by Bex Dane
"What can I do for you?" he asks me.
"I was hoping that, ya know, the issue we discussed last time, we could talk about it again." Of course I have no idea what I asked him last time, so I don't want to be too specific.
He scuffs awkwardly. "You'd like to talk about Arthur Morganna?"
Shoot. I should've figured that based on what Helix told me. Now I've gone and asked him about a man who died since the last time I saw him.
I'm stumbling through trying to say something to salvage the conversation, but Mace butts in. "No. Actually, I wanted to ask you about Giselle. You seen her?"
"Giselle?"
What the heck? Mace just threw a curveball at both of us. Why didn't he tell me he was going to ask about Giselle?
"I heard she's out of the country. Mourning for Arthur." Diablo's voice shakes, and his hand reaches into his jacket pocket. I tense, preparing for him to draw a gun, but Mace stays calm.
He leans in and puts his forearm on Diablo's desk. "Well you'll be sure to tell her Volcano's looking for her. All right?"
Oh shoot. That's clearly a threat. I was hoping to keep this friendly with Diablo and get on his good side, not goad him into a fight.
Diablo partially stands and his eyes jitter. Mace spooked him. "I might have her number. Let me go look in my car." He straightens and reaches for the back door.
Mace stands too. "Where you going, Diablo? You're not skipping out on us. Are you?" He steps around the desk and his hands come out like he's about to swipe at Diablo.
Diablo races out the back door, and Mace juts out after him. I'm following behind when I see a puff of white smoke hit Mace's face. He doubles over with his eyes closed tight. "Ah, shit."
"What is that?"
"It burns like hell. Let's chase him."
"What? But your eyes."
"I'll be okay." He swipes at his eyes with his sleeve. "You drive." He throws me the keys. "Follow him or we'll never see him again."
"All right. Get in."
Mace walks with hunched shoulders to the passenger seat. "Goddamn mutherfucker."
"We should take care of you first."
"Follow him!"
A black Mercedes tears out of the alley, and I'm sure that's him. My Maserati can catch up to him, no problem. "Here." I throw a water bottle at Mace and ram the car into gear. The wheels squeal, the exhaust roars, and we're at sixty miles per hour in less than three seconds.
I catch up to the Mercedes two blocks down the street. Mace is splashing the water on his face and squinting through the windshield to try to see what's happening.
The Mercedes turns right going the wrong way down a one-way street. I slam on the breaks.
"Why'd you stop?"
"It's a one-way street."
"So? Go!"
"I can't go the wrong way down a one-way street!"
"Yes you fucking can. Follow him."
As much as I want to, I can't. My feet and hands will not let me drive this car the wrong way down a one-way street. We peel out and blaze down to the next block. "We'll get him down here."
"No you won't. He's long gone."
Mace is right. There's no sign of Diablo's Mercedes. We lost him. I pull over into the bike lane and park the car. The adrenaline that was coursing through me suddenly starts boiling. I am literally on fire like Diablo threw cocaine at me instead of Mace. My fingernails dig into the leather of the steering wheel. I check the car again to make sure I'm in park on the side of the road and then close my eyes.
Like someone smacked me with a club, my memories come flooding back. The one-way street sign. I've seen it before. I've gone the wrong way down that street before, but I wasn't driving. Diablo was.
"Oh my God."
"What?" Mace rips his shirt off and wipes his face with a clean part of it.
I want to help him, but my mind is in freefall.
Images on a white screen flash through my head so fast, I only catch parts of scenes. But I know in my heart it was real. I can feel everything that happened before and after even if I can't see it.
Diablo kidnapped me. We drove the wrong way down that same street. Fast. I was terrified. He told me everything as I sat in the backseat of the same Mercedes we were just following. My hands were bound. He knew my dad. I was asking too many questions. Arthur Morganna had a job for me. He said I was lucky to get to work for Morganna instead of getting killed.
"Lola, tell me what's going on."
