by T. L Smith
“Mike, a pleasure to see you.” He nods and offers me his hand. Taking it, I shake. “I would say this is unexpected, but your visit is in no way expected, so I’m unsure why you’re here?” He looks tired, very fucking tired. Not the man I met the week before at his very own wedding. He appeared happy, almost up-himself that day. The man in front of me now looks nothing like that man. This one looks like his favorite balloon was popped, and he was laughed at when he cried about it.
“They said you weren’t here today, but then someone saw you. So… here I am.”
“Here you are?” I say walking around him and sitting in my seat.
He sits, his body slumping in the chair.
“You’re too good for him, you know that, right?” I’m unsure of what to say to those words. “Just like she was, or so I thought she was.” His head shakes. They look so much alike, except Mike appears more stressed, older almost, more lines in his face. Where Echo’s more carefree. Even in the way they hold themselves is completely different.
“Why are you here, Mike? Sorry to be rude. But we don’t know each other.”
He nods his head. “He’s been ignoring me, not answering my calls. I need to...” he pulls at his hair, “… I need to talk to him. You are my best bet for that to happen.”
“I don’t know how I am.” He pins me with his eyes, where his are blue like Echo’s they aren’t as sky blue in color as his.
“Because I saw the way he looked at you, he never looked at Selena like that.”
I sit back confused by his words. “What do you want me to do exactly?”
His teeth grind as he looks around then back to me. “Call him, please.” I nod my head. Even if I don’t want to talk to Echo, his brother is clearly hurting and wants something. Reaching for my cell, I pull up his number despite myself having memorized it.
“You aren’t going to hurt him, are you?” I ask just to be safe.
He shakes his head. “If anyone were going to get hurt, it would be me. So don’t even worry about him.” He waves me off. My heart starts beating hard again when the cell rings, I can hear it thump loudly as it echoes through my chest.
“Red…”
I shake my head. “Storm,” I correct him.
He’s silent. “Storm,” he says.
Looking up Mike’s watching me, waiting. “I need you to meet me somewhere. Can you do that?”
“I can come now.”
I name the coffee house across the street from my work.
“Thanks for calling, Storm.”
I end the call and don’t say a word. The cell is in my hand as I wait for the beating of my heart to finally slow.
“You’ll have to come. Please?”
“I’ll wait until he arrives, then I’m going.” He stands walking to the door, holding it open for me. When I pass him, I don’t feel the same way as I do when I pass Echo. No heart palpitations or feeling dizzy.
“Thank you for this.” I nod my head as we continue, it doesn’t take long until we reach the coffee house. I don’t bother ordering anything because I plan to leave as soon as Echo arrives.
“I have to ask…” Mike’s already watching me. “Why do you hate him so much?” He laughs, but it’s dry and hollow.
“I don’t hate him, I envy him.” My eyes go wide in disbelief. He looks around before he continues again, “He had it all… great friends, the girl, the business, the dream.”
“You have a career, the girl.”
He scoffs. “The girl who loved him first.”
“Why her, though? You could have fallen in love with anyone. Why her?”
He starts playing with the sugar dispenser in front of him, pouring it on the table then drawing in it. “I didn’t plan on loving her. She was there, all the time. Then she kissed me. I’d been so busy with work, trying to earn partnership in the firm that I forgot to have a life outside of it. So, when she kissed me, she made me realize that fact. Made me see her.”
“Seems like she played you both.”
He nods. “I love her, though.”
“Your brother does, too,” I say more to myself.
“He used to, but that love outgrew him ages ago. That’s one of the reasons she started coming to me. She thought that since we don’t talk I’d know him best. We are twins after all. But the thing is, I don’t know anything about him. Echo’s his own demon, and only a few can crack him. Those boys and now you.”
“What about your parents? Why are they so mean to him?” He looks around, and I almost forgot for a second that we’re waiting on Echo. Thankfully he hasn’t arrived yet.
“I can’t explain that, other than he just doesn’t do what they want of him. I did. So, I stayed in their good graces. Echo did his own thing at every turn which pissed them off more and more.” His cell starts ringing loudly, we both look to it and her face comes up on the screen. He turns it over and silences it.
“How are you… two?”
“If you’re wondering if I’ve forgiven her, the answer is no. I don’t know what to do. That’s why I want to hear what Echo has to say, but he’s making it fucking hard to see him.”
“I’m sorry,” I say as I reach over covering his hand with mine.
He shrugs. “I’m sorry you were pulled into this.” A chill runs up my spine and I know he’s behind me, I retract my hand placing it in my lap as I reach for my purse and start to stand.
Turning slowly, he isn’t watching me his eyes are firmly on his brother. “You’re trying for seconds now?”
My eyes bulge. Seconds. “You’re a real asshole you know that?” Walking off, I can hear him coming after me, but I don’t bother turning back until he catches up and stops right in front of me.
“Why are you with my brother, Storm?”
“He wanted to see you.”
Gosh, he looks so good. So fucking good. His black shirt clings to him, and I know exactly what’s underneath it.
