I’m used to being the miserable one in the room. She shouldn’t be. She looks prettier when she smiles. Even with a black eye.
“Do you have to work tomorrow?” I ask her.
“Yes, I have a job in Norristown. I should be finished by five, right, Ruby?”
It figures that Ruby has been eavesdropping the entire time. She seems the type. She didn’t like the looks of me the moment I stepped into her house, and she definitely didn’t like when things got a little heated between me and Karma earlier.
“More like six,” she answers out loud from a room adjacent to the one we’re sitting in.
My throat feels like I’ve swallowed shards of glass, and I can feel the darkness of the chronic pain I live with on a daily basis enveloping me. I need to get out of here and into a bottle of whiskey and some random pussy soon.
“Text me his number and anything else you might remember, and I should have a little more intel for you by the time you get off work tomorrow.”
“Okay, thank you.”
When Karma stands to escort me out of the house, I have to keep my eyes focused on the slats of the wood floors underneath my feet and not on her.
She’s small and tight in all the right places, and full and jiggly in all the other ones. Whoever gave her that black eye should be put underneath the jail, because the man who put a mark on a woman who looks like this is a fucking war criminal.
She stands in the doorway watching me intently as I climb into my silver grey Mercedes G-Wagon. I stare at the pair of miniature leather boxing gloves which hang from my rearview window. They were a gift from my Mother when my father bought me this truck, and they remind me of the old days (before my abduction) when I used to train at my local gym to keep in shape.
Of course, there’s always intention behind anything my Mother does for me and my brothers, and this trinket is to serve a much higher purpose than to be ornamental. She gave them to me after what happened to remind me that even in my darkest moments to always keep fighting, because there was a moment in my recovery when she probably feared that I didn’t want to go on.
And there were some moments that I feared she was right.
I look over at the house again and notice that Karma is still standing in the doorway, waiting for me to drive off. Her expressive eyes look tense as she shifts her weight from one foot to the other. It’s as if she’s placing an all-or-nothing bet on me doing for her what I promised. That look on her face serves as a living, breathing caution sign; warning me to stay away.
I don’t do needy, clingy or greedy humans.
It’s a mantra that I’ve been repeating to myself for six years now, and while it may be a principle I live by, so that I keep everyone at a distance, there’s a reason for that.
I am broken.
I am unfixable.
I am not someone that anyone should ever depend on.
You don’t do needy, clingy or greedy humans, Bronx. So, what the hell are you doing with this one?
You’re going to break her.
The small leather gloves in my window sway lightly as I start the ignition and pull out of my parking spot. They remind me of exactly what the original intent was–to keep fighting.
What are the chances that this particular woman would come looking for me? Is this a sign? Has fate handed me a gift of justice on a silver platter?
So what, she’s an innocent.
Are there truly any innocent people in this world?
Helping this girl find her brother can lead me to the only person I have left to hold accountable for blowing my life to bits. Plus, he’s also the only person who can lead me to the more important entity who hired him. My family already knows that my kidnapping had something to do with the Consortium crime organization, but who gave the order? Can this Lev person give us a name?
Because not only do I want to serve Lev my brand of Masterson justice, but I also want to bury whoever was behind this twisted plot straight into the fucking ground. Fuck a yoga retreat by the beach or drinking myself into a stupor every night. Revenge might be the exact balm I need to heal my festering soul.
And if his sister ends up being collateral damage.
Then so be it.
He made me the monster I am today.
