Old Money Roulette: Complete Trilogy

by Natalie Bennett

  My eyes immediately went to the suspicious black object he was referencing. Figuring nothing inside would hurt me, I marched over to it and lifted the lid.

  My theory from mere seconds ago was promptly proven wrong. I dropped the lid and stepped back.

  The bang echoed in the near empty room, signaling to Mateo I’d done what he wanted. His laugh followed, as if he had seen my exact reaction.

  “Open it again and remove the butane, shears, and alcohol.”

  “Why?” I questioned even as I began to take the items he’d named, starting with the cylinder can that said flammable on the side of it, a bottle of one-hundred proof Vodka, and finishing with a large pair of garden shears.

  “Now what?”

  “Use the shears to cut his shirt off.”

  “Why?”

  “If you ask me why one more time, you renege on our deal,” he coolly stated.

  I swallowed any more questions along those lines and rose back to my full height.

  Slowly, I approached the chair Alex was restrained on, shears in hand. I could prove I could do this.

  I had to prove I could do this.

  Inhaling a deep breath and then letting it out, I began.

  Elias stood by and watched my every move like a hawk.

  The shirt was filthy, covered in stains and stretched beyond repair. I carefully used the shears to snip away the loose fitting pieces first. It took me a second to work around the chain going across his sternum.

  Alex remained silent, staring me down as if I were the devil reincarnated. Once the shirt was removed, I stepped back and surveyed his hairy chest.

  “Now what?”

  Elias said something I yet again couldn’t understand, to which Mateo replied back in clear cut English.

  “Mark him with an E and an R.”

  “An E and an R?” I repeated, thinking I’d misheard him. Why would I use my initials?

  “Yes,” was Mateo’s blunt response.

  “Wh–––.” Elias shook his head, stopping me from asking the one question that kept trying to roll off my tongue.

  “How am I supposed to do that?” I asked instead, trying to ignore the nausea beginning to churn in my stomach as a million different scenarios ran through my head.

  “You have all the tools you need right in front of you, although I personally recommend the butane.”

  I looked at the sharp point of the garden shears and then to the can on the floor. Neither option would be harmless, but I tried to imagine which one would hurt less.

  Was it more painful to slice into someone’s flesh or burn it? I couldn’t believe I was contemplating it.

  “Five minutes, amada,” Mateo’s voice poured through the speaker.

  God, this was all really happening. He wanted me to hurt this man who had done nothing to me, who I didn’t know a damn thing about.

  “I can’t do this!” I protested. My gaze darted between the items I’d removed from the chest, unable to choose a lesser evil.

  “How badly do you want to see Eva again? What would you do to save the only thing left of your parents’ legacy? Ask yourself how much the truth matters to you.”

  I wanted to say fuck the truth and that none of this was my problem, but the words wouldn’t come out.

  “I need the truth,” I solemnly admitted.

  “Are you willing to kill for it?”

  Did he just say…?

  “I’m not a killer, Mateo!”

  He made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a low laugh.

  “We are all killers, Elena. You especially. Do you think I cannot see it inside you? That dark aura wrapped around your pure little soul? My twisted angel, you are far more dangerous than you give yourself credit for, simply because you hide how dangerous you are under this illusion of naïve innocence.”

  I stared at the phone in Elias’.

  Was this really what my life had come to? I just wanted to escape it all, but I couldn’t do that either. Guilt was a brutal affliction. If I turned my back on my family, no matter how screwed up they were, it would eat me alive.

  The fact that I’d semi told Eva to steal Mateo’s damn book, even if it was unknowingly said without a clue of who it belonged to or what would ensue, was nibbling away at my psyche.

  I hated the pressure weighing heavily on my shoulders.

  I asked myself the same question Mateo just had. What was I willing to do for the truth?

  The answer came to me as I swapped the garden shears for the butane.

  I couldn’t risk the last piece of my parent’s legacy, and I couldn’t give up on my sister. Mateo held the power to destroy both in the palm of his hand.

  With this deal, he would essentially own me, too.

  I turned the little nozzle on the back of the can and smoothed some stray hairs away from my face with a shaky hand.

  Hoping Alex could read the apology in my eyes I pressed down on the trigger and a hissing flame shot out. I started with the E, dragging the flame over the flesh on his left pectoral, slowly to the right, letting go of the trigger and moving down at the same pace before going over again, and then repeating the motion one last time.

  Elias relayed what I was doing in the background.

  Alex tried to stay quiet, failing on my second downward swipe.

  His skin quickly changed from pink to a an angry red as it turned into a heat blister, swollen and pulsing with pus.

  He cried out behind his gag, uselessly rocking in the chair in an effort to escape the fire. His pain didn’t faze me. I was fully focused on finishing the R.

  The smell was acrid, burning my nose a good bit. There was a hint of rancid almost bacon-like aroma. Not the smoky richness of bacon, more like when the bacon is done, but there's little bits left in the pan turning black and charred from over cooking.

  “Next?” I asked as soon as I was done.

  “Clean it with the liquor,” Mateo casually replied.

