by Korry Smith
Miguel, the one person who could get us inside the house without raising a suspicious eyebrow and alerting the police, was dead. The double-barreled shot blast that displaced his skull put a damper on his willingness to help us.
Bloodlust was a lot like being in love: it didn’t make for a smart business partner.
With the clock ticking at an alarming rate now, we packed up our things and left Kansas City within twenty minutes of receiving Nyx’s phone call. We didn’t even bother wiping down our room—and Alex always made it a point to wipe down the furniture four to five times, ensuring that we never left a fingerprint behind. It was a precaution he liked to take, but now, time was an issue, and that made even the smallest of habits slip through the cracks.
I was uneasy. Alex pretended to be unfazed.
“It’s a minor setback, but not the end of the world, kid,” he said, waving off all my concerns, and then kissed me to assure my compliance.
It worked like a push of morphine in the veins, all worry replaced with a relaxing calm.
Saint Louis was a three and half hour drive from Kansas City, and Alex spent one hundred and ten minutes in the backseat of a Ford Escort formulating a contingency plan. He sat quietly for most of the drive with his hand on my knee and eyes out the window. Alex had his process, and by the time we entered the city limits, he would have a way to get us into that mansion. Even if that meant sticking a gun in someone’s face and threatening them into silence.
Brutality was his reality, and the hustler with a finger on the trigger was mine.
“Nyx says their plane lands in an hour,” Alex said, glancing up from his phone and over at me. “Ten minutes.”
That was all he needed to say.
Tick, tock, tick-fucking-tock.
It was midday, and we were weaving through hectic traffic in the middle of downtown Saint Louis. The rain poured down with a vengeance; pieces of pebble-sized hail pelted the windshield, making visibility impossible. The weather was unusual for Missouri in June, and some DJ on the radio described this summer as a Bipolar ex-girlfriend.
“Adriana and I will circle the block a few times, but if you’re not out by...” Peter checked his watch, “...one-thirty, we’re gone.”
Alex leaned forward and patted him on the back. “You do what you have to do. If my girl and I aren’t out by then, go back to the hotel and destroy everything.”
“Everything?” Peter turned and raised his eyebrow, surprised by the instructions.
“Everything.” Alex sat back. “I don’t want you guys getting caught with anything that ties you to us.”
“Then what? Do we stay? Do we go?” Peter asked.
“You run. Get as far away from us as you can. When the shit hits the fan, I don’t want you guys anywhere near the spray. Fucking vanish into thin air, you hear me?”
Peter’s responding smile was weak and unconvincing, the direness of the situation shining through and weighing heavily on his shoulders.
He didn’t want to desert us but knew that he had to protect Adriana.
That uneasiness in my stomach returned, and I frowned. “Are you expecting that we’re going to get caught?”
“Fuck no! We’re smarter than that.” Alex raised his hips and pulled out the Colt, checking the magazine. I watched his lips as they moved and counted all eleven bullets, plus the one in the chamber. “But it would be stupid not to plan for failure.”
I nodded, but the reflective surface of the gun caught my eye. It evoked this tingling and throbbing sensation of need down below, owning me. I crossed my legs to smother the fire.
It didn’t work.
Alex, always aware of me, knew exactly where my mind and body had ventured off to, seizing the opportunity and raising the ante.
Sliding over in the seat, he took the gun and wedged the muzzle in between my clenched thighs, trying to pry them apart.
I gulped and held my breath, wanting to give into him but knowing where it would lead us.
“Alex,” I hissed, grabbing the barrel of the Colt, and shoving it back towards him. “Stop it!”
“Sssssh.” He mouthed, motioning his head towards Peter and Adriana.
“No!” I mouthed back.
Gripping me by the nape of my neck, he leaned down and whispered these bad and spine-tingling words into my ear, “Let me play.”
The devil was hard to resist when his argument was that convincing.
“Fine,” I said, closing my eyes, and giving into temptation.
Smiling against my neck, he trailed the gun on my leg, slowly edged it back up to the apex of my thighs. I stiffened, relaxing again when he applied more pressure and irresistible friction, rubbing me in circular motions. He was bringing me closer to the edge, and I clawed at his jeans, needing to transfer the energy.
“Bite your lip,” Alex said, sucking my earlobe into his mouth.
And I did, teeth biting down hard in frustration.
“So, Alexander...”
“Yeah!” He snapped to attention, removing his lips from my ear and the gun from between my legs, but his eyes were wide and guilt-ridden.
The car stopped and pulled up to the curb, Peter was shaking his head in the rearview mirror, and Adriana was holding back her laughter.
Yes, poor innocent people caught us in the act, yet again.
It was beyond mortifying.
“Unbelievable,” I muttered, hiding my blush behind my hands.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Adriana said, but I could hear the snicker in her voice. “I’ll…you know what, never mind.”
I wanted to die.
“Oh, no,” Alex said, thoroughly amused by our predicament. “It’s too fucking late now, you might as well ask.”
She laughed. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I was curious about what you would like us to do about Sawyer and Len.”
