Inferno

by Casey Lane

  Have you ever watched professional wrestling? You know where these beefy guys perform a well-rehearsed routine inside of a boxing ring they refer to as ‘the squared circle’. The timing and execution of those so called matches could be considered beautiful by some. It’s an art form that takes years of dedication and constant practice to perfect. What I was witnessing was not as technically sound. One may even call it rudimentary at best. But the way Marissa ran her shoulder into that girl’s midsection, lifting her completely off the floor, was not any less breathtaking.

  The show did not end there, no sir. These people were getting their monies worth tonight. Marissa, straddling her victim’s midsection, arm cocked back to land a lethal blow, was being quickly advanced upon by two more opponents. A shout out, from her tag team partner, gave barely enough advanced warning for her to drop her shoulder and complete a tuck and roll maneuver, earning her a 7.9 score on the difficulty scale. Simultaneously, her sister earned a 10.0 on technique for the perfect use of a clothesline, halting the other team’s advancement.

  Angered and most assuredly embarrassed by her miscalculation, the third challenger made another run at Marissa, grabbing her by the front of her shirt. The enemy sneered, confident in her ability to end our petite heroine, but alas, she is foiled again. With an impressive armbar takedown, our champion overpowered her adversary with extreme prejudice.

  The original member of the villain league began to stir, attempting to rise from her defeated position. Like a skillfully planned dance routine, Bella and I moved as one, thwarting any attempts to mount a secondary attack. The allied forces are once again victorious!

  Unfortunately, our merriment is rudely interrupted when the lights flashed on, and uniformed officers swarmed us. The four of us, along with our three rivals, were sitting, side by side, on the floor with our hands cuffed behind our backs. I heard a commotion in the crowd and looked up to see Jack push his way through the gathering to stand next to Tyler.

  “What the hell, I was only in the bathroom for a few minutes!”

  “My little firecracker got a tiny bit upset,” he informed Jack. “I understand her sister jumping in, but have no idea how or why the other two got involved.”

  “Clause five and nine of the Friend Code,” Jack nodded, as if that explained everything.

  Chapter Sixteen

  We are escorted from the club to a convoy of three squad cars waiting right outside the door. We rode in silence to the station, listening to the occasional squawks and dispatch updates echoing from the front seat. Entering the building, we each sat in a hard plastic chair, waiting our turn for processing.

  A surprisingly compassionate officer guided me to a back room. After confiscating my personal items, I posed for a mug shot and supplied my fingerprints as requested. The patrol officer assured me that as long as none of us had a warrant, they would let us sober up and release us with only a fine to pay. Then he directed me down a long hall and into a concrete room where my fellow criminals were waiting, locking us in with the barred door.

  “Would one of you like to tell me why we’re in the pokey?” I probed.

  “Ask hot head over there,” Makayla pointed to her sister, triggering Bella and me to look her way.

  “Any one of you would have done the same thing,” she defended. Crossing my arms, I stared her down, waiting for her explanation to continue. Marissa released a heady sigh. “Tyler and I were on the dance floor and that chick in the pleather pants started circling. At first, she just moved provocatively and we both ignored her. Then she would accidentally bump into me, thrusting between us. I shoved her out of the way and told her to buzz off, and it worked for about ten minutes. The next thing I know, the skank is grinding up on Tyler. He made it abundantly clear that he was not interested, and instead of walking away, she thought grabbing his crotch would change his mind. At that point, I had no other choice than to defend my man’s honor.”

  “I should have hit that bitch harder,” I told her, earning a smile in return.

  Bella let out an amused laughed, a broad smile spreading across her face. “I can’t get the image of the two of you out of my head. It was like watching midget Kung Fu.”

  “Gurrrl, we didn’t even get to bust out our good moves,” Marissa hooted.

  “Oh, you two are in so much trouble when your dad finds out about this,” I warned.