  Sitting the can down, I picked up the bottle of vodka and worked off the top. Knowing this was only going to add to Alex’s pain, I purposely didn’t look in his eyes as I let the clear liquid rush from the bottle and onto his chest.

  The effect was instantaneous. His raw skin began to sizzle. The freshly formed blisters burst, causing milky pus and blood to stream down his naked torso.

  Making the mistake of glancing at his face, I saw tears leaking from his eyes.

  “I’m done,” I said, capping the Vodka.

  I stepped away, feeling slightly sick with myself. Violence and torture were both key parts of this life, I knew that. I knew this was what Mateo had done multiple times. My father had done countless things of the same degree.

  But this was my first time actively participating as anything more than an accidental witness.

  “Very good, anjo,” Mateo praised. He said something to someone in the background and then spoke directly to Elias.

  “I have to go now. Do exactly as he tells you and I’ll see you soon. I’ll be watching.” With that, the line went dead.

  I looked to Elias. “What did he mean, he’ll be watching?”

  “In the corners,” he replied, spinning his finger in a circle.

  They were nearly impossible to see, but when I squinted and strained my vision, the tiny black ball of a camera was noticeable in all four corners of the room.

  “So he just watched all that?”

  “Mateo’s always watching, sweetheart. Always.” He plucked the cell back from my hands and gently moved me out of the way, then proceeded to take a picture of Alex’s current predicament.

  Thinking over his statement gave me an uncomfortable sense of paranoia.

  Elias, oblivious to my mental musings or not caring, began undoing his buttons.

  “Wha…what are you doing?”

  He gave me an ornery smirk and continued, shrugging out of his shirt.

  I received a full frontal view of the cut and toned body beneath. He looked uncannily similar to Mateo, ju
st a tad smaller and a lot more boyish.

  My cheeks heated when I caught sight of the shit eating grin he was now sporting from my ogling.

  “I would say you can look to your heart’s content, but that’s an excuse for my brother to remove those gorgeous eyes of yours from their sockets.” He winked and tossed me his shirt.

  Catching it easily enough, I frowned and watched him move behind Alex once again. Between me blinking and taking my next breath he had his gun out and was firing a single round into the back of Alex’s skull.

  My ears began to ring in response to the loud discharge. Alex’s head jerked once and then lolled forward.

  Blood splattered onto the plastic drop cloth and continued to drip from the wound, filling the room with a soft pitter-patter noise.

  I blanched and turned away, clutching the shirt to my chest.

  Elias’ amused laughter followed me.

  “Don’t go getting cold feet now, rainha. We’re not done yet.”

  “I can’t believe you just did that.”

  “Well, we couldn’t exactly drop him at home. We burned it down.”

  That got me to turn back around. “Wh–––.”

  “Nope.” He reached out and pinched my lips. “Don’t mess it up now.”

  I knocked his hand away with a glare, and he laughed at me again, crouched down. He began undoing the chains, unbothered by the blood now dripping onto him.

  Now unsecured, the body tilted to the left and fell from the chair.

  “Come help me,” he said, carelessly flipping Alex onto his stomach.

  “What do you need me to do? He’s dead.”

  “He has bundles of cocaine in his ass. Someone has to take them out.”

  My head was shaking back and forth before he even finished his sentence. “I’m not sticking my hand inside a dead man’s…”

  “Asshole?” Elias finished. “You don’t have to. I just need you to hold the cheeks open.”

  Curling my lip, I looked down at the lifeless man as Elias pulled his pants and drawers down to the backs of his knees.

  He kicked both legs apart and then made the come hither motion. “Bring that vodka with you, please.”

  Sighing in defeat, I placed his shirt on top of the chest and snatched the liquor before going to crouch beside him. I settled the skirt of my dress beneath me, feeling severely overdressed.

  Staring at Alex’s pale ass with traces of blood now on it, I passed Elias the vodka and took an encouraging breath.

  I firmly grabbed each flabby globe, pulling them apart. I turned my head and waited for Elias to get it over with.

  He poured some of the liquor directly into Alex’s rectum before he started to remove the first condom.

  From the corner of my eye I watched him gently tug on the tail end, sliding it effortlessly from its resting place thanks to the vodka’s added lubrication.

  There was a total of six powder filled condoms.

  “That’s it? You did all this for that?”

  Elias scoffed and stood up. “We did it for a lot of reasons. There’s always a bigger picture to be seen in everything we do and every move we make. Remember that for future reference.

  “Those six condoms are worth seventy-two hundred dollars on the streets. That number may seem insignificant to you, but money is money.” He raised the bottle to his mouth and took a healthy swig.

  “That’s disgusting.”

  “Oh, so you don’t want any?” He held the bottle out in offering.

  “No, I want to go home.”

  “All right, all right. Way to ruin the fun,” he sighed exaggeratedly.

  I stood-by once more as he rolled Alex’s body in one of the sheets of plastic and proceeded to drag it across the floor.

  “Come on,” he playfully called out when I had yet to move.

  What could we possibly be about to do now?

  Chapter Twelve

  I didn’t know it was possible to melt a body into nothing.

  In the basement of what I would forever deem the little house of horrors, was a room with a wall of what looked like solid black plexi-glass separating it from the rest of the lower level.

