My muscles are still burning and pleading with me that they need something to dull the agony. I move back over to my book bag pulling out the bag of pills and letting 2 roll out into my hand. Moving over to the nightstand, I crush the pills, spreading them into 3 lines, I grab the sheet of paper out of the bag, rolling it up, and then inhale the powder. The burning is instant.
But so is the relief.
I leave the room, finding Sky still in the kitchen. “Need help with anything.” She gives me an uncertain look.
“Yeah, sure.” She says it quietly before I start to help her clean up.
We work together, making lunch for the men who I’ve seen moving around the clubhouse all morning. I’m assuming that everyone practically lives here.
She holds out a plate for me. “Will you take this up to him?”
“He won’t come in here to eat?” I’m hesitant because I know myself and have a pretty good idea that if I go up there, Ro and I will end up in another tension-fueled standoff.
“Nah, he usually gets distracted. If it’s not in front of his face, he’ll forget about it.” I waver as I stare at it still in her hands outstretched to me, and she smirks. “You don’t need to be afraid of him.” She tells me. I laugh, mostly, because I find her saying that ironic, since I can still read the fear that he causes her written on her face.
“That’s easy for you to say.” I mumble as I take the plate from her hands and walk it across the room, up the stairs walking up to the wall, and knock.
“Come in.” I hear Ro’s voice call out, and I take a deep breath before walking into the room.
Peering in first, I call out. “So, this is the office, huh?” At the sound of my voice, he stops and looks over at me, setting down what he’s working on, and completely turning to look at me. It catches me off guard since it’s isn’t something that J norhewould do. In fact, I’m not sure anyone has even broken from something they were intently working on to show me their complete attention.
“It is.”
I nod my head as I set the plate down on the desk in front of him. I can feel his eyes running over my body. His intensity making me immediately turn around to leave the room, only his hand on my arm stops me. He pulls me towards him, sliding his knees apart to make room for me to stand in front of him, now completely switching the dynamic from earlier. I see him inspecting my arm even though he tries to do it inconspicuously, he looks back up at me without standing up from his chair and I’m locked underneath his gaze. So much for flipping our dynamic. He doesn’t need to tower over people to have them willingly submit to him.
We don’t say anything. That pesky tension ramping up again as he just continues to look at me, satisfied with the lack of new needle marks in my arm, I’m assuming. Even if he still has a firm grip on my arm. He stares into my eyes, I watch the conflicted emotions form in them and I’m wondering exactly what they are about. What are the thoughts that are flowing in his head, right now? Then he lets out a gruff, cutting off the tension and my hand, shoving me away from him, and turning back towards the computer.
“Get out.” He snaps at me, so loud that it causes me to jump. So suddenly that I’m not sure what could have changed in the few moments. But he doesn’t look the least bit worried about startling me.
That’s fucking weird.
I walk out of the room quickly and back down into the kitchen. Still shaking my head when I make my way into the kitchen.
“What else needs to be done.”
?
“What are you doing?” I smack my head on the inside of the cooler, startled, as Ro shouts from behind me and I turn around with beer bottles still in my hand.
“Stocking.” I tell him before he grunts out and walks up next to me. I watch as Sky’s eyes widen. I’m waiting for the whiplash of Ro’s emotions again as he get in my face, yelling at me. Instead, he storms past me and down the hall in the direction of the empty room that I’m staying in.
“What is he doing?” I ask Sky but she just shrugs her shoulders. Quickly, I follow him down the hallway and watch as he kicks open the door to the room. I’m confused until I get to the doorway and see him snatching up my bag. He walks up to me, in a quick motion gripping onto my arm, and pulling me back down the hallway in the direction of the front door. “What are you doing?” I ask him stumbling over both my words and my feet.
The shining sun, nearly blinding me when he shoves the door open. He hauls me through the door’s threshold and outside. I try not to tumble over, worried that I’ll fall face first onto the asphalt.
“What’s happening?” I ask him again before we’re standing at the gate. He presses a button, and it starts to open before he throws my bag through the opening. It lands on the sidewalk, just inches from the road.
“I told you to get out.”
“I thought you meant—”
He cuts me off. “No, Sadie, get out of my clubhouse. You want to be a goddamn junkie. Get the hell out.”
“But—but I’ll die out there. He’ll find me.” My voice his weighted in fear.
He steps into me, gripping the back of my neck, his hand so tight that I can’t move away any, and lowers his face to look me in the eyes. “Then fucking die.”
I can feel the lump forming in the back of my throat as he lets go and I try to think of something to say. Something that will convince him to spare me this time. “Please don’t.” The tears start to come, although I’m not sure if I’m forcing them or if they’re real. “Please don’t do this.” I plead with him, pulling at him as he starts to walk back towards the building.
