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TWENTY-EIGHT
‘SODIUM’ BONES
Lexi
It’s been almost two hours since Luce and Gio left me in the VIP room with mafia members. I’m not frightened, just uncomfortable. I’m unsure of what to talk about, so I sit quietly, listening to them laugh and talk amongst themselves. They don’t ignore me exactly, but how can I carry a full conversation with any of these mafiosos? Even Jefa is intimidating with her sharp eyes and thigh holster of knives. Plus, her man looks like he’ll slit my throat if I even look at her wrong.
As if reading my mind, Jefa leans toward me, “You know, I’ve never met a woman with two men. I mean sure, I’ve met some girls who have more than one man at a time but never shared between them. How do the dynamics work?”
Her boldness shocks me. I lift my glass of champagne to my lips, my cheeks flaming, and take a generous gulp before answering, “It’s new to me, we’ve only just begun, I’ll have to let you know in a few months.”
We share a laugh, until I look at the screen of my phone for the hundredth time, counting the minutes since they left.
Jefa sees me and pats my hand softly, “You know, my father once told me that staring at a pot of water on the stove will only make it boil slower. Don’t worry, your men will be here soon, and that piece of shit man will be dead and gone.”
I look at her quizzically, “I know this may be a stupid question, seeing as who you are and probably know things about people they themselves don’t even know, but how do you know about Alan?”
Jefa chuckles, her brow cocking as she nods, “You’re right about that, but I learned of that pinche puto because my Nico helped with some of the hacking to locate you. I watched the footage of you being taken by Alan. I also heard you were the one who killed Pink.”
I look away when I hear the hint of pride in her voice. Taking a life should make me want to go to confession and beg for forgiveness, but in all honesty, I’d do it again, only a little more brutally. I wish I had looked into his eyes as I killed him, maybe then I’d feel something other than cold indifference to ending his worthless life. I don’t particularly want to feel remorse, especially not for him, but it does concern me that I don’t feel anything. If I had seen a kitten starving on the street beside a starving Pink, I would -without a single doubt- help the kitten and leave him to die in agony.
But perhaps that’s the wrong scenario to use. Animal versus human. Having no remorse for human life is disconcerting, but humans have a tendency to burn almost everyone they touch, animals don’t.
“He deserved far worse,” Jefa says, echoing my thoughts, “and your men are down there showing Alan exactly how they feel about him laying a hand to their woman.”
I nod knowing she’s right, but it’s difficult to keep myself from growing anxious the more time passes. Gio is facing his father right now, so I can only imagine how much of his pent up rage is pouring out of him now. I can picture him expelling his anger like a cathartic session of blood and teeth. But Luce, he’s facing the man who raped and beat his sister to death. No, scratch that, Alan is no man, he’s a disgusting beast. TheSwamp Thingis more man than he is. My heart aches when I think of what Luce must be feeling, knowing he’s covering it all up with a slick smile and ironic jokes. He’s the master of masks, but he’s not able to hide from my eyes.
I shift in my seat, doing my best not to think about why that is.
Something has changed between the three of us, something new and not unwelcomed. I’ve loved Gio since he danced with me at the club not that long ago, but Luce…I can’t quite say it’s love yet, but it’s definitely something more than lust. Just as Gio does, he makes my chest bloom and my heart coil. He gets my blood pumping in the most delicious way, and he treats me like I’m stronger than teflon. He values me in the same ways Gio does, with so much care that it makes a girl’s ovaries explode.
Both of them do, and I’ve never felt surrounded by such strong feelings that reach the depths of my soul, lighting all the nooks and crannies of my being. When they look at me, I feel like I’m standing naked in a tank of water with live wires. It’s both scary and exhilarating. Their eyes send shock waves through me in a way that no other eyes have ever done. When their hands touch me, it’s as though all my skin is on fire with flames that burn in the softest ways. Their lips, oh God, their kisses make me feel buoyant, like I’m filled with not blood but helium, and without their hold on me, I’d float away.
In short, they make me happy. Happier than I’ve ever been, and that scares me.
Tomorrow is never guaranteed, and although the life they live doesn’t frighten me off, the daily threat of their deaths do. They have my heart split in half, each taking one piece for themselves. If something were to happen to them, I’d die right along with them. I wouldn’t actually die though, I’d continue living, but my heart would be dead and gone. It will continue its beating, but it will be as though it pumps decay through my body. They’re the only ones for me, the only ones who have awoken me from a long sleep of pain and misery.
Sure, I’d move on eventually because life goes on, but would I really? Love is a weakness, it holds a power over you like nothing else in this world and that power can either lift you or drop you. I can only hope that I never lose them because at the height I’m already at, I know the fall would shatter me.
Jefa gets a call that pulls her away from the group, her scary looking man follows her with his heavy gaze before both of them leave the room. Alone with Drake and the silent bodyguards throughout the room, I decide to stand and pace. Before I can even try, however, Drake turns to me, his eyes assessing me as I do my best to look like I’m not ready to gnaw off my fingernails with worry.
“I haven’t spoken to you since you got back,” he says it like I was on vacation on some tropical island instead of being held captive by a sadistic psychopath with a penchant for gangbanging, “how are you doing?”
His dark eyes, that look like the pits of a soulless demon, watch me as I search for how to put all my thoughts and feelings into a simple answer. I know he’d see through vague answers. Drake doesn’t strike me as a man who is blind to much, so I decide to tell him the truth,
“Great and not so great. I want to live a normal life, but I can’t do that until everyone who has intentions of taking from me is dead or begging for death. I should feel some sort of remorse for wanting such horrible things, but I don’t, and that scares me.”
I lift my glass to my lips, using the action to stop the word vomit. I can feel my heart pounding like a war drum, but I feel slightly relieved to speak my thoughts aloud. It helps that Drake is one of the city’s infamous Renzetti boys; I’m sure he can comprehend what I’m feeling.
He considers me for a moment, his eyes flashing as though he’s seeing me for the first time. It makes me feel like an insect under a scientific scope, exposed, vulnerable, and open for all to see.
“Death, in whatever form it arrives in, is only another fact of life. The fragility of a person’s life is probably the only thing I find utterly attractive. We mortals hold the power over life and death, we can give it just as easily as take it. You can either tap on a heart to get it beating again, or you can stand back and let it die, that is a power you hold and once you realize that, there’s not a soul in this world who can hurt you.”
I swallow thickly as my heart trips over itself with each terrifying word he speaks. I always believed his nickname, The Devil, was given to him because he loved to party, tempt women, and always up for an adrenaline rush, but getting this small glimpse of the real him beneath the facade…Drake is terrifying.
He lusts after death like the Devil.
He doesn’t care if the person standing before him is friend or foe, just knowing he can end them gives him inexorable power.
