
“You’re lying,” I said again, but my tone was a little more doubtful this time. “My dad was a teacher. He was a good man.”
“I’m sure he was in your childlike eyes,” Blaise crossed one foot over his knee, “but he wasn’t the man you believe him to be. Your father was a gambler, in debt a quarter of a million dollars, and he was also a liar and a cheat. Much like yourself.”
“Shut up. I’m none of those things.” I pulled against my bindings, and my shoulders screamed in protest. I wanted to break my binds and lunge at the man that sat with a smirk on his face. I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and watch the light leave from his eyes. Maybe he was right, and I was like him, because I knew I’d take pleasure in his death.
“That’s enough, Scarlett. I’m speaking. Felix?” he prompted. “Gag her.”
I glared at him, wishing I had the power to burn him with my gaze alone.
“I hate you,” I told him, “and I will never be yours.”
Felix wrapped the piece of fabric around my mouth, tying it behind my head. I didn’t fight him. If I did, he’d only hurt me, and my body was in enough pain. I didn’t want to be completely disabled. If I could find a way to get out, I would.
Blaise continued on like nothing had happened.
“Soon after Scarlett came into my possession, I knew I wanted her to marry my son when she was older. They’re almost the same age, you see,” he spoke to Liam. “But Scarlett…she put up a fight. She wouldn’t submit to anything I told her as I tried to groom her into a member of the family.”
“What are you? The Mob?” Liam interrupted.
Blaise tilted his head, regarding Liam. “I’m bigger than the Mob.”
Liam’s eyes widened in surprise as if he had only realized exactly what we were dealing with.
“When Scarlett became too defiant, I knew I had to show there was nothing she could go back to.”
I closed my eyes, feeling sick to my stomach with the knowledge of what was to come.
“My men and I took her back to her home where I had her tied to a chair just like this one.” He pointed at me.
“Oh God,” I sobbed against the gag so it came out sounding more like, “Ohgad.”
“And then,” he stood and his shiny black shoes clapped against the floor as he sauntered behind Liam, “I sat both of her parents in front of her just like you are now. And I had two of my men, like these guys, press their guns to their heads.” He made a gun symbol with his hand and shoved the tip of his finger against the back of Liam’s head. “Then, when I told them to, they pulled the trigger. Boom!” He let his hand fall. “I thought that seeing her parents murdered right in front of her would be enough to break her—that being covered in their blood and little pieces of their skull would finally crack that thick one of hers.” He grabbed Liam’s chin and forced his head back so he was looking up at him. “But it wasn’t enough. She failed the biggest test of all and ended up here with you. We’ve been watching you, and I can only hope that your death will be enough to finally break her.”
I saw his Adam’s apple bob and then in a crystal clear, steady voice, Liam said, “Then do it. Kill me. She’s a Tiger, that one, and I can promise you not even my death will be enough to break her. I know she looks small, but that girl… she’s more of a fighter than you. You hide behind your fancy suit and your minions,” I heard Liam chuckle on the last word, “you’re nothing but a coward pretending to be a God.”
Blaise grabbed Liam’s hair in his fist and shoved him upright again. Liam didn’t make a sound, but I knew it must’ve hurt.
“I should kill you right now, just for saying that, but I’m not done talking.”
“You really like to hear yourself talk, don’t you?” Liam antagonized him.
Blaise snarled, his top lip curling up. Before I could blink, he slapped his hand across Liam’s face and then grabbed his neck, squeezing.
I fought against my bounds and screamed into the gag.
Liam. Oh God, Liam!
Liam’s face turned red with lack of oxygen and a vein in his forehead stood out. His eyes slid to me, like if he was dying I was the last thing he wanted to see before he left the Earth.
I tugged on my binds and my arms screamed in protest.
The red started to leave his face, replaced by purple, and panic seized my chest in a vice.
I was crying harder than I’d ever cried before, and thanks to the gag I began to choke.
Blaise finally let go and Liam inhaled a lungful of air. It rasped down his throat and he winced like it was painful to breathe.
&nbs
p; Blaise made his way to me and wiped the tears from one of my cheeks. “You can’t run from me. I’ll always follow. And this,” he leaned back so I could see Liam slumped forward in his chair struggling to breathe, “is what happens when you disobey me.” Tugging on his pants legs, he squatted in front of me and tilted his head to the side. “Did you really think I’d be so careless, Scarlett? Were you naïve enough to think I’d actually begun to trust you? That I’d trust you enough not to have you guarded twenty-four-seven? Or that I’d leave money where you could find it?” He made a clucking sound with his tongue. “You’re dumber than I thought. I don’t often underestimate people, but I was wrong with you.” He steepled his fingers and brought them to his lips. Spreading his hands wide, he said, “It was all a test. One you failed.”
I closed my eyes, defeat making my shoulders sag.
I should’ve known.
I should’ve fucking known.
“One you failed again, and again, and again. You could’ve come home at any time, but you didn’t, because of him.” He pointed at Liam like I didn’t know whom he was referring to.
Blaise, who was normally so calm, suddenly lost it.
“I gave you everything. A home. A family. A life.” His face grew red and spit flew into my face. “You had it all with me, and you threw it away.” He grabbed my face in a rough grip and forced me to look at him. “Nobody throws my kindness back in my face like you did and lives. No one.”
If I hadn’t been gagged I would’ve told him to do it—to kill me and get it over with.
We both knew I wasn’t making it out of there alive.
“You’re nothing but a worthless cunt.” His fingers dug into my cheek painfully.
He let go and shoved my head back, which sent me toppling over in the chair. I grunted from the impact and my head slammed against the floor. Dots flashed across my eyes, and I struggled to keep clarity.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Blaise’s shoes appeared in my line of vision.
“Kill them,” he ordered, “and clean up this mess.”
One last tear leaked from the corner of my eye.
The Lies That Define Us Page 23