I hide my face in my hands, but it won't stop the deluge. I can't talk. The fear is paralyzing me. I'm feeling it all again like it's happening now. He grabbed me from behind. I fought. He punched me and subdued my hands and legs. He threatened to kill me as he threw me in the car. He drove us to the harbor. He said he was sorry for what happened to my dad. He said I'd like it at Morganna's island.
"A boat." I manage to mumble out the two words.
"What boat?"
"He kidnapped me. Took me to his boat. We sailed to Morganna's island and oh my God. No!"
"You're remembering?"
"It's playing like a movie on a white screen. I can see it. I can feel it all again. I was terrified. Diablo was fronting as friendly, but his words were deadly."
"You remember the island?" Mace's voice is high and fast too. We're both excited and running on pure adrenaline.
"Yes! I remember Giselle. She was there. She welcomed me. Introduced me to Arthur with a smile. Said they were happy to see me. Acted like it was normal. God. I was so confused and scared."
"Did he hurt you?" he asks, deep and serious.
I shake my head. "Giselle shot a needle in my arm. I was euphoric. It felt so good. Oh my God. I did drugs and I liked it. But then it all got dark. I was in a room. They were gone. I felt like death. Giselle offered me more. I tried to say no, but she said it would make me feel better. They forced me to take the drugs. Then I woke up in the hospital."
When I look up, he's squinting at me, and his face is burning red like he's on fire. I need to get it together for him. My hands are shaking, but he needs me right now.
"I'm so sorry. Hold on. I'll take you somewhere to rinse that stuff off your face." I slam the car into gear and race through the streets to the first gas station I can find. I pull up to the air and water pumps and run around to Mace's side. Without thinking, I drop a quarter in the machine and open his door.
"Stop!" He holds his hands out, but it's too late. I already have the water hose in my hand.
I squeeze the water into his face and it dribbles down his chest. He shakes his head and closes his eyes. "Stop!" He swipes a long arm out and knocks the water hose out of my hand.
"I'm so sorry. I'm freaking out. Are you okay? I can't think straight. You need water on it."
"No more water."
"It's bleeding!" Red blotches fill the whites of his eyes like he's a demon possessed. I'm breathing so fast I think my heart is going to burst out of my chest. "We need to get you to a hospital."
"No. Just take me home. It's not bleeding."
Home. Mace's home. Twist Cabins. They hate me. "I can't do that."
"I'm fine. Get back in the car and take me up to Boulder Creek."
The last place in the world I want to go is Twist Cabins, but Mace helped me when I needed it, and it would be horrible of me to abandon him now. Maybe I could drop him off without being seen, but I really don't want to leave him like this. I don't know. My mind is racing.
He slumps in the passenger seat as I start the car again. He leans his chair back and covers his eyes with his forearm. "Mutherfucker threw cocaine in my face. Coward."
"I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to get hurt."
"Not your fault."
We sit in silent shock as I drive us to the highway as fast as I can without getting arrested.
Once we're headed south, he says, "You remember?"
I do and it's monumental, but I'm more worried about him. "How are your eyes?"
"The burning stopped. It's numb now. Tell me w
hat you remember."
"I remember meeting with Helix about the missing girl. Her name is Hannah Clark. I wanted to talk with Morganna, but Helix said no. He said I could meet with Diablo instead and set it up. He kidnapped me. Was Helix in on it?"
"If he was, he's going to have an unpleasant run in with Volcano. Helix has been a friend of mine for a long time, but there's no trust amongst thieves. If he did this to you, I'll kill him."
"I don't know. I didn't get the sense he was in on it."
I'm trying to remember details from that night. Mace doing a striptease is not in my memory movie. "You didn't dance with me at Dragon Lounge the first time, did you?"
"Nope. Spur of the moment thing. I went off script. It happens."
I remember the wind on my face as I cried to my dad. "Then I went to talk to my dad on the bluffs. You followed me?"
"Yeah. You didn't seem like you were up to any trouble, so I left you there. Big mistake."