  “My brother wanted to be the one to show you this, but he’s a bit busy,” Elias explained.

  He pulled a crate out of a cubby and passed me a mask that could have gone with a hazmat suit, and thick rubber gloves.

  Once I’d pulled the gear on, he was waiting with something else.

  “Put these over your shoes.”

  I took the blue plastic booties and slid them over my heels, tying them around my ankles.

  He hit a silver, circular button on the wall that caused something to click and a soft whirring noise to start up. “Ventilation system,” he explained.

  He lifted Alex’s body over his shoulder like it weighed nothing and waltzed into the room beyond.

  Ignoring the chaotic fluttering in my stomach, I followed after him.

  Even with the lights on, it wasn’t very bright inside. I was able to make out large metal tubs, what I assumed were trash receptacles, and a few other odd items.

  Elias dropped the body onto the floor with a gross thud and uncovered one of the metal tubs.

  I crept closer to get a better look. All I could see inside was a clear, odor-less substance that looked a little oily.

  “What is this?”

  “Something you don’t ever want to touch. Help me lift.” He repositioned himself at Alex’s head, and left me by his feet.

  We both crouched down to the body, him lifting the upper half and me the lower.

  I grasped at the plastic with my gloves when I felt it start to slip through my hands.

  “Careful,” Elias warned. “We’re going to lower him in, slowly. Watch your hands.”

  Working together, we submerged the body in the tub. When we were done, I waited a full minute before anything started to happen.

  It wasn’t noticeable at first, but once it started, it didn’t stop. The plastic began to peel away and simply disappear.

  Alex’s body went next.

  The skin was eaten away, making the clear liquid turn an ugly deep red and yellow as his body disintegrated down to the bone.

  “It will dissolve the bones, teeth, and all his insides,” Elias explained, re-covering the tub.

  He urged me back towards the door and had me remove the gear.

  “Wipe down with this.”

  I accepted a sanitary rag that smelled strongly of bleach, ignoring the slight burn it as I wiped off my hands and legs.

  Elias did the same, guided me back up the stairs, and did a quick clean up of the main room.

  Once he was done he deposited the powder filled condoms in a locked mailbox on the front of the house, and we left.

  “What was the point of all this?” I asked, settling into the passenger seat of the Jeep.

  “I suppose he wanted to see how well you followed instructions. Maybe he wanted to test your resolve, see if you could honor your word. Or maybe there isn’t a point at all. He just wanted to renege the deal the two of you made.”

  I leaned my head on the window and groaned. “You’re as confusing as he is.”

  “Mateo’s my brother. I can’t give up his hand in the game.” He shrugged. “I can tell you one thing, though.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “It’s very easy to make someone vanish without a trace.”

  The hot water washed all the invisible grime off my skin.

  I stood beneath the double shower heads waiting for some type of sick remorse or overwhelming sorrow to set in from result of what I’d done, but it never came.

  Feeling a rush of cold air at my back, I opened my eyes and spun around, coming face to naked chest with Mateo.

  My eyes flew up to meet his and my hands went to his solid biceps in an effort to push him out.

  “Ah, amada.” He laughed off my objection and easily maneuvered me further into the shower to make room for himself.
>
  He pulled me into his arms, splaying one large hand across my ass and pressing my breasts into his chest.

  “I couldn’t be there with you, but I watched the whole thing.”

  “Why did you make me do that?” I asked, allowing him to walk me backward.

  “I didn’t make you do anything. I gave you a choice. You could have easily said no.”

  “I couldn’t have, and you know that.”

  “Elena, you have free will. And you decided to seal our deal. All the other bullshit aside, we both know you want this.

  “Let’s not pretend you don’t enjoy the thought of power, of money, of us. Let’s stop thinking that being naïve doesn’t equate to being innocent.

  “Your eyes always belay the truth, and everything you don’t say speaks louder than the things you do. You want to be a queen; now prove to me you can be.”

  “I didn’t ask for any of this.”

  “You didn’t have to ask for it, amada. You were born to bring men to their knees and leave women in a state of sickening envy.”

  Peering up at him through wet lashes, I swallowed around the sudden obstruction in my throat.

  My façade was a security blanket and he was threatening to rip it away. I liked being underestimated.

  I liked that my naïveté’ portrayed a sweet little lamb and not the hungry wolf with claws like daggers.

  He cupped my face, gently cradling it in his large palms. His cool breath fanned over my lips, smelling faintly of whiskey.

  I covered his hands with mine, holding back the onslaught of emotion threatening to pour out of my mouth just for it to sneakily escape in the form of two single tears.

  He saw them even with water raining down around us.

  “Minha beleza,” Mateo sighed, his face softening. “I hate to see you like this, but you’re beautiful even when you cry. I can assure you that fucking me will continue to be the greatest experience of your life, second only to taking my last name.

  “I promise that you being my wife will always hold much more value than money ever could.”

  I hung off his every word as he wiped the tears away with his thumbs. It was an oddly sweet gesture.

  “I just want what’s best for you,” he said quietly. His voice bled sincerity, and as I stared into his eyes, I loathed the truth I saw within them.