“So, he went to you for that? Tell me, did you fuck him, too? I mean I wouldn’t be surprised considering Selena did.”
Nope.
No, he did not go there.
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing seems to leave. No words want to even reply to what he’s just said. Pulling out my keys, I go straight for my car and get in driving off. He doesn’t follow me. Thank God for that. Because I may have run over him twice for good measure.
Asshole.
22
Echo
He’s waiting out the front, he knew I’d come back for him. He’s leaning against the wall of the coffee house when I reach him. I want to tear his head off, make him understand that he can’t do that to me. The minute I arrived I saw him sitting across from her, her hand on his as she probably listened to him spin some shit about how heartbroken he is, and how hard done by he is. When in reality, Mike’s the one that gets everything.
“Take a breather.” My hands close around his throat as I pin him to the wall. People gasp around us and I hear the rustle of chairs and feet but I just don’t care.
“You think you can keep chasing after what’s mine?” He tries to laugh, so I squeeze his throat tighter. I lean in close, so I’m right near his ear. “I have the means to end you, Mike. Make you disappear so no one will ever find you. Do you know that?”
He doesn’t reply to my words, but I know he understands them. I release his throat and take a step back, turning and walking away from the front of the shop. I know he’ll follow because he came here to see me, and he won’t leave until he’s said what he needs to say. I walk far enough away then turn to see him. Mike’s standing behind me waiting for me to stop.
“Are you done?” He stretches his neck out as he stands opposite me.
“Nowhere near done, if I had my way you wouldn’t even exist,” I seethe trying to keep my hands at my side and not back on his throat.
“I didn’t come to steal her if that’s what you think.” He cracks his neck.
“I don’t think you can steal her, Mik
e. I just don’t want you near her without me around. It’s as simple as that.”
“You kissed my wife… my fucking wife,” he says turning the conversation to what he’s really here to talk about.
My cell starts ringing loudly, so I silence it in my pocket.
“I didn’t kiss her, for fuck’s sake. She kissed me, you fucking idiot.” He doesn’t say a thing at my words, it’s one of the first times I’ve ever seen him quiet. Ever. “Now tell me what the fuck you thought you were doing bringing her into this? Storm has nothing to do with it.”
He laughs. “She does. I knew you were ignoring me like you’ve done all your life. You love her. I saw it in your eyes when she left after we found you. Hurt. You never had that with Selena because you never really loved her.”
“Who the fuck are you to tell me who I love?”
He looks around then back to me sliding his hands into his pockets. “Why do you hate me so fucking much? It can’t just be because I fell in love with Selena. It has to be more than that.”
The nerve of him, the fucking nerve.
“It’s you who thinks yourself as better than me. It’s you who’s a mummy and daddy’s boy. It’s you who has his head shoved so far up his own asshole that he can’t see straight.” Having no idea why the fuck I’m still standing here talking to him I start to walk away.
“I loved her, Echo. I fucking loved her, and you broke that. You broke it,” he yells after me.
“You broke that by getting with a whore, not me. I never kissed her back.” I feel like a damn broken record. When I get in my car, I finally look back at him, he hasn’t moved from the side of the street, he’s simply staring at the ground.
A thought crosses my mind about going to him, but I don’t care.
I shouldn’t care.
He’s never cared.
“You should blow off some steam.”
I nod. Scratching my head. What the actual fuck is wrong with me? Why is she all I can think about right now?
“No shit.” I shake my head at Creed.
He smiles, and he never smiles, so I know whatever he’s thinking isn’t going to be good.
“I have some work to do. You want to come? I might even let you hit someone.”
I stand from the chair, Elicea’s sleeping as we sit in his living room doing fuck all.
“Let’s go and smash some fucking heads in.”
“Will you shut up, you dick.” He shakes his head and disappears for a few minutes then comes back out with his jacket on. He’s wearing all black as we make our way to his car. “No names. Actually, just don’t speak, okay?” I nod.
Not speaking as he starts to drive, waiting is all I can do. I don’t do this stuff with him, Darby or sometimes very rarely he’ll take Falcon. But it’s mainly Darby and Creed who do the dirty work. And the only reason I think Darby goes is to make sure Creed doesn’t do anything he shouldn’t be doing.
“Where’s D?”
“He had to work. You were around so you can come.” He doesn’t finish that sentence with the fact that Darby more than likely told him to take me because he doesn’t want him by himself when doing this shit. Especially since he’s been trying to be good, for Elicea.
We come to a stop out front of a place much like our place of business. I watch as Creed slides his gun into the front of his black jeans then he gets out. Following him, he doesn’t knock. He pushes the door open, and we are met with the same music we play at Crimson Elite. Actually, almost everything in here looks like it’s a direct knock-off of Crimson Elite.
Creed walks straight past the guards who step out to stop him, but he points a gun in their face stopping them from touching him as we continue up. The rush of power, the adrenaline is strong. I can understand why he loves to do this so much. Why Darby gives the task to him. I think if Falcon had this power we’d be out of business. It would go straight to his head and he’d never stop. Creed, on the other hand, he doesn’t care for approval. Intimidation—he has it already without doing anything in return.
