Theo
“We’re going out.” Under my headphones, I barely made out Mateo’s garbled grumbled, and I glanced up from my phone as he stood up. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and stress lines around his mouth, and my lip twitched faintly. Working my headset off one ear, Sylvie’s bloodcurdling shrieking echoed instead of sweet, sweet silence, and I leaned back to cross my knees.
“If you leave this house, Mateo, I’ll kill her.” My matter-of-fact declaration made Mateo pause, and he scowled darkly at me. Sylvie had been screaming non-stop for, like, seven hours now, but I had noise-canceling headphones.A wondrous investment.“Step one foot outside, and I’ll blow her brains out. You wanted this, didn’t you? So deal with it.”
Truth be told, I didn’twantto kill Sylvie simply because Mateo was a dumb piece of shit. I was sure there were other reasons she deserved all this crap, but I didn’t know about any of that. Illya refused to talk about Sylvie, and I knew the pain and betrayal was still very fresh. Certainly, she didn’t do anything to warrant dying— otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this mess.Plus, I would have to tell Illya, and that could go a few different ways. There was a lot of bitterness.
And why wouldn’t it be? They’d been through a lot together, and Sylvie had ruined it for an insanely stupid reason.
“Soyou’reallowed to leave, and I’m not?” Mateo sounded so infantile at that moment that I snorted a laugh, and his slightly swollen nostrils flared in anger. Standing up leisurely, I blocked out Sylvie’s screaming as I loomed over him, but I knew he couldn’t do the same. Either she’d drive him nuts, or he’d storm out, not thinking I’d do anything about it.
“You want her around, Mateo. This is only the beginning, too. Either get rid of her or suck it up.” Jabbing him in the chest to prove my point, I glared at him from under furrowed brows. “You don’t have the option to run away. Imagine what’ll happen if that baby is born addicted to heroin? Imagine how much it’ll scream, and no one will take care of it but you. Do you want me to get you one of those practice dolls?”
I couldn’t help adding the jibe, and Mateo tensed as fire flickered in his eyes. The blatant, candid truth was that parenthood wasn’t understood from the outside. He seriously thought Sylvie would get better, would be the perfect mom, and he’d have the perfect family. But he was wrong.
“I’m going out.” Arching a brow quizzically at that, I rocked back on my heels and nodded flippantly. If Mateo left, I’d keep my word, and then I’d go hang out with Illya because, unfortunately, her tips hadn’t picked up since Wednesday. Friday and Saturday were her best days, but I wasn’t sure that she was doing too well on that front.
Mateo hadn’t moved from his spot, though, and I rolled my eyes as disgust soured my tongue. Sucking my teeth, I dropped back down into the recliner, but even then, he still seemed small and meek. He’d never suffered any way he didn’t create, and he just stood there, shooting daggers at me with his eyes.
“Sit down and shut up, Mateo. You’re not gonna do shit, and you know it.” Pulling my headphones over my head, I turned my attention back to my phone. The stupid matching game kept me occupied this long, there was no reason it shouldn’t continue. As soon as I looked at the screen, though, my mind started to wander, and Mateo sat on the sofa to hold his head in his hands between his knees.
I’d be laughing my ass off if this wasn’t damn inconvenient.
There were so many other places I’d rather be on a Friday night, like Illya’s club, watching her shake her ass. At the very least, she wouldn’t be able to deny any tips I gave her. I still couldn’t get that notion out of my head. She really ate cat food from a can rather than buy a carrot or something.
Obviously, Illya had done it for a long time and gotten used to it, but . . .
A shiver lodged between my shoulders at the idea of being so damn desperate that Illya ate cat food like it was a bag of chips. She only nibbled at the pizza I’d ordered and said something about saving it, but I refused to bring her to work until she ate at least two slices. That kind of shit, I couldn’t stand it.
Anything I tried to do for her usually backfired, though. I had to be careful about how I brought up things, so she didn’t shoot me down because of cost.
Anything that goes into that can doesn’t come out.Those were her exact words when she pulled out this huge coffee can from under her cot. The top barely fit on because of all the neatly folded bills, but she only put in, never taking out. The role she’d demanded from me had been in there, too, so I couldn’t feel bad about it.
Illya would be the death of me. Of that, I had no doubt at all.
“The Hell is with all the screaming?” The hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the muffled tone, and I tore my gaze away from my phone. Carlyle stood in the entryway, a grumpy, exaggerated expression on his face, and I gestured wordlessly to Mateo as he popped up from the sofa. Carlyle gazed at me steadily, but I kept my expression blank as I turned back to my phone. “You know, I could’ve killed you before you even noticed me, Theo.”
“Go ahead. I fucking want to kill me right now, too.” Out of the corner of my eye, he smirked maliciously, if not grimly, at my grumble. “God damn.”
“What are you doing here, Carlyle? Why didn’t you t— ”
“Why would I warn you and give you time to cover up whatever fuck up you managed this time, Mateo.” Carlyle’s harsh snap whipped over my head, and Mateo tensed as his big brother slammed the door shut. The screaming continued, almost in the background of my mind, like it was on the television or something. “I told you to get rid of that thing, and here you are— disobeying me yet again.”
“C— ” His hand shot up to silence his brother, and Carlyle shot him a frosty glare as I turned off my phone display to watch. Mateo and Carlyle were full-blood brothers, but they obviously took after one parent more than the other. Mateo was tall and lanky, and Carlyle was built like me— broad, muscular, but a little shorter and stocky. Definitely not a guy I wanted to get trapped in an alley with, for sure.
“Theo.” Clenching my jaw as he turned to me, I didn’t dare blink as Carlyle scanned me through pupils narrowed into slits. “Go shut that bitch up so I can have a serious conversation with mykidbrother. Don’t kill it— I agree with you on that. He wanted this, he’s going to suffer the consequences.”
Ah, he tapped into the audio.Of fucking course, Carlyle tapped into the surveillance system before coming in here. Hoisting myself up, I left my phone and headphones on the seat to head upstairs. The closer I got to Sylvie’s room, the louder her gut-wrenching cries became. Popping open the door, I ground my teeth as the stench of shit, piss and vomit slammed into me.
I don’t know what the fuck Mateo was thinking, but no one was taking care of this girl. Honestly, it was surprising that she hadn’t suffocated on her own puke yet.
Tied to the bed, Sylvie was drenched in sweat, and her own shit covered her thighs and hips from her struggling. For some reason, she was naked, and vomit pooled in the hollow of her neck and crusted her short hair to her cheeks. My fingers tingled in disgust at the idea of touching her, and my stomach roiled as I searched the room for something. My gaze settled on a wide, square hairbrush, and my cheek twitched in foreboding.I better not get thrown up on. At least the first time was voluntary.
