“We need to go,” I shook William. The men grumbled and sat up. We had one day left, one opportunity to stake out the cash place.
The sun was almost fully awake by the time we parked a block away, sitting at the top of an old parking garage. We watched the entrance with our binoculars.
I searched the surrounding area. Most people hadn't left their apartments yet and many of the parking lots were empty but for a few blocks away at a hospital.
The tall, lanky man that unlocked the door and turned on the neon 'open' sign was alone. We watched for hours and noticed he didn't get much business in the morning, but in the afternoon he was swamped.
When the neon sign blinked off we turned to each other. It took the man another hour to leave, locking the door behind him. We sat for a while and watched the world.
The way William looked at the tiny dots of people below made me see them as a nation thoroughly at the mercy of a god.
We agreed to do it in the morning when the man would have plenty of money before trading it all away for an interest.
We loaded back into the car and William stopped at a home improvement store. He grinned as we picked out a beautiful, thick wooden door and the best weather stripping available. We tied the door to the roof of the car and drove home, excited to see Granny’s reaction.
When we knocked on her door, Granny’s sweet face appeared behind the screen so quickly I jumped back. She cried out in joy and flung herself into Dizzy's arms. He picked her up gently and planted a big kiss straight on her mouth.
I laughed when she danced around her porch as William, Dizzy, and I got to work drilling on the hinges and set the door.
We all had trouble sleeping that night. Eventually Dizzy came to cuddle with us in the dark. William's back was pressed against the wall as he held me and I pet Dizzy's hair.
I was young but could still I wondered if our future looked similar, except with a child in our bed instead of a giant. Could William and I even have children?
The thought brought a bit of contentment for a moment, a dream of our future. I soon realized the irresponsibility of bringing a child into the world when we lived the way we did, not to mention the possibility of complications due to him being my mother's half brother.
It was one more thing I had taken from him- the opportunity to have a child. I tried to comfort myself with the ideas of adoption or egg donation one day. We would eventually be financially stable enough to raise a child. When I turned eighteen, I could get my high school diploma, go to college, and support a family when we were ready.
Dizzy started to snore and William slipped out gently from behind me. He settled down in the open doorway. The bright, full moon illuminated the page of his journal. I listened to the scratching of his pen on the paper, a sound that had come to comfort me.
He leaned against the door frame, telling his journal everything in his mind and heart. I watched his long body unfold when he finally stood. He placed his journal and a few small objects under a pile of clothes into my suitcase.
“What are you doing?” I whispered to him as loudly as I dared, trying not to wake Dizzy.
“Preparing for the worst.” He stepped out into the night and his silhouette leaped from the porch. He crouched and slid my blue suitcase under a small hole in the cement, covering it with recently fallen leaves. He slipped back into the bed and I turned to him. “This isn’t the first nor last time I'll hide that suitcase.” The kiss he pressed to my lips was filled with anxiety and affection.
“We'll be ok,” I reassured him, but the apprehension surrounding the heist made my words sound unsure.
We laid together through the night, clinging to each other, comforting and trying to give the other courage.
Chapter 25- Roses
Dizzy woke a few hours later and we gave up on sleep. William pulled the duffel bag that was half full of money from under the couch. He retrieved his gun, showing me how to aim and fire one last time before handing it to me.
I held the gun as his fingers continued to grip it. His gaze was locked on my fingers wrapped around the weapon, his face pale.
“We do this together,” I reminded him.
His eyes lightened, caramel and amber as he let go. Dizzy gave him his own gun as he hid Reese's under his jacket.
I pulled on a light pink dress and one of William's long-sleeved, thin cotton white shirts over it. I glanced over to see him pulling on a black one and a pair of faded, torn jeans, his jaw so tense I thought his teeth would crack.
“Please stay in the car,” he begged one last time.
I kissed him gently in response. We loaded into the car, scarves at the ready.
✷✴✷
Dizzy stopped one building away. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He grabbed me, squeezed tight, and released me to turn to William. My ribs were sore and my body stiff but my hands were steady. I pulled the scarf over my face and reached for the door.
William jumped out and opened it for me. He took my hand and slung the brown bag over his shoulder. He pushed me against the car and kissed me hard.
I looked into his eyes, almost expecting the same wicked twinkle as the last time we had kissed through scarves. Instead, I saw terror.
I gripped the handle of his gun under my shirt, resting in the bosom of my dress. I was ready at a moment's notice. William held the handle of his own in the back of his waistband as we headed, hand in hand, toward the lanky man unlocking the door.
I nodded at William as we snuck up behind him. We waited as he put the key into the door and turned it. When he opened the door William closed in, pulling his gun from his pants and placing it on the man's back.
The man brought his hands up.
“Walk,” was all William said. His voice sent a volt through my body. The man stepped into the building, quaking.
It smelled like ink and stale coffee. Thin, beige commercial carpet covered the small room. One long counter separated the room with a rope. Rows of chairs lined the wall for people to wait their turn.
“The money,” William pushed the man behind the counter and watched him, gun at the ready.