We come to a stop at the front of an office, his gun goes back into his jeans as his knuckles rap on the door. He turns to me, his eyes darker than their usual whiskey color as his lip turns up when the doors open. We both spin around to the man. It’s someone we don’t know which surprises me. I know nearly everyone as I do the security checks, and this man I definitely don’t know.
“It was only a matter of time before you paid me a visit, I guess.”
Creed nods as he walks into the office. The man steps aside as I follow him in close behind. He goes to leave the door open, but I shut it anyway.
“I would ask who you are, but I’m going to be honest, I don’t really care,” Creed says as he takes a seat in what appears to be the man’s wing backed chair behind his large wooden desk.
“You must be Creed. I’ve heard about you.”
“We would love to say the same, but we have no idea who you are.”
The man looks back to me, then to Creed. “She said you were the scariest, that I should expect a visit from you once you found out.” He stops where he is in the middle of the room. Creed stays seated, his feet now up on the man’s desk as he watches him. I stay by the door, so he can’t run.
“So, you were aware then, that this…” I say looking around, “… shouldn’t be.”
The man looks to me then back to Creed. “I’m aware, but you don’t own the town.”
“Who told you about me?”
Creed puts his feet down and leans over the desk. “Sabrina.”
Creed’s lip twitches and he shakes his head. “You must be the asshole then?”
The guy smiles. “So you’ve heard of me, too?”
Creed stands and without a second thought shoots. It seems to happen in slow motion and if I weren’t watching him, I would have missed it. The guy yells and falls to the floor holding his shoulder.
“Oh, I’ve heard of you all right. You like to beat on a woman.” Creed walks around and kicks the guy in the ribs as he haunches over holding his shoulder.
“Oh, Sabrina who used to work for us?” I ask Creed, to which he nods his head. “This is her ex?”
“Boyfriend,” Creed corrects. The guy manages to fall to his back while he holds his shoulder crying out in pain still. “You want a turn?” Creed asks me. I shake my head and Creed shrugs. “He likes to hit a woman, gets a damn kick from it.” Creed leans down. “Don’t you? I remember Sabrina coming in with black eyes, you fucker.”
Stepping forward, I lean down and hit him straight in the face. It feels good. Almost like it’s taking the stress from me. Something I’ve wanted to do to my brother, punch his fucking head in. Creed steps away and sits on the man’s desk while he waits for the guy to get up, but it takes him a while to do so. And when he does, he doesn’t look straight up at him, he keeps his eyes downcast to the floor, his hand holding his arm which is bleeding.
“Derek.” The door opens and a small blonde woman steps in wearing lingerie. She pauses when she sees him then looks up at Creed. Shutting the door behind her, and locking her in with us, I know who she is. And that’s not just based on the bruises covering her body, it’s because she used to work for us.
“Sabrina, what a pleasure it is to see you again.” She looks to me, worry in her eyes at my words, then turns her head fast to Creed.
“I didn’t…” She shuts up when Derek grunts at her. Her head dropping.
“Sabrina, I’m going to leave. And I’m going to with one warning… to close this shit down. If I were you, I’d make sure he does. Because when I come back to visit, I won’t be so friendly. Do you understand?” Sabrina doesn’t say anything just looks to Derek. Creed walks up, lifts his hand and digs his fingers into the hole that’s in Derek’s arm. He screams, loud. Then Creed drops his arm. “You will shut it down.”
“I’ll have police here, you don’t own everything.”
Creed laughs, shakes his head, and leans in. “But, I do. The police won�
�t care, you’ll come to realize that. You think you’re the first the person to have tried this? You’re wrong. Tomorrow this time the bullet will meet right between your eyes.” Creed walks off and I follow him.
I hear Derek screaming at Sabrina before their door shuts. He won’t listen, he’s one of those assholes who think they’re entitled to things that aren’t theirs, and they don’t have to work for it. Creed lifts his gun and shoots the sound system making everyone run. I laugh when we’re the last two standing in here then we walk out.
“Think we could take that gun and see my brother?” I ask, jokingly. Or maybe not.
“No. Sort your own shit out,” he says as we get into the car.
“Maybe, just let me play with it then?” He turns his dark eyes on me. And I know him, that without saying a word the answer is no. He was right though, this really helped. I’m not as angry now, and can see that I really fucked up with Storm. Majorly.
23
Storm
Comparing me to her is the lowest of the low. I’m nothing like that woman, nor would I ever do what she has done. Not in a million years. Not even if my heart was on the line. I have morals and hurting someone only to gain my own happiness is not something I believe is right or just. So yes, I lashed out at him. He deserved it.
When I got back to Mel, I didn’t tell her what had happened. There was no point. She was here and excited about her wedding planning, the last thing she needed was a running commentary on my drama with Echo. It baffles me how it’s gotten to the point it’s at now. I’m not even sure how that happened considering we were just meant to be having fun. Maybe the downfall was when I accepted to go with him when I should have said no, and kept all of our personal life out of it. Maybe then, we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in now. One where my heart hurts and anger sits evident every time I think of him.
