My heart stops, and a new rage bubbles up. “Your drug dealer?”
Before I can lay into him, Alana says in a low tone, “Call him.”
“No.” CJ shakes his head and cowers.
Her motions are swift like a ninja, as she launches past the coffee table until she’s face to face with CJ. Alana grabs his chin and forces him to look her in the eyes “I have more money and power than every other person in this room combined.” Quick math—between Amanda, Lena and I alone, it’s close to a billion. “There are ten items within arm’s length that I could kill you with, and you don’t have the luxury of being protected by Mastodon. Men who have insulted me to my face like you have, find the consequences to be life altering,” she whispers. “Call him.”
CJ takes out his phone. Alana freaked out when she pulled a gun in my apartment, and now she’s openly threatening to kill my friend. Is this the real her? Was this who she was hiding from me the entire time? And why show it now, in front of everyone?
The phone screen lights up, and I can’t see Eddie’s face, but I hear the change in tone when he realizes he’s not talking to CJ.
“Hello… Um. Hi.”
Alana takes the phone out of CJ’s hands. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions. You're going to answer them and you’re not going to lie or hang up. You’re already in deep shit, you don’t want to make it worse for your Auntie Nicole and your girlfriend Ella, do you?”
“No!” The high-pitched squeak comes through the speakers.
“Who am I?”
“Alana King.” His voice quivers.
“Why did I chop Froggy’s finger off?”
“Oh shit,” he whispers, and then stammers, “Um, he stole a necklace from Lena Goodlove, and a laptop from Amanda Chase.” Amanda glances over at Craig with the same confused look on her face, none of her laptops were ever stolen. But Alana’s eyebrow twitches.
“You think I would disfigure Froggy and throw his ring finger down a garbage disposal over some jewelry and a laptop? Try again.”
In my mind I hear the crunching of bone on flesh being mutilated by the blades inside a kitchen sink. I can hear his screams and cries and imagine the blood pooling on a wooden table. I feel nauseous.
The voice on the phone bubbles into a sob. “He stole a USB key from Lena Goodlove’s unreleased music.” Holy shit! Leaking an album is one of the biggest violations of trust that can happen to an artist. It’s far worse if the work isn’t completely finished. Lena gasps and glares at CJ.
“What else?” Alana lets out in a low tone.
“He released videos of Amanda in an intimate situation with her boyfriend.”
I’m pretty sure my heart stops and I die on the spot. Amanda’s skin turns a sickening green. She’s seconds away from spiraling and sobbing. Amanda built her career on being the ‘good one’ so if a tape like that was released it could ruin her and destroy anyone in the blast radius, me included.
Alana glances at my friend and reassures, “It was scrubbed from the internet. The laptop and USB key were back in your hotel rooms within thirty minutes of being stolen.”
Amanda crumbles and rests her head on Craig’s shoulder. The relief for both of us is instant, but it’s going to take a few minutes for my heart rate to go back to a normal level. My girlfriend continues her questioning, “How did you get the hotel key?”
“I stole it from CJ.” CJ sinks into his chair like he’s been punched in the stomach. At least he did it to himself, otherwise I would have to. All of this was his fault, and Alana cleaned up the mess before it could be a problem. Any one of those could have been career ending, but she came in and saved us.
Alana continues with a darkness that chills me to my core, “What happened to the world’s supply of Majesty?"
“You burnt it.”
“Why?”
“Because the Deviant took some kids.”
“Then what the fuck do you think I’m going to do the man who endangered my safety and privacy by telling privileged information to a civilian?” Her voice is frigid. I don’t know what’s happening on the screen, but the man continues crying and pleading that he’s sorry. His appeal goes unnoticed as Alana takes out her own phone and makes a call.
“Eddie Coshovo is mine now. You won’t do business with him or even want him in any of your establishments. He’s been marked.” She taps her screen again and makes a second call. “I need four BHYS- ultra fine, ten LDEB and seven party favors sent to Eddie Coshovo’s place. Make it random, I never want him to know when it’s coming.” She ends the call and tosses her phone on the coffee table next to her knitted cat. Then looks back down at Eddie who’s still crying. “The last man I marked got neutered, Eddie. Keep my name out of your mouth.” She hangs up on him and tosses the phone back to CJ who is staring off into space, caught in his own world of thoughts and fears.
“You’re being very dramatic,” Lance calls out from the kitchen. “They’re just glitter bombs. That man thinks he’s going to die,” he argues under his breath.
Alana’s lips curl while reaching for the wine bottle. “Have you ever been repeatedly glitter bombed? He’s gonna wish for death.”
