“My father will get what’s coming to him,” I tell her, my voice void of all emotion. I dismiss the drink she offers me, and she barely flinches when she slams them both as if they were shots.
“Are you going back to Mexico?”
“Yes,” I smile slightly. The only consolation I got for helping tonight was the ability to return to Talúm. Evita looks down at the floor and I can see the way her body shuts down. In just the few short days since my father sent that picture, Raz showed his true colors to Evita. I explained to her what I knew, what happened, and what I had to do. “I’ll get him someday, Evi,” I tell her softly, but she hears me.
Our eyes meet and she nods. “Any chance you can take a stowaway with you?”
I give her a tight smile and nod my head, yes. As I do, my new target for my pet project walks in. His eyes glance over the crowd and I make sure he can see my interest.
“Tomorrow at the private air strip outside of LAX,” I tell Evi, standing from my stool, “I’ll meet you there.”
Whatever she sees in my eyes, she doesn’t comment, and she doesn’t have to. I know I look soulless. Heartless. I’m tired of being hunted and then fed to the wolves when I don’t jump high enough. My father is dead to me. Raul is just another problem I need to take care of. After I make sure I’m safe and take care of what I need to, I’ll start planning for his demise.
I approach the man, Paul, don’t care about his last name, from across the room, and somehow, I manage not to cringe when his eyes run all over my body, undressing me completely. I fight the urge not to throat punch him, and instead, offer to buy him a drink. Thirty minutes later, he’s eating out the palm of my hand, ready to leave with me back to my motel room. I signal Luis, who raises his brow at me. I’m not one who usually takes a random man home, or even dates in front of my security. I give Luis a look that dares him to defy me. Like the good little sheep he is, he returns to the front of the car and drives me and my target back to the motel. “Come get me in an hour,” I tell Luis, who nods, even though he looks confused as hell.
With the clock ticking, I manage to lead Paul to the room. I kiss him hard, punishing him for being the one I have to do this with. Punishing myself for letting my father win. I strip down, and for once in my life, I let a disgusting man touch me, while I convince him to get himself off. I whisper dirty things to him. I like to watch. I want to pretend it’s my lips and not his hands. I want him to imagine it’s me. The fucker eats it up, his eyes get hooded, and before I know it, he shoots his cum all over his hand.
“Disgusting, Paul,” I whisper in his ear, before stepping out of his reach. His eyes bulge, and his face turns red. I know he’s about to curse at me and that’s something that can’t be heard. Before he can react, my hand swipes out, slicing my dagger across his jugular. His face contorts in surprise, his hand coming up to grip his neck. Not that it will do much. Blood squirts all over and eventually, he slumps to the side, falling face first into his own pool of blood. I step back and grab my phone. I pull up my notes and find Paul’s file.
Robbery with assault
Domestic strangulation
First degree sexual assault.
I hit delete and wipe his existence off my phone, just like I took him off the face of the earth. He served a purpose and now I’ve avenged his many victims. I shake the leftover adrenaline out of my muscles, cranking my neck left to right. I glance at my phone and see I have another twenty minutes until Luis should arrive. I pull out my phone and check Twitter. Sure enough #FreeTrentNichols is trending. My lips twitch. Finally, someone can see through the bullshit set-up job I did. I blow out my breath, praying this is all worth it. Luis honks once when he arrives. With one more glance at Paul, I throw my hair upside down and create a messy look, pinching the skin between my neck and shoulder to create a red mark, before heading out the door.
“Drive,” I tell Luis the minute I slip in.
“Do you need me to take care of it?”
“Am I an amateur?” I lift my brow at him in the review mirror. His gaze slides away from mine. “Being gone almost a year doesn’t mean I forgot. He’s taken care of and so is the footage.”
Luis nods and doesn’t ask any more questions. At my request, he turns the radio on and I immediately regret it when Sam Smith’s “How Do You Sleep?” plays through the car’s speakers. The whole day crashes into me after hearing the first verse. By the chorus, I’m internally a mess. My eyes close, while we drive out of the downtown area. I hope that wherever Trent is, he can forgive me someday.
Now…
Trent
This night is spiraling faster than I thought it would. I wasn’t overly thrilled to begin with when Jay and I made the plans, but now that I’m here, it sucks even more. It’s been a week since Scarlet sat in our secret precinct and recapped her messed-up childhood, went into gritty detail about the day she fucked my life over, and then kept going to fill in every blank space about what she’s been doing since then. When the lights flickered back on, I couldn’t face her. Not because hearing it all again brought up the old pain and anger, but for a small, microscopically small, moment, I understood why. I peeked at the girl from my past and not the woman in the room, spilling every calculating, messy, and gory detail about how she rose to the top. She pulled so much shit off in the past six years, it was no wonder her father had to make her, Queen. If I didn’t hate the man before, I definitely did now. I have never, and I will never, understand parents who hurt their children.
The collar on my all-black suit feels tight and I roll my shoulders again for the hundredth time since I put it on. I’m not happy being here tonight, having to parade around as Scarlet’s bodyguard, chauffer, or whatever else she needs for the night. The fact that Jay approved it, makes me even more irritated. It’s like he’s purposely trying to piss me off by forcing us together. I know his eyes are on the room, and I’m very tempted to flip him the middle finger, even though it could possibly mean tipping off every crime lord and lackey in this place that their little soiree has been infiltrated.
I stand guard by the door she’ll make her appearance through. Everyone here tonight was called for the same reason; the queen has called them. I didn’t understand before how power switched hands from Raul to Scarlet but now I do. After all, the woman who took down Razelle Javad should be feared. When found, his body was strung upside down, spread eagle, blood and his insides hanging out, and missing the head. He was identified by fingerprints alone. It is still unknown where his two closest friends and business partners are, as they went missing several weeks after the Javad family reported Razelle gone. In his death, Razelle’s business was exposed and dismantled. I used to think it was an act of God that Razelle’s evilness just wouldn’t be tolerated, now to have Scarlet’s confession that she is responsible, is earth shattering. My head keeps reminding me of the evil she is capable of while my gut keeps trying to shove the truths and misconceptions in front of my eyes. All the back and forth is starting to create a dull ache behind my eyes, just further adding to the irritation I feel.
I’m about to knock again on the door behind me, when I feel it. The change in the atmosphere is so poignant that it causes the hair on my neck to stand on end. Eyes fall in my direction, but I know they aren’t looking at me. In a room full of powerful men, Scarlet steps into the open space, commanding attention in a way I’ve never seen. Men’s heads incline in her direction, a bow of sorts, showing their respect. There are only two other women in attendance tonight, both of whom are the wives of other men in attendance, and even they look at Scarlet with admiration and wonder.