AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No. Never.”
Only much later did I learn why. In my father’s mind, that ‘blood and loyalty’ bond was reserved for men alone.
It’s source of pride that I was able to make him eat those words. Not many people score a victory over my father and live to talk about it but even he can grudgingly admit that I’ve earned my seat at this wretched table.
Speaking of the table, I choose a chair beside Estes and pull out the one next to me for Robert. The shy, uncertain expression on my brother’s face is enough to make my jaw clench because he’s just a freaking kid and he doesn’t belong here. He ought to be out in the sunshine throwing around a baseball or jumping ramps on his skateboard. Robert glances at the snakes as they curl their bodies and search for an escape route.
My handbag gets shoved under the chair and my phone is intentionally left in the front pocket. I can’t afford to be distracted in this room. With my chair pushed right up to the rim of the table and my hands folded on the shiny surface in front of me, I keep my back straight and my head up.
Across from me, Desmond slouches, thumbs through his phone and yawns. Forcing my face into neutral mode, I hazard a glance at the men sitting on either side of my uncle.
As a child, I spent little time with my two cousins. Talon and Jared were finished with high school before I even got there. To look at them, they are imposing men. Tall, broad shouldered and handsome, they match the physical mold of my father and uncles. It’s a tossup whether they are feared more than they are hated or vice versa. My father has been known to grumble when tales of his nephews’ heavy handed brutality reach his ears but the fact that his punishments are never harsher than a reprimand is a sign of his approval.
Right now Jared and Talon flank their own asshole father like two waiting demons. My chief problem with Desmond is that he produced the two of them.
Jared pays zero attention to my arrival. He keeps his face pointed at his phone with a smirk. Knowing him, he’s looking at porn. Last night his wife wandered into the Back Door yet again with red, unhappy eyes. Sophie downed so many tequila shots she vomited all over the bar and since Jared was nowhere to be found I had to pull Andrei off duty to escort her home.
Though Jared doesn’t even look up, Talon keeps his eyes on me. The gleam within would be worth a shudder, except I refuse to give him the satisfaction. Instead, I harden my muscles and offer a blank stare in return.
Talon taps the pointer finger of his right hand on the table. An oversized titanium insignia ring that was given to him by my father clicks in a sharp, slow rhythm against the wood. Aside from Robert, I’m the only one in the room who doesn’t have one. This used to bother me. The ring is shaped into a gothic style letter M.
Marchenko.
Click.
From where I sit it’s upside down, looks like a W.
Click.
The W winks at me.
The snakes hiss.
For no special reason, the wordWICKEDruns through my mind.
Click.
Wicked.
An accusation.
In the end I’m complicit, no better than the rest of them. The face of the desperate girl in the bar haunts my vision and threatens to light a match to my outrage.
No, I can’t lead with a question about her. Doing so would prompt suspicion and seal her fate.
Robert fidgets in his chair, rocking it on the back legs for entertainment. He has no idea that I’m making a silent promise. Somehow I will extract him from the nightmare of our legacy before it swallows him too.
The murmured conversation between my father and Estes continues without interruption. From the words I can catch, it’s obvious they are discussing details of my father’s impending holiday at the state penitentiary. Interrupting them would be unthinkable. When Robert sighs loudly, no doubt already bored, I catch his eye and put a finger to my lips. He nods and goofily pretends he’s zipping his lips closed.
A vintage atomic wall clock ticks the seconds away on a paneled wall above a black leather couch. It’s two minutes past four p.m. There’s nothing special happening tonight at the club so the crowd will be light.
Last night when I wasn’t holding Sophie’s hair out of her vomit, I was keeping an eye on the door. I shouldn’t have been expecting Conner to show up at any moment but somehow the preposterous flutter of hope in my chest didn’t get the message. This little Catch Me If You Can game isn’t to my liking, even though I’m the one who started it.
Anyway, Conner probably had other plans. There’s no shortage of people clamoring for his time for all different reasons. He owes me nothing. No doubt he’d be deeply amused to know that I’ve been obsessing over the hours we spent together.
At this point I wish I hadn’t walked out on him the other night. Maybe then I wouldn’t be tortured by a steady stream of fantasies about how he fucks.
Conner is unlike the men I’m used to bedding. That unmemorable bunch tends to fall into two categories. Either they are one of the depraved barbarians who populate the worst corners of the underworld or else they are gutless foot soldiers, boring and easily pussy whipped.
