AllFreeNovel
Share Us
FIVE
‘DEEP END’ TAZ
Luce
Isit back on the couch, refusing to show the amount of pain and discomfort I’m in physically, not entirely in the mood for placating concern. I just take out the pills the doc prescribed me for pain and pop two more than instructed. I’m in the deep end, and while I’m trying my best not to hold shit against Gio, my finger has been itching to pull a trigger. I feel like I'm split open, my blood spilling from wounds no one but the safety of my sister and Lexi can heal.
I’m waiting for a motherfucking moment where I’m not feeling like putting a hole in someone’s brain.
I have demons, dark ones that stem from my own father and the shit he put us through. No, I didn’t live the same life Gio lived with his own piece of shit father, but Remy Rametta is the genesis of my problems.
Fucking fathers, no, fuck that. They don’t deserve that honorable title, they’re just sperm donors who continued the cycle of life without two fucks to give.
My father was a cunt, pure and simple. The moment liquor was in his system, he went from an asshole to a raging bitch with nothing but hateful words on his tongue. His voice was venomous, always yelling, cussing out my mom and sister, telling them they needed to go out and spread their legs for money. He never hit us, but no one can tell me words don’t hit just as hard as a fist…the bruises from words - especially from a father - never go away. Broken bones heal, but the mind never does.
My phone rings in my pocket, and my heart immediately sinks knowing it’s not Lexi calling to check on me like she normally would, or my sister texting me some memes or bullshit she thought was hilarious. The screen lights up with Nico Renzetti’s number.
“It’s your brother calling, boss.” I tell Drake, who tips his chin up for me to answer it.
“What up, Nick.” I say into the phone, smirking when his deep voice rasps out a growl, I love messing with these Renzetti brothers.
“It’s too bad you didn’t die with that pretty car of yours.” He says back, making my smirk die instantly.
My fucking car! Just another thing to add to the revenge list on Alan.
“What can I do for you?” I ask, putting the phone on speaker.
“I got a guy who works for the city, the traffic management center to be exact, and he was able to pull up the recordings of the traffic cams at the scene.” Nico types away on his computer in the background, “The files are heavily encrypted, but I was able to create copies.”
“Email them to G.” I tell him when Gio clicks over to his email on his laptop.
Drake and I watch over Gio’s shoulder as the video downloads and begins to play frame by frame. My teeth grind as I think of how stupid it was that I took the same fucking route I always took, perfect for someone to use the routine against me just as Alan did that day. We stare at the video as me and Lexi drive toward the intersection where a green light blares on the windshield, allowing us to pass by without issues, or at least we should have. In the next frame, just as we’re in the center of the intersection, a black Tahoe comes into the frame and hits us on my side of the car.
The video is silent, but I can still hear the sound of Lexi screaming and tires screeching. I force my eyes to stay on the screen, my jaw clenched painfully hard as I watch my arms wrap around Lexi just as her head and my elbow hit the passenger window. I remember the glass shattering with the blow, and Lexi’s name on my lips as though my words would be enough to protect the girl I was falling for. I can feel my arm pulsating, and I know that’s how my elbow broke, protecting Lex. But it wasn’t enough.
The car barrel rolls into a light pole before coming to a stop upside down.
“There he is,” I hear myself saying as Alan the motherfucking dickwad jumps from his truck, rushing to the passenger side of the car and yanking the door open. He struggles with it for a second as the steel car is completely bent to hell, but he gets it wide enough to reach in and cut Lexi free from the seatbelt.
We watch Lexi drop hard to the ceiling, my knuckles popping as I squeeze my fist tightly. It’s nighttime in the video, but the red stop lights give the whole scene a hellish glow. You can see my hands reaching toward Lexi as Alan drags her out of the cab, but I was still buckled in and hanging upside down.
He swings an unconscious Lexi over his shoulder before rushing back to the truck, tossing her in like she’s nothing but a bag of trash. He comes back to my car, this time on my side of the vehicle with a large hunting knife in his hand, but there’s a woman standing at the corner adjacent to the wreck. He hesitates, like all he wants to do is kill me, but his head snaps back like someone called him before quickly tucking the knife away and running back to the truck.
The Tahoe reverses before spinning and fishtailing out of the frame.
Gio drops his head while I continue to stare at the screen, hating how fucking vulnerable I was, how fucking distracted I was. She’d still be here if I hadn’t opened my damn mouth! How foolish and completely selfish of me to put her safety aside just so I could come clean with her. Fucking stupid!
“I’m sorry, G.” I start, but Gio slams his fist on the table.
“Fuck that, Luce. No one but that motherfucker should be sorry, least of all you. Now, you can stand there and hide how you feel for Lexi from me, but just like you saw through my bullshit, I see through yours. I don’t blame you for any of this. I can see you care for Lexi more than a friend, so I know damn well you wouldn’t have allowed this.”
He stands, his burning eyes staring straight into mine, and I’m ready to tell him that I may be sorry for allowing my distraction to cause this domino effect, but I will not apologize for my feelings. My feelings for Lexi have not changed, and they won’t, so if he thinks I’ll swallow them down, he obviously hasn’t been paying much attention to who I am. But he surprises me.
“That being said, I won’t allow you to riddle yourself with guilt you don’t fucking deserve. We’re going to get Maxine and our girl back, but to do that we need clear heads. You with me?”
He holds his hand out, and I feel like my world has once again tipped on its axis. He knew how I felt, knew what Lexi was beginning to mean to me. Maybe he doesn’t know how I feel for him, but he’s obviously not blind.
I take his hand in mine, our eyes locked on each other until Nico’s voice comes through the phone, reminding me that we’re not alone, “Are they done sucking each other off yet?”
