I chuckle, and she looks on the verge of bawling. “Wrong answer,” I tell her. “Try again.”
“Dorran, please…”
“Tellme, Nicole, and I’ll let you go. I promise.”
She blinks at me, and a few tears slide down her face, smearing her eyeliner as they go. “I–I swear he’s not–”
I slap the front of the table so hard, it makes her yelp, and for the table itself to rattle, resulting in the contents it held to crash against the tiled floor.
“Don’t fuck with me,” I sneer at her. “Tell me where Gavin is – right fuckingnow.”
She shakes her head, and that does it; that breaks my resolve of keeping my shit together.
I fist her hair and slam the side of her face against the embossed wall behind her, and when she screams, I press harder. “Now, have you decided to stop bullshitting me, or should I keep going?”
The door to one of the private rooms slams open, and a second later, Gavin walks out. His hair’s tied above his head, and he’s wearing a black apron over his blue jeans and t-shirt. He’s also got rubber gloves on, which means he was probably getting ready for a client, and that someone could walk into the shop at any time now.
“What the fuck is happening here, Nicole?” he asks, then comes to a stop when he sees the crew and I. “Dorran,” he addresses me with an icy glare, then glances at the hold I have on Nicole’s hair. “Let her go.”
I grin and pull back my hand, then turn and fold my arms across my chest.
“Hey, Gav,” I quip.
He snorts, seeming irritated. “I don’t know why I’m surprised to see you here, but I kinda am.”
I can’t help but laugh at that comment. “Did you really think your littlechumscould scare me away?” I click my tongue. “They weren’t even a properchallenge, man.”
His face tightens, and his nostrils flare. “You killed innocent people last night, Dorran. Doesn’t that fucking bother you atall?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it,” I say in honest indifference, then take a step forward, bringing myself a bit closer to Gavin. “Besides, they wanted my Cignette – todeliverher to you. I couldn’t possibly let that happen, could I?”
“You don’t deserve her,” he hisses at me.
“And I’m presumingyoudo?”
His chest rises and falls unsteadily as he stares at me. “She means a lot to me. I wanted to change for her; be someone she needs. But thenyoucame along.”
“Are you saying you know exactly what Cignette needs, Gavin?” I chuckle. “Seriously, dude, have you figured her out so easily – just by fucking her a few times?” The last 6 words taste acidic in my mouth, but they are, unfortunately, also true.
“Well, she doesn’t need a goddamn murderer in her life, that’s for sure.”
“Gavin…” comes Nicole’s weak voice, and it’s clear that she’s shocked by what he’s saying. I’m not, though, because I know how men like him are: unreliable, untrustworthy.
Fucking absolute pieces of shit.
The shop’s doors open, making me look over my shoulder. Two girls – laughing among themselves whilst holding hands – start walking in, but one look at me, and they stop.
“Leave,” I tell them, and that simple word triggers their senses, because they practically rush away from the shop and into the street opposite ours.
With a roll of my eyes, I face Gavin again. “So, where were we?”
He looks unsettled by the absence of seriousness in my tone. “You’re only playing with her, aren’t you?” he says to me. “You think you’re so cool – toying with her like she’s a fucking puppet or something. You don’t care about her. Hell, you don’t care about anything butyourself.”
“You assume too much,” I tell him. “What I feel for her, you never fucking can. And you know why?” I tilt my head a little. “Because what Cignette and I have is bound by blood – of our pasts, of our hardships, and of our will for survival. We’re both volatile in our own ways, but we stabilize each other when we’re together. And that, Gavin, is something you never can, or will, have.”
I realize after saying all that, that my throat has closed up. My chest is warm, and my head’s a bit heavy. Maybe it’s the weight of the things I’ve just confessed, or maybe it’s the truth in them that’s making it hard for me to breathe, but either way, I love it; I love how I feel right now.
“Fuck you, Dorran,” Gavin spits out, because he can’t counter what I’ve said with anything remotely as meaningful.