  “Um, hello. I believe you are also sitting in this cell. Don’t think just because your last name isn’t Stewart, you’re off the hook. Prepare yourself for the worst ass chewing of your life,” Makayla informed me. Turning to Bella, she forewarned, “he’ll get you too. You can count on that.”

  Exhaustion was beginning to set in, and with each hour that passed, the smell of sweat and stale urine became more prominent. The concrete bench was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable, causing my butt to numb. We spent our time scheming on how to get out of the mess we landed ourselves in; unfortunately, we were unable to formulate any kind of solid plan. After what seemed like days, an officer appeared, notifying us that our fines were paid, and our boyfriends were waiting to take us home.

  Marissa was the first to gain her freedom with Makayla and Bella echoing her steps and me trailing close behind. Marissa bounced through the door toward Tyler. The other two stopped dead as soon as they hit the lobby floor.

  “Oh shit,” Makayla gasped at the same time Bella whispered, “this is so not good.”

  I peeked around Bella and immediately attempted to move back, but the locked door blocked my way. Taking a deep breath, I stepped around her, walking toward Jack and away from the hulking silhouette in my peripheral. Reading my expression, Jack mouthed a placating no idea, but it wasn’t me as I stood before him.

  “Did you bring the car, or do we have to walk back?” I snapped. Anger was beginning to boil in my gut, thankfully. Anger I can work with. It compels me into action, and I have had enough paralyzing depression and fear lately to last a lifetime.

  “It’s parked outside,” he answered tensely.

  “Alexis is riding with me,” boomed a deep, angry voice, which I completely ignored.

  I turned to Makayla and Bella, who were still frozen, clearly apprehensive about the situation we walked into. “You two ready to go, or are you just going to stand there all day?”

  Marissa, finally cottoning on that something was amiss, scanned the factions presently involved in the standoff. Marshalling all of the bravado the last twenty-four hours would allow, she squared her shoulders, preparing to face off with a man more than twice her size. God I love my friends.

  “Hm,” she said curtly, giving him a scathing once over, “you must be the douchebag.” Ethan remained stoically silent, unwaveringly meeting Marissa’s glare.

  Clearing his throat, Tyler addressed the room at large, “let’s head back to the hotel before things get out of hand. We don’t need any of you behind bars again so soon.”

  Marissa blocked Ethan’s movement, allowing me to follow Jack free of any verbal or physical exchange. As the others were hurrying to catch up, I caught Tyler’s tenor floating out from the room behind us. We crammed into the Pathfinder and an uneasy silence settled in the air. Once back at the hotel, Marissa left Tyler in the kitchen and headed to her room while the rest of us converged in the other bedroom. Showers were finished before anyone dared to break the tumultuous quiet.

  “Plan A didn’t work out so well. Anyone have a Plan B handy?” Jack said blankly.

  My response was just as dry. “We knew this solitude wasn’t going to last forever. We had to go back sometime, now is as good as any other time.”

  Makayla was sitting on the bed, fiddling with her phone. “Crap.” She passed the phone around for all of us to see the text we missed last night.

  ***Heads up. Ethan found u***

  “Figures,” I muttered.

  There was a knock on the door at the same time as it began to open, and Tyler poked his head in. “I was thinking maybe we should run out and
grab a burger. You guys haven’t eaten since last night, and right about now is probably a good time for us to leave the room.”

  Am I the only one who thought that sounded a little suspicious? Everyone exited the room and came face to face with why stepping out for a little while was an excellent idea. Sorry to say, that was not an option for me. Ethan was standing across the room. His face may have been a blank mask, but his rigid posture and constant tensing muscles let me know how close his emotions were to the surface. The vein pulsating in his neck helped too. Guess we are gonna do this now, I thought to myself.

  “Are you going to be alright alone with him?” Bella asked hesitantly, causing Ethan to stiffen more. “I can stay if you want.”

  Shaking my head, I answered in a casual tone, which was a total contradiction to the anxiety I was feeling, “What more can he possible do? Go eat. I’ll be fine.”

