Authors: Stella Rhys
I went with Jesse to the Monarch Hotel when I realized what this could mean. That it was over. All of it. If what Jesse told me was true, then Gavin Theroux’s murderer was already dead. I had seen him on the night of his murder, the night that I met Abram. If Stefan was in fact Gavin’s killer, then Abram had already completed his plot for revenge. There was hope for peace between him and the Toros, especially since Jesse assured me that his family would agree to leave Abram alone. I couldn’t understand why but he refused to explain. “It’s complicated,” he muttered as he gazed out the window. “You don’t need to know anything beyond that but I assure you, if I can reach an agreement with Abram, it can all be over. You can hold me to it.”
And that was all I needed to hear.
As the car approached the hotel, I felt a wave of relief wash over my skin. Because no matter how well I returned to the real world, I’d have never stopped thinking about Abram. I would’ve never stopped worrying about whether he was dead or alive, or if I might spend the night dreaming of him and waking up to pain. There was no forgetting Abram Lenox – only telling yourself that you were better without the trouble that came with him. But now that the trouble was on the verge of ending, I could actually let myself dream again – about being inside his penthouse, in his bed, feeling the warmth of his body as we simply enjoyed a night together.
Pushing through the revolving door of the Monarch, I entered the sleek onyx lobby with Jesse, letting him go straight to the lobby bar while I headed for the front desk. I had already called the man who had given me his card when Abram disappeared. He hadn’t picked up so I’d left him a message, telling him to please contact Abram for me and tell him that I’d be waiting for him at the Monarch with an important message about Jesse Toro. But I figured I’d inform the desk as well, knowing that they had access to the men who worked in Abram’s private lobby, at the hotel’s hidden entrance. I wasn’t going to take any chances. I needed Abram here fast. As much as I believed Jesse, I didn’t want to be alone with him for long. In fact, I wanted to leave his side as soon as possible – to start my journey of forgetting that he ever existed, and that I’d ever made the mistake of having sex with him.
I recognized the man who came out to speak to me from Abram’s private lobby. After quietly relaying the message to him, I went to meet Jesse at the bar. Being in a public area had been a deliberate choice. Surrounded by hotel guests, Abram was more likely to contain himself upon spotting Jesse. We could explain the situation before any violence broke out. I had suggested we simply sit in the lobby until Abram arrived but Jesse insisted on the bar, so here we were.
Inside, I found him sitting smack dab in the center, already flanked by two girls – a blonde and a brunette wearing curled ponytails at the tops of their heads. I could hear their drunk, squeaky giggles from across the room. The sounds pierced my ear as I reached the bar, seating myself a chair away. Whipping out my phone for distraction, I glanced over, catching Jesse’s little smirk at me before I turned away.
“We’re part of a bachelorette party,” the blonde explained excitedly.
“We hired a stripper to dress up as a cop and pretend to arrest us. But if he doesn’t show, we’ll totally pay you to replace him,” her friend purred. Through the corner of my eye, I could see her trailing her fingertips up Jesse’s thigh as she sipped a Cosmopolitan. He was loving this. I could practically feel him grinning that giant stupid grin of his.
“Would you do it? If our guy doesn’t show?”
“If your friends are as cute as you two, I’ll even provide the restraints.”
The resulting shrieks almost deafened me. “You are
so
bad!”
“So you like,
carry
around handcuffs?”
A devilish chuckle rolled through Jesse’s voice. “No. I usually just use this.”
Don’t look,
I told myself but I couldn’t help it. I turned to see Jesse grabbing his belt buckle in a way that was just obscene enough to get the brunette moaning. Not actually moaning, but making these seductive “
mm
” sounds as she trailed her manicured fingertips up his thigh.
Good Lord.
I hastily tore my eyes from Jesse’s crotch, peering up to make sure he hadn’t caught me. But of course, he had. Looking over the girls’ shoulders, he lifted an eyebrow that asked,
“You like that?”
Asshole.
With a roll of my eyes, I averted my stare and flagged down the bartender. I hadn’t planned on drinking but if this was how things were going to be until Abram appeared, I needed some whiskey.
“Wait – you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?” the blonde suddenly asked, snatching her hand off Jesse’s knee.
“No.”
“Mm. Are you one of those
player
types?” the brunette questioned.
“Is this an interrogation?”
“Maybe. Now answer my question. Are you?”
What do you think?
He grew up a Toro – he was rich, handsome and blessed from birth with the bad boy gene. He would’ve had to make a conscious daily effort to avoid the hordes of gorgeous, spellbound women falling into his lap. But Jesse only laughed as he signaled for a second bourbon. “No. Not a player.”
The blonde flat-out snorted. “Sure. And
how
many girls have you slept with in your life?” she asked, leaning back on the bar, her pushed up breasts at the level of Jesse’s eyes. He gazed unabashedly at them.
“Couldn’t possibly count,” he replied, tilting his head for a better angle. She giggled, chewing on her lip.
“So that means you
are
a player.”
“If that’s what you need to believe.”
“Well then answer this question.” The brunette sidled up against Jesse. “How many girls have you slept with in the past year?”
“You first.”
“Oh, sweetie, we’ve been playing this game all weekend. Nine guys in the past year. So sue me,” she smirked. Jesse lifted an eyebrow at the blonde.
“Two,” she gave a carefree shrug. “And you?”
Jesse’s eyes slid past the girls. It locked on