Page 144 of The Addict

Rite of Passage

DELANE

As I marveled in the mirror in front of me, I couldn’t help but think that Chelsea had done a magnificent job. It took her all of six seconds to get over the initial shock and jealousy of hearing that I had been invited on a date by Noah Hansen. Although, after his display at the food court towards her, I didn’t think she expected anything different. Once I clarified that he liked both girls and boys but had for sure never dated that Alex guy, the snippy blonde had demanded to come over immediately and start preparing outfit choices and makeup for the dance.

We had planned for a total of two minutes, Chelsea officially ruling out anything and everything I owned. She declared a shopping spree on the spot. I tried my best to explain to Chelsea that while I appreciated her enthusiasm, I had no extra money to spend on new clothes, especially the kind that she liked to buy for her wardrobe. With a swift flick of her long ponytail, Chelsea decided that since such a, “Fine ass mother fucker,” had asked me out, she would be paying for the dress and all necessary accessories to ensure I had a magical night.

There wasn’t any arguing once Chelsea made up her mind, so I just went along. It wasn’t long before we entered some shops downtown and began our search. My dress sort of jumped out at me. Literally. Chelsea had been sifting through dozens of beautiful garments when she accidentally knocked one off the rack. It practically smothered me, who had been examining the hem on the bottom of another dress when it happened.

“This is the one,” I disclosed proudly, displaying the knee length, white silk dress to Chelsea. The gown was strapless, and classy for a formal event. The material in the front covered my chest area completely, but the back of the dress had horizontal strips cascading down to just above my hip line, showing plenty of skin to be sexy, but not enough to be tacky. By the sharp gleam in Chelsea’s eyes, I could tell that she would’ve loved to have the dress for herself. Therefore, I knew instantly that my choice was a good one and discontinued looking any further. Chelsea paid for everything, including three-inch heels that I knew I’d die in, and tiny dewdrop earrings that paired with the dress design and color. After the shopping escapade was accomplished, Chelsea reluctantly handed over the gorgeous dress to me and took me back home to begin practice “fixing my face” as she called it.

The days seemed to fly by, and the dance had arrived before I knew it. I was so nervous that I’d barely texted Noah the entire week. I ended up sending him a simple:

Thank you for inviting me. I’m excited.

Now I was showered, dressed and ready, admiring myself and the work Chelsea put into the full face of makeup, which I hardly ever wore.

Chelsea was scattering about the room collecting things on her way to the front door. I followed to see her out. She was going on and on about safe sex practices, assuring me that tonight would be the night that I got laid by a rich guy. I opened the front door for her, rolling my eyes and nodding my head to please her. “Oh! And take this extra makeup in case you need any touching up between dances. Oh, and don’t forget the jewelry.” Chelsea shoved the items into my hands, and stepped out the front door.

I smiled. Could this be the excitement I felt?

Chelsea turned to march off but then swung back around, “Hey, wait. Weren’t your parents due back by now? Are they going to care that you’ve gone out?” She questioned rather abruptly.

“Yeah,” I answered, walking out to watch Chelsea slip inside her car. “They haven’t called, but I’m sure I’ll be hearing from them soon.” I paused. “At least, I should be hearing from them soon.”

Chelsea made a face, but shrugged. “Whatever. I’m going to head up to the bar. You wanna come? You could pregame?”

I shook my head. “I’d rather not. I think I’ll get started on that Calculus homework we have.”

“What homework?” Chelsea asked innocently.

I sighed. Whenever I spoke of homework it was like Chelsea lost the ability to decipher words. “Nothing, Chels. Go drink. Have fun, but be safe.” I added the warning onto the end of my sentence with a stern glare, hoping she’d recall the time that she wasn’t so safe towards either of us.

“You bet, babe!” She did a fist pump, and then a wink. “Catch you later.”

The car pulled away and I chuckled.

“You’ll try.”

SILAS

I had never killed a man before.

That is, until today.

Jace had long been accustomed to taking me along on his investment opportunities. Sometimes these were business deals in corporate office spaces, with men taking lines of cocaine and fucking women in corners. Sometimes it was a club, or another mansion. Sometimes we were buying spaces to open new locations for our investors. Other times I was counting bricks and loading them into trucks. Either way, I did my job.

Jace was the closest thing I had to a father. And although I didn’t consider him my father, more of my guardian, I loved Serenity, my sister, as though we were true blood siblings. Jace made it very apparent from when he adopted me at the age of four, that he wasn’t going to love me as much as he loved Serenity. And that was fine by me. I lived by his rules, and I learned the business. I did my part.

So, when our car pulled into a warehouse, I knew this was bound to be my test. The tone was off. The feeling was ominous. We would always dress the part no matter what the deal was. Jace prided himself in what he called his “diversity” of business. Today, he informed me to dress comfortably, which was never his way of handling an opportunity with money.

This told me we would be handling something else.

We had to navigate the storage yard through a number of twists and turns, and the numbers on the sides of the enormous containers were only placeholders for me to use to find my way back when we were done. We lacked briefcases and the necessary materials to negotiate and execute contracts.

As soon as he opened the container marked 557, I knew I was going to meet the man whose life I was taking.

And I was right.