He opened a safe, his face pale and his eyes darting around. William threw the opened duffel bag onto the floor and the man threw stacks of bills on top of what we already had. “The other one.”
I stood by the door and couldn't see how many safes there were but there seemed to be many as William kicked the bag along the length of the counter. The man obediently poured money into it until it overflowed.
William never broke eye contact as he bent to pick up the bag. Movement from behind him caught my eye.
There was a back door.
A bald man covered in tattoos aimed a shotgun straight toward William.
The gun cocked and lifted my own. “WILLIAM, DOWN!”
I fired twice. William’s head whipped in the direction of the man as he fell to the ground. Blood splattered the doorway where he stood a breath before.
William leapt up, grabbing the bag. I froze as another shot filled the air.
The tall man we had been ordering held a small revolver in his shaking hands, his eyes wide.
Time seemed to stop as William turned to me. Blood blossomed along his shirt. The man raised his gun again and so did I.
I hit him in the shoulder as William lunged toward me. I rushed to him as the screams from the writhing man on the floor filled the room.
My breath seemed stuck but my mind screamed to move- to get him out.
I wrapped William's arm around my shoulder and grabbed the bag. We tried to run from the building but as we reached the door the room filled a new shriek.
I spun. My victim had pulled himself up to the counter, his fingers on the keyboard of the computer. I wanted to shoot him in the face too but knew we had seconds to escape as the alarm rang out around us.
We stepped into the blinding sun. Dizzy had heard the shots and pulled around to the front of the building.
William rip
ped his scarf away as he hunched and vomited onto the asphalt. Dizzy leaped out of the car and scooped William up.
“Drive!” His deep voice pulled me out of my shock. I didn't argue. I could hear the sirens and saw blue lights nearing.
Dizzy flung them into the back seat as I jumped behind the wheel.
My erratic driving and road rage finally became useful as we swerved between honking cars and cursing drivers. William bit down on his almost healed hand to keep from screaming. Dizzy ripped off William's shirt and wrapped it around his bucking body.
For a moment I thought we had lost the police until a cruiser made a turn and flashed his lights a few car lengths behind us.
I glanced in the rearview mirror. Dizzy held a joint to William's quivering lips. I didn't know what to do but William seemed to.
He met my eyes and bit back another scream. He nodded his head toward a street for me to turn left onto.
I had to slow and watched, amazed, as William reached up and gave Dizzy a bloody kiss on the forehead. Dizzy blanched as William pushed the duffel bag into his chest.
I made a sharp turn and William used his foot to open the door that Dizzy's body had been pressed against. “Get Reese. Stay safe,” his words were a groan.
Dizzy gripped the interior, shock on his features. My heart wept as the realization slammed into me. William might not make it through this, but maybe Dizzy and Reese could.
I jerked the car enough to topple him onto the street.
William vomited on the back seat with the pain as he reached to pull the door closed. I watched Dizzy for a moment in the mirrors. He rolled on the street and jumped up, bloody and raw, trying to chase after us with the duffle bag flailing wildly. Passerby stepped away from him in fear.
I sighed in relief as the police car turned onto the street and passed Dizzy.
I gulped when three more appeared behind the first.
I pushed the pedal down as hard as I could. I side-swept someone's door and prayed I hadn't hurt them. “Should I take you to the hospital?” I was trying to sound calm as William slumped over the back of my seat, his head on my shoulder. I felt the warmth of his ember as he hit the joint again. My heart clenched at the sound of his wounded moans.
“Home.”
A little farther.
I kept watch on the police that maintained an odd distance. I fishtailed onto our road. The car shook with the effort as we sped toward our home. I turned sharply and broke through the fence. The side of the car slammed into the cement of the porch. William muffled his scream at the jolt.
I jumped out and pulled William from the car. I half dragged, half carried him into the house. I tried to lay him gently on the bed and turned to run for a towel, alcohol, anything for his wound.
He grabbed my arm and pulled himself up, his face twisted in torment.
“Stay,” he begged. “Stay.”
“I need to help you.” Tears saturated my face. My voice sounded hysterical in my ears. He shook his head. “I won't let you die,” I gestured to wound.
He had been shot on the left side of his stomach. Blood stained my hands, dress, and hair.
He pulled me to him, leaning against the wall. “They're coming. I won't die. Stay.”
“No,” I sobbed into his hair as he shifted me across his legs. I kissed his hair, bloody face, chest, and shoulders. He returned every one with ragged breath.
He pulled my mouth down to his. I kissed him as hard as I could. I needed to escape the pain and fear, and drag him with me.
We needed to escape our end.
He reached for my shirt and pulled it over my head. I didn't notice the lights waving over the room. I didn't hear the deep voice over the loudspeaker. I didn't see the shapes encircling us through the thin red sheet over the window.
His mouth moved to my chest. I tried to take in and memorize his sounds, the feel of every bone, muscle, movement, and texture. I felt his hands, every crevice, every scar, as they gripped into me.