"I met with Diablo and he kidnapped me. Jeez. How could I forget that?"
"Your brain blocked it. Trauma."
"I guess so. God, the drugs were the worst. I felt like I was crawling out of my skin."
He nods and rubs his eyes.
"Do you feel high from the cocaine in your eye?"
"No." He chuckles.
We're quiet for a while, and I turn the radio on. He reaches out and starts messing with the buttons, not settling on any one song.
"When we get home, you'll stay for your safety. Diablo will be after you."
His announcement drops like a boulder in my gut. "I can't stay at Twist Cabins. I'll find someplace else."
"You will stay with me in my cabin. You're not going anywhere alone. Not anymore."
It's nice of him to act like he cares about me, but we both know the truth. I'm not welcome at his family's refuge in the mountains. It's a deeply personal place for them, and they guard it carefully. Mace knows this deep down, and he may have temporarily forgotten, but he hates me for what I did to them. He doesn't even know the worst of it yet. If he finds out, he'll never talk to me again.
Chapter 9 Remy
Mace
The higher we climb in elevation the more confident I feel about my decision to bring her here. She'll be safe, and I'll have time to recover before we face Diablo together.
Lola, however, is white knuckling the steering wheel the closer we get to Twist Cabins. She pulls into the gravel parking lot and sighs. "We're here."
I reach for the door handle, but she doesn't move.
"I'll just stay here in the car."
"No you won't." My vision is still blurry, but I can see her face crumble when she looks at my eyes.
"Is it that bad?" I ask her.
"It's really red. I'm so torn. I want to help you with your eyes, but I can't face them. I just can't."
Looking up the hill, I don't see anyone outside, but my vision is compromised. "We go straight to my cabin. No one sees you, and they won't even know you're here."
She shakes her head, and her hands fall from the wheel. "I don't belong here."
"Listen." I lean over the console and bring a hand up to her cheek. "I want you to be with me right now. I need to recover, and I want you there. We'll deal with anything else later."
She blushes and looks down. Is it so hard for her to believe I want her around after all we've been through? "Okay."
I grin and we get out of the car. Luckily, we make it to my cabin unseen. My bed never looked so inviting before, and I plop down on my back.
"Can I get you some ice? A compress?" She stands next to the bed with a worried look on her face.
"Nah. It just needs time."
"I think we should rinse it out again so it doesn't get infected."
She's right. Good idea. I get up and run my eyes under the sink. The numbness is wearing off, and blood covers most of the white part of my right eye. My left eye was barely hurt. "It looks worse than it feels."
She stands behind me looking at my eyes in the mirror. "It looks like crap. Do you have any eye drops?"
"No. Nothing. My mom might have something."
She stiffens and backs up. "I can go hide if you want your mom to come look at it."
"You don't need to hide. Especially from my mom. She's the kindest soul you've ever met. She was offering to drive up and take care of you when you were in the hospital."
"Oh. Wow. That's nice of her."
"I can't promise my brothers will be so forgiving, but my mom? No worries." I plop down on the bed again, and she sits next to me.
I take her hand in mine. "I'm glad you got your memory back."
She looks down and nods. "Not sure it helps the mess I've created."
"We don't know yet how it helps, but at least we know your brain isn't permanently broken. That has to feel good."
She leans over me with one arm propped to my side. "Thank you for helping me get my memory back. You didn't have to."
I lift her chin with my hand. "I wanted to do it. I wanted to help you regain your memory and not just because I felt sorry for you. I wanted you to feel like yourself again, so I can spend some time with you. I like it when you smile."
"Oh."
"Come lie down with me." She stares at my hand patting the bed like I've offered her poison. "You've been through a lot today."
Her brows twist, and her lips mash together like she's pondering the great paradox. On the one hand, she has this big strong warm body to cuddle up to, and she knows she needs it after today. On the other hand, she's still claiming to hate me. "I shouldn't."
