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SEVENTEEN
‘COTTON’ BONES
Gio
Glass breaks against the wall, my balcony door shattering as everything in my hand flies through it from my throw. I feel my hair ripping from my scalp, but I don’t feel the strands between my fingers, though I know it’s me pulling at the roots. My mother’s face flashes before me, the last day I saw her alive, waving at me from the doorstep, but where my mind used to see and feel betrayal in her goodbye, I now see her wish that she could go with me. She didn’t leave me, not purposely, she was taken from me in the same way Maxine was taken from Luce.
I can hear my name being called, but my mother’s voice echoes in my head, my name on her lips as she comforted me after she suffered one of my father’s brutal beatings. She comforted me. What a fucking shame that I spent most of my life practically hating the woman; I failed to remember that she gave herself to me so selflessly, and I gave up on her in an instant.
Arms wrap around me, but all I see are Alan’s hands restraining me.
“Fuck you! I’m going to kill you!” I roar, my throat tasting like blood as I spin in the hold and wrap my arm around the person’s neck.
A hit lands on my temple as we fall to the floor, a woman screaming in the background, the sound creating flashbacks of my father’s ass kickings while Lexi tried in vain to stop him.
Lexi! Fuck!
“G, calm down! It’s me, Luce, not that motherfucker. Look at me!” Luce’s face finally comes into focus, my glass coffee table shattered beneath me as he hovers over me. There’s blood dripping from his temple as Lexi crouches down beside us.
“Gio, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Fuck, are you okay?” She reaches for me, but I jerk my head to the side, I’m not in the right state of mind to be touched, and I don’t want to hurt her.
She pulls her hand back slowly, hurt shining in her eyes, but that can’t be helped right now.
“Get the fuck off me, Luce. Before I really lose my shit.”
Luce leans in closer, his nose touching mine, “You better calm the fuck down before you accidentally hurt Lexi. Go for a drive, brother.”
He climbs off me, holding his hand out to me which I take, but the moment I’m up, I grab my keys and walk out the door, slamming it closed behind me. I hear Drake barking at the guys to split, but I don’t pay attention, taking the stairwell rather than waiting on the elevator. Fuck, I hate that I scared Lexi, that I had a fucking episode in front of her, but hearing my mother’s name was too much. I had chosen to ignore the fact that my mother’s name was on the hotel’s room booking, telling myself that my father was only using the name to fly under my radar, but hearing what Lexi said.
Fuck me.
She’s dead. She’s got to be. Alan, my own father and her husband, killed her and has been killing women who look just like her. We thought the women he’s been killing lately had similarities to Lexi, but I failed to see how similar her looks were to my mother.
They’re obviously different, but they both have the same brown hair, slightly tanned skin, brown eyes, small and utterly alone in the world. My mother had no family when she met my father. Same as Lexi. This fucker has a type.
I get to my car but decide to take my bike, which is toward the entrance of the underground garage. I swing my leg over the seat but stop and rub at my eyes. Fucking Alan, my son of a bitch father. Where the fuck is the lowlife hiding, the need to get my hands around his throat and watch the life seep from his eyes grows stronger every fucking second, and I feel my skin burning with the need.
The sound of Pink’s voice carries through the garage and interrupts my thoughts as I listen to him.
“Yeah…nothing, he flipped out over hearing his mother’s name before he could…no…okay, I’m on my way.”
Who the fuck is he talking to? I quickly take out my phone and share my location to Luce as Pink slides into his car. I duck low over my bike, thankful I’m in all black today…mourning colors for Maxine, and watch as Pink pulls out of the garage. I turn on my bike and follow him, the sun below the horizon and the tall buildings of downtown keeping me from being easily seen. I keep a few cars behind him, making sure I'm not spotted as Pink makes turns after turns, but I think I know where he’s heading, so I take a shortcut to the docks.
Once I’m there, I park in one of the alleyways and watch as people mindlessly walk by, oblivious to me and my gun sitting within the shadows. Is this what Alan does? Hide and creep on people, stalking innocent women until he finds his next victim? How long has he been doing this?
My mind instantly drifts to the locks of hair I found in his secret drawer before Luce and I set the horror house on fire. One bundle, which I now believe to be my mother's, was tied with a red ribbon, the other two were tied with a blue one. How in thehellwas I born his son? I knew the man was a sadistic narcissist, but this goes way beyond that. This is serial killer gene type shit.
Pink pulls up just as I was beginning to think I had the wrong place. My phone buzzes in my pocket as I watch him sit in the car flashing his headlights like some b-rated movie actor.
“Yeah?” I whisper into my phone.
“What’s with the location share?” Luce’s voice sounds exhausted, and I don’t really blame him, but at the same time, we all got demons so he can fuck off with the judgment.
“Pink is meeting someone, and I think it’s Alan or someone connected to him.”
“I’m on my way, don’t do anything ‘til I get there.”
We hang up and I wait, still watching Pink. He continues to sit in the car, taking out his phone and texting someone. A few seconds later, my phone buzzes with a text.
