AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry, Maria.” I stare into my cup. “If it makes you feel better, it didn’t hurt any less when I found out, even knowing how scummy Joey was.”
She frowns.
“And now look at us.” I motion around our underground prison. “Casualties of vengeance.”
“We aren’t victims,” Maria says, and I nearly spit out my coffee. “We’re not,” she reiterates.
“I have to hear this one.” I fold my legs on the couch to get comfortable.
“We chose to look the other way, knowing what our men were involved in. Even though I didn’t ask much, I saw his friends, his co-workers. You could smell the blood through the cologne. An air of murder and swindling wafted off of them. Yet, we stayed.”
“Yeah but we didn’t do anything,” I say.
“We cooked and cleaned and laid with hard criminals. We were part of their greased wheels. Our punishment? The best white-collar jail you could ever imagine.” She motions around the room, painting it in the opposite light I had.
She’s given up, I realize. “You saved someone last night.”
Maria picks up her magazine again. I lost her.
“Don’t you miss doing that in the outside world? Don’t you miss being free?”
She finds her page. “Surrounded by death at work, to come home and learn the man I loved was a gang-rapist? My mother dies an untimely death and I never met my father? In here, this is the best it gets for me.”
My heart sinks into my belly. It’s odd, though. As much as I’m combating her – I understand everything she means. My life was worse when I was allowed to go outside, because I wasn’t free at all. Looking over my shoulder every time I left the house made my nerves a twisted mess. Here… I’m calm. Part of it is because Leandro isn’t just a killer, he’s the fucking grim reaper. No one can hurt us unless he wants them to.
God… would it actually be better in his captivity?
Jane stifles a big yawn. Her slippers scratch against the tiled floor of the kitchen from lazy steps, and she immediately starts digging through pans to get breakfast started. I kick off the couch to go help her.
She’s not as bite-y as my first days here, probably because of last night. Trauma brings people together I guess. I go into the refrigerator and take out a fresh carton of eggs. The only thing I can assume is Leandro goes to the closest market however far away and replenishes our stock every week or so. Kind of hard to imagine, if I’m being honest.
Jane holds out her hand for an egg, and I give it over. It would be a mistake to make small talk with her. This silent acceptance is the best I can get after our rough beginning. Better to let the peace marinate. She lets me sprinkle salt and pepper and an extra blend of simple spices to mix things up on the twelve sunny side eggs bubbling in two pans – two for each of us, including Leandro. Baby steps, I think to myself. It would be unwise to keep enemies in this small prison.
When Anabel wakes up holding onto Gabby’s arm, I break away from the kitchen to give her a big hug.
Her head is down. She’s ashamed, I think. But I squeeze her anyway to let her know it’s okay. No one down here deserves to die.
“Ah!” Anabel winces and pushes me off so she can cradle her side.
“Oh gosh, I’m sorry.” My hands clap over my mouth as I remember her ribs cracking during CPR.
“Fine. I’m fine.” Anabel waves the mistake away.
I kiss Gabby hello on the cheek. “Breakfast will be ready in a few.”
Being upbeat is easy. Leandro didn’t murder us last night for destroying his shrine, Anabel didn’t die, and I have a group of girls again. There are things to be grateful for.
“Here, bring this to the top of the stairs and leave it on the left side. The lion will come for it at eight a.m.,” Jane coaches.
I nod and take the plate. Every step closer to the top sends shivers down my spine. I think of how different he acts when he cares about something. A man who’s calm when a gun is pressed to his head is terrifying when not in control. There was a moment I thought he’d break Anabel’s skull with the tip of his pistol.
All for love.
I secretly want to wait here so I can hand him his breakfast personally. The storm in his eyes… Has he calmed from the night before? Someone who holds that much love for another deserves a shoulder to lean on, even if it’s just a simple, “How are you doing?” I can’t wait around to find out though. The girls would judge me harshly if I lingered here, so I place the plate down as I’m told, and spin back to rejoin the others.
Rekindling my friendship with Gabby sends a warmth through me. After breakfast, she shows me her stash of books Leandro brought home for her last year. Some old vampire romances, some college ones. I’ve read a few before, and I would like to again just to pretend I’m a carefree teenager one more time.
We’re sitting on her bed flipping through the pages, and I giggle when I see some highlighted spicy scenes. She yanks the book out of my hand, and we both die laughing.