“Oh, man. I forgot about those assholes. Can you text them for me and let them know that shit went astray and to get the fuck out of the country as soon as possible?”
“Absolutely, my dear Alexander.” There was something about the way she spoke to him that made me take notice. Peering through my parted fingers, I watched her lean over the seat and grasp hold of his hand, giving it a soft stroke and a gentle squeeze. “We’re family.”
It was instant.
The unyielding and powerful ping of jealousy shot through me, pumping, and pulsating in my veins. I felt it deep in my bones. A prickly and uncomfortable sensation that irritated my skin, manifesting into unexpected violence towards this woman, who continued to touch my Alex.
Mine!
My eyes narrowed with hatred and burrowed an expansive hole into her skull with my imagination. I relished in the vision of cutting out my problem with one squeeze of the trigger.
Caressing.
Smiling.
Muscles strained past comfort as the seconds ticked by slowly. I waited for Adriana to remove her hand before I acted on my murderous thoughts, but even still…
Embracing.
Laughing.
My fingers twitched and yearned for a solution, the persistent voice in my head got louder and more enraged.
Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.
That loathing deep inside of me burned and burned until I couldn’t fucking take it anymore.
I snapped. “Why don’t you take your God damn—"
“Ah, fuck!” Alex interrupted me, clasping a firm hold of my sweater’s sleeve and dragging me across the seat. I was still telling Adriana where she could put her stupid hand when he flung me out of the car, like a rag doll, and into the frigid, soaking weather.
“Let go of me!” I struggled, trying to break free, but ended up face first into Alex’s awaiting chest, buried deep in a mixture of leather and cotton. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me still. I felt comforted by his emanating heat, and he smelled so fucking good, but it was a ploy to keep me in line.
The rain had eased up, a sprinkling of wa
ter now, more like a mist, that came down from the Heavens.
“One-thirty,” Alex said to Peter, kicking the car door closed with his foot.
I pulled away, and in return, he pulled me back in.
“Don’t get sidetracked” Peter warned.
“We’re good, aren’t we, baby?” Alex asked, leaning away, and looking down at me.
He wanted our audience gone.
I smiled tightly. “Of course.”
Peter repeated. “One-thirty.”
“Yup,” Alex said, pounding his fist on the roof. “Get the fuck out of here.”
Peter rolled up his window and eased the car back on the road. I watched the red tail lights until they were nothing but a blur in the distance.
“God damn it, Mad!”
I jumped, slightly startled by the sudden anger in his voice. I shot my head up, and he was staring down at me, eyes narrowed into thin slits and full of contempt.
Yeeeeah, he’s pissed.
“What?!”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” I said, playing innocent.
“Nothing?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you. I overreacted.”
“You overreacted? Jesus, you were going to fucking kill…” He stopped himself short and tugged on my coat. “You know what, we don’t have time for this fucking shit. Come on.”
He kept a grip on me as we hurried through the busy street, but the rain had picked up again, pouring down sideways, and flooding the roads within a second flat. Drenched from head to toe, the uncomfortable feeling of freezing feet and the smell of wet dog, fueled my anger, and I refused to let him avoid shit.
“No, I want to hear it.” I yanked my arm away. “Fucking say it, Alex! Don’t be a coward.”
His eyes bugged out of his head, and as expected, he snapped. “Okay, fine, tough guy. You drive me up the fucking wall. You’re such a God damned lunatic! I can’t keep up with you and your crazy-ass moods, all right? Are you fucking happy now?”
I glared and shoved him with as much force as I could muster. “No, I’m not happy—and I’m not crazy!”
“Oh, no, baby. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re off the charts insane. You’re fucking certifiable.” He stared at me with unapologetic eyes, meaning every word.
“Then why are you with me?” I smacked him hard on the chest. “If I’m such a problem?”
“Fucking beats me, kid. I must be a glutton for punishment,” he said, glancing away from me. “I can’t win.”
Then, like a ton of bricks, it hit me, and it all made sense. The way she touched him, so intimate and familiar, like a past lover would do. There was more to him and Adriana than he was letting on.
It was a leap, a large one that I took, but my emotions ran with it.
“Did you fuck her?” I blurted out.
Images of blonde hair flowing over Alex’s face as he gripped her waist and thrust his pelvis upwards. Forceful and deep, causing her eyes to close as the sensations overwhelmed her until she exploded.
It crippled me under its weight.
He spun back to face me. “What?”
“You and Adriana,” I said, my heart breaking with every word.
“I can’t fucking believe this shit.”
“That’s why you’re mad at me, right? You didn’t want me to offend your fucking girlfriend.”
The pain of Alex being with another woman, even if it was before me, was unbearable. It swallowed me whole and pulled me down into a dark abyss. It was all I could think about now.
Even if I didn’t like the answer, I had to know the truth.
“Did you?” I asked, lower than a whisper.
But somehow through the noise of people and passing cars, Alex heard me.
“Did I what?”
“Did you...you and Adriana? I mean...” I closed my eyes and spoke fast. “Did you sleep with her?”