He shifted beneath me and pulled my panties aside. I gripped his hair and took him into me. My legs clasped around him, digging in with my heels. I needed to take him as deep as I could. I needed to absorb every inch of his dying being. I cried in pain as my body quaked with pleasure.
He grimaced as he laid me back. He separated my thighs and shifted my panties to taste me. He wanted to remember every part of me in the most intimate ways.
I lifted with the sensations. The sheet on the bed ripped with the strength of my hand and the power of the spasms. I relished the feel of his soft lips.
He pushed into me again and I clung to him, desperate. I heard his cry of pain, his deep moan, my name, and his thundering growl as we escaped. I wrapped my hand in that hair, my obsession, and let the cries tear through me without a thought of damage.
The smell of blood, sweat, and gunpowder brought us to the edge.
I didn't hear the door splintering as we came together, in pain and fear.
I tasted the blood from his bitten hand. I kissed the smears of crimson on his chest and face. He pulled me tight against him as my body clenched around him. He cried in agony and bliss, the desperation tumbling us into a private existence for one perfect moment.
His teeth scraped my lips as his mouth came down hard to mine. He thrust harder and deeper, the pain, the depraved agony, the urgency intoxicated me. His breath was ragged as his heart raced with mine in unison.
We were truly one being, one soul. My hands, drenched in his blood, slid over his back and neck. I kept my fingers in his hair as my other grasped his, pleading to be saved- to stay in that moment for eternity.
He slowed as we came again, kissing me with such decadence and pure emotion that my mind emptied of anything but him, his taste, his skin, his sounds.
The moment crashed with another slam against the door. He pulled his boxers up with one hand, but there was no time to close his jeans.
He pinned my wrists to the bed. I didn't understand the menacing action, but his mouth widened in a silent scream as his tears fell into my own.
He brought his mouth to my ear as the door smashed open, “I love you. Always remember. I love you more than anything.”
Rough hands gripped my shoulders as he was torn away from me and slammed into the wall. I was dragged off the bed and shoved to the ground. An officer screamed in William's face, his ebony eyes on mine.
A hand yanked my arms behind my back. My shoulders burned as cold metal closed over my wrists. My head swam with the memories of previous times I had been cuffed. I heard a voice trying to read rights. I grew confused as a list of offenses was spewed in William's direction.
He never took his eyes from me across the room. He watched my desperation and it fueled his own, though he could do nothing but silently plead with me.
“Kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, involuntary manslaughter, breaking and entering, armed robbery, and apparently rape.”
“No,” I tried to stop them. I tried to tell them. “I did it. I left. I shot the men. I consented, what are doing?” I screamed in horror.
The burly man punched William in the face and grabbed him by his hair, turning his head to force William to meet his eyes. “Where is the money?” Spit flew from the officer’s mouth, his face inches from William's.
William opened his lips and smiled, wicked and feral, his teeth covered in blood.
He punched William again. I tried to scramble towards them, ready to butt the man with my head.
Hands shot out and lifted me under my arms. I tried to kick out and fight. They grabbed me around the waist and dragged me from my home.
I searched the area, praying someone could help, that this would stop. That everything would be normal soon.
Ma lingered down the street, standing with the door to her car wide open and watching in horror with one hand over her mouth, the other over her heart.
My body slumped in shame and defeat as the officers dragged me across the thirsty grass. I t
wisted and pulled when I realized I was being dragged to the street toward a police car.
Our front yard was filled with police. I slammed my body back and heard a muffled grunt as I collided with a solid body.
My eyes met Granny’s. She waved from her front porch and blew me a kiss. Her grin swept rage and anguish through my being. I kissed the air toward her. It would be my last chance for a long time to show the blessed woman my love and gratitude. She caught it and pressed it to her heart.
I was thrown into the back seat of the cruiser as an ambulance pulled in behind. Four EMTs jumped out and raced into the house with a gurney.
I waited, praying and sobbing. I screamed and kicked at the door and cage as defiance ignited in my soul.
Two officers pulled William from the house, tossing him carelessly. I watched as they loaded him onto the gurney, my vision swimming.
He was unconscious with an oxygen mask on his glorious face. His black curls bounced as his wrists were cuffed to the metal rails.
I heard the maniac who had assaulted William over the chaotic noise. “He was beaten when we got here. He passed out.”
I bashed my head against the window as a scream ripped through my throat. The stitches in my head gave and the blood from William on my face was covered in my own. The throbbing in my skull diminished the pain in my chest by a portion of a degree.
I kept banging until the glass cracked. A man in uniform pointed a gun at me, yelling at me to stop.
A realization punched me so hard I prayed I may be lucky enough to escape from the pain and die right then and there.
We thought we had plenty of time.
I didn't get to tell him that I loved him, too.
I screamed with rage and threw my head as hard as I could into the window one last time.
Chapter 26- Diseased
I woke to pain pulsating throughout my body as I was dragged by my cuffed wrists onto pavement.
“Get up,” a harsh voice ordered. He grabbed my shoulder and yanked hard enough to make me growl.
Truth Page 16