"You're as worn out as me. It's just a nap. Nothing more. Don't overthink it."
"You and I are not friends. We can't lie in a bed together."
I have a solution for that. "Remember our deal? I help you get your memory back, you forgive me. Therefore, we are no longer enemies, and you can lay down in my bed with me without guilt."
She exhales and smiles like I've given her permission she needed but couldn't give herself. She climbs in next to me, keeping a modest distance, but I still have her hand and pull her up onto my chest. She tenses but doesn't stop me. "So. Your brain downloaded some brutal stuff on you today."
"Yeah." She settles her head on my pec, and her hand lays flat on my abs. Holding her like this feels nice.
"If you need to talk, I have time." Talking isn't usually my thing, but I like hearing what Loralei has to say.
She relaxes and snuggles closer. "I'm still grappling with it. I'm so worried about your eye."
"I'm gonna be okay. You remembered you were kidnapped and drugged. It's gotta be messing with you."
She nods. "I hate that I fell for it. I should've known better with Diablo. Why didn't I fight harder when Giselle tried to drug me?" Her voice is tight with her frustration.
"Don't blame yourself. Nothing you could've done." I rub her back to offer some support.
"I walked right into it. I should've planned it better. Have someone back me up. I was being overconfident, trying to prove myself."
"Been there. Done that." My hand comes up to caress her hair. It's silky and thick and smells like chocolate.
"I was terrified on the boat to the island. He talked to me in this soothing tone, but the stuff he said was diabolical."
"Like what?"
She props her chin on her hand so she can look up at me. "He said it was a shame what happened to my father. I was shocked he brought it up. What's his connection to my dad? I'll have to research it."
"We can ask Helix, but probably drugs."
"Yeah. In my mind, I keep seeing Diablo smiling and saying I'd love working with Arthur Morganna. No sarcasm either. He truly believed I'd love it. He didn't once consider my choice or decision in the matter. I should've knocked him out, but I didn't make a move. I was in shock, and his cordiality threw me."
"That's okay. He's a master manipulator. Don't feel bad for falling for it."
"We got there, and it was so weird. Like this tropical
island in the middle of nowhere. I met Giselle. She was also nice and disarming. She gave me a drink, introduced me to Arthur, he welcomed me to the island. Then I started to feel dizzy. Last thing I remember she was coming at me with a needle and smiling. I wanted to kick her, but my legs were Jello. God, I was so helpless."
"Again. Not your fault."
"It felt incredible for a split second then I was in so much pain. All my training, my cop instincts were crap. I should've done something to stop it."
"You gotta stop beating yourself up over this. We all make mistakes. I probably shouldn't have chased Diablo."
"You didn't know he had cocaine in his pocket he was going to throw in your eyes. Is it better yet?"
"Still blurry, less burning."
"You should have your mom look at it."
"Nah. I'm okay."
Lying this close with her started out low-key, but now my dick is responding to the soft weight of her breasts pressing on me, the trusting look in her big brown eyes. The urge to fuck her comes back strong, and my hands move of their own will, caressing her back, feeling all the warm curves of her shoulders, waist, and hips. Her body is incredible, but she doesn't flaunt it. She keeps it covered in her demure clothes. Seeing her in that nightie was a rare treat. If she dressed like that all the time, I'd have trouble keeping my hands off her. Hard enough with her fully clothed.
Her shoulders hitch, and her forehead falls to my chest. Oh shit. She's crying. "Hey. It's all right. You're safe now."
"It's not that."
"What then?"
She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For all the pain I caused you and your family. It was childish and spiteful. I forgave you, but can you ever forgive me?"
"I already have. You're forgiven."
She shakes her head. "There's more you don't know."
"I forgive you for that too."
"You don't even know what I did."
She tries to slide away, but my hand on her back pulls her face up close to mine.
"Doesn't matter. I forgive you. No grudges. We are who we are now. The past doesn't matter."
"And who are we now?"
"We're Mace and Loralei. It's that simple."