“Don’t be fucking absurd.”
Absurd...?
That word tasted like poison in my mouth, and I spat it back out. “Absurd?!”
“Yes, baby, the fucking idea is absurd.”
That was all it took, the roundabouts and non-denial denials, and I was fuming again.
“Damn it, Alex, why can’t you give me a straight answer? Tell me, did you fuck her or not?”
“Pain in the ass woman!” He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the street and into a side alley.
It was dark and secluded, and I was about to open my mouth when he placed his hand on my chest and pushed me back against the brick wall. It knocked the wind out of me, but he dismissed my discomfort by adding more pressure to my sternum, keeping me still and compliant.
He leaned forward and spoke in a low growl, “No, I didn’t fuck her. You got that? There is nothing between Adriana and me, there never was. Do you believe me?”
“I believe you.”
“Jesus, kid.” He sighed, resting his forehead against mine. “How you got that idea in your head in the first place is beyond me. I thought you knew how I feel about you.”
“Because of the way she touched you...” My voice faltered.
Alex was mine. He had always been mine. No woman could ever change that. Replaying everything in my head, I saw things more clearly, and it wasn’t an intimate stroke of the hand, more like a friendly pat.
I was losing my grasp on my anger and conviction. “But why did you drag me out of the car?”
“I was protecting her from you,” he said, gently sliding the back of his hand across my cheek.
Tilting my head up, I met his gaze. “Me? But I wasn’t going to do anything to her.”
He smirked. “No, I’m pretty fucking sure you would have.”
There was no sense in denying the obvious. It was clear as day, I wanted to crush every bone in Adriana’s hand for touching what was mine, but that was the extent of it. I would have never acted on my blind rage.
“Okay, fine, you win,” I said, slouching in defeat. “I was out of line for going off on her, and I will apologize for my behavior, but you didn’t have to drag me out of the car like that. You took an uncomfortable situation and made it worse.”
Alex’s eyes widened, and he gestured at himself with his thumb. “I made it worse?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, it wasn’t like I was going to kill her.”
He laughed. “Oh, I beg to fucking differ.”
“What?”
“Baby, you reached for your gun.”
“No, I didn’t!” It was an instant response, but I wasn’t all that convinced.
My mind was racing, and I remembered the feelings of jealousy and rage vividly, but nothing beyond that.
“Yeah, you fucking did, and if I hadn’t taken you out of the car when I did, well...” He trailed off and shrugged, leading me to the only conclusion.
My fingers were twitching and eager for a solution.
“I would have killed her.”
“And then I would have had to kill Peter,” he said with a flippant attitude that surprised me. “What? I’m not going just to sit there and watch him kill you.”
The cascade of catastrophes that might have occurred because of one pull of a trigger was massive; how close to the edge we both were daily because of my constant immaturity and gut reaction.
“Oh, my God!” I threw my arms around his neck and yanked him down into a hug. “I’m sorry—for everything…” I pulled back. “But how did you know what I was going to do?”
“I saw it in your eyes, kid. That look I’ve seen too many times in my own.” He noticed my confusion and smiled with love. “Don’t you see what we are?”
I shook my head.
“We are two people who will do whatever is necessary to secure what is ours—even if that means killing off the threat. I don’t know why. It’s just the way we’re wired. It’s territorial and more like a…”
“A killer’s instinct,” I whispered.
The word ‘killers’ coming from his mouth did something to me that I couldn’t begin to describe with a scholar’s vocabulary. Alex lit the spark of my soul and waved the flames into a towering inferno.
I burned for him.
Clawing at the lapel of his leather jacket, I was needy and desperate to have him close. “Come here.”
Alex smiled, enjoying the power he had over me, and lowered his lips, grazing them against mine. Their proximity was fucking maddening. I lost all control.
Grabbing him by the back of the neck, I yanked him down and kissed him.
He responded, thrusting his hips into mine, and forced me back into the wall. Alex’s hands were on my waist, moving upwards with a firm touch, and slipping underneath my sweater. The cold breeze followed, chilling and puckering my skin. I shifted into him, seeking his warmth, and he pressed his chest into me, closing the gap.
Palming my breasts, he rolled his thumbs over the hardened nipples and squeezed them. It hurt, and I winced, but the taste and feel of his tongue on mine canceled out the pain.
My fingers were unbuckling his belt when he jerked his head back and broke away from our kiss.
“Fuck,” he cursed, reaching into his pocket, and pulling out his phone. “What?!”
The man on the other side of the line was speaking low, and I could only catch bits and pieces.
Alex groaned. “Are you serious…I know, I know…Fuck! Okay, I’ll meet you where you dropped us off…Yeah, we didn’t get very far.” He laughed. “I’m working on it.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“That was Peter.” He pocketed his phone. “We forgot the fucking bag.”
“The bag full of drugs? The same bag we need to frame the senator?”
I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry.
“Yup,” he said, peeling away a wet strand of hair from my cheek. “Do you realize how dangerous we are together?”