  Everyone filed out the door, leaving Ethan and me in mirroring positions on opposite sides of the room. His hard stare bore into mine, and I was pleased to find that I did not crumble under its weight. Minutes passed with neither of us attempting to breach the stony silence. The four year old in me reasoned that he was the one who went out of his way to find me, so he obviously has something he wanted to say. I was perfectly content avoiding the hell out of him for the rest of our lives. He can be the one to initiate this party, because I would slit my wrists and jump in a tank full of sharks before starting a conversation with him.

  “You want to tell me why you thought running away was a better option than talking to me?” he said through gritted teeth.

  “I didn’t see a reason to inform you of what you already knew.”

  “I can understand Lydia upset you, but I never thought you would be one of those girls who would just accept it as truth without hearing both sides.”

  I laughed a cruel, humorless laugh at his audacity for trying to flip this on me. “First of all, I’m not one of those girls. If I dropped you the first time one of your distractions gave me lip, we would have been over a long time ago. Hell, if I had let the second, third, or fourth one get to me, we wouldn’t have lasted three days. However, I am also not one of those pathetic little girls walking around with blinders, hanging on your every word, while the truth is blatantly flaunted in my face. So ya, I cut my losses and moved on. I’m surprised you didn’t appreciate getting a clean break for a change, or is that it? You’re pissed because I’m not crying my eyes out, begging you to stay with me.”

  I’ll be honest; I didn’t realize I had the ability to reach that level of bitchiness. I actually impressed myself with that delivery. Yeah, I can be catty at times, but I have never before in my life been this spiteful with someone. Usually, I avoid confrontation at all costs, and I do everything within my power to smooth things over as quickly as possible. Ethan must not have been as impressed with my newfound talent. I thought I had seen angry people before, hell I thought I had seen Ethan angry before. I was wrong.

  The simmering boil he was containing below the surface erupted. He did not just yell. He threw a window rattling roar in my direction that could have knocked me down if it wasn’t for the wall behind me.

  “FUUUCCCKKK! YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY BELIEVE THAT!” “Do you honestly think I would spend the night tearing the fucking city apart for someone who was just a piece of ass to me? Or that I would spend days tracking you down and then drive twelve hours because you wounded my pride?”

  “I’m not even going to pretend to know what goes on inside your head,” I replied icily.

  “You have got to be shitting me. You’ve convinced yourself that I’ve been playing you this whole time. Un-fucking-believable.”

  “What did you expect? That I would be ok filling in for a while. Or were you hoping that you could have me on the side once Lydia was back in the picture?”

  “What in the hell has gotten in your head to make you think I would ever choose Lydia Garcia over you?”

  “Oh I don’t know, let me see,” I said, feigning contemplation while my finger tapped my chin. Pretend time over, I narrowed my eyes, speaking more harshly. “Maybe it was the trip to Atlanta that you scheduled to see her. Or perhaps that you’re spending every night with her at the club, and let’s not forget about you dropping everything and barely making it to the Ardor opening because you were where… hmmm, that’s right… assisting her.”

  “First of all,” Ethan began heatedly, “I didn’t fly to Atlanta to see Lydia. One of the applicants for club manager runs a bar there. I wanted to see firsthand how he operated the place and get a feel for whether he would be a good fit before deciding to interview him. The only other thing I had planned was to spend time with my brother and his family. I didn’t even know Lydia was in Atlanta until I ran into her. Yes, we had dinner, as friends. She asked my advice on starting up her own company.

  Is she at the club every night? No idea. Other than a walk through a couple of times a night, I’m in my office. I spend all of my time at the club reviewing cost reports and inventory. Making sure we stay up to date on the codes and regulations that change all the fucking time. She has stopped in my office twice. The first time, it was to ask me to explain some paperwork she didn’t understand. She was there less than five minutes. The second time was the night of that concert you went to. She showed up while I was waiting for you. I told her it wasn’t a good time and asked her to leave.

  As for the day of the opening, I went to Inferno because one of my guys called me. There was an issue with a supplier, and he wouldn’t complete the delivery until he hashed it out with me personally. I saw Lydia as I was rushing out to my car, already running late. She honked as she drove past. I never spoke a word to her until she showed up that night.”

  Ok, so maybe the little hoodrat stretched the truth a bit for her benefit. I’ll give him that much, but that doesn’t let him off the hook. He still has a lot to account for and I am not willing to lower the defenses I have spent the last few days constructing. Undeterred, I continued illustrating my point.

  “You and Lydia are friends,” I said passively, pausing to test the truth of that statement. “Jack and I are friends. Tyler and I are friends too.” Ethan wasn’t fooled by my pleasant tone, and I could see his mind working, trying to figure out where I was going with this. “Hell, I even consider Sebastian a friend. I hug my friends sometimes. I may smack them on the arm joking around. Shoot, I may even give their cheek a peck on occasion.” My body language became hostile and venom began to pour out. “What I don’t do is stand in a room full of business associates and clients with my arms wrapped around them, whispering in each other’s ears! I’m not deliberately flirting with another man while my boyfriend watches from the other side of the room!”

  “For Christ’s sake Alexis! She was trying to make you think something was going on between us. Can you not see that she was putting on a show to get to you?”

  “Was she also controlling your arm when you wrapped it around her waist? Or how about the hand you were rubbing up and down her back, was that her too?” I spat.

  Ethan rubbed both hands over his eyes and through his hair in a frustrated move. He looked at me with sad, lost eyes that would have broken my heart if it had been whole.

  “Baby, all I can say is that I’m sorry. I know what it must have looked like, but I promise you that there is nothing going on between us. I’m not good with this relationship stuff, but I’m trying. You are the only girl I want,” he pleaded.

  My eyes began to mist, and the aching in my chest intensified. “If that were true, you wouldn’t have her photographs hanging above your bed,” was my quiet denial.

  Shock transformed Ethan’s features as if I had landed a fatal blow. He shifted, preparing to walk towards me, and I held up my hand in a silent plea to stay away. A single tear trickled down my cheek. He attempted to speak, but never got the chance to spout a justification. The door opened, and my friends looked between the two of us, interrupting whatever excuse he would have uttere
d.

  “You want us to come back later?” Bella asked cautiously.

  “No,” I answered on a choked sob. “We’re done here.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The drive home was insufferably long. The four of us rode in the Pathfinder with Ethan trailing us the entire way. Thankfully, he didn’t make any attempts to talk to me, although I did catch him speaking with Jack at the gas station. My stink eye in their direction ended that quickly.

  After spending the night at Bella and Tate’s, we carted cleaning supplies up to my apartment with the expectation of a long day of work ahead of us. Jack and Makayla met us just outside in the hall, and Jack quickly unlocked and opened the door. Now we are all standing in the room with similar expressions of disbelief.

  “I’m going to freaking kill him,” I growled. “Jack, did you know about this?”

  “No ma’am. He just gave me a key and said the locks had been changed.”

  The apartment was spotless. Broken furniture, ripped clothing, and shards of glass were all missing. The brick had been cleaned of the offensive writing, and the inside walls had a fresh coat of buttercream paint. Kitchen cabinets that had several layers of chipped paint and recently added text were replaced with brand new oak ones.

  Continuing to seethe, I surveyed all of the new additions around my space. Centered in front of a new flat screen TV was a red couch. Two end tables, each holding an antique looking lamp, were perched on either side. A matching chair, in red and beige stripes, sat off to the side. An elegant floor lamp sat next to a new mattress set, topped with brown and white bedding, embellished with a wide strip of tiny red flowers and several matching throw pillows. I walked over to the oak wardrobe, opening the door to reveal a collection of clothing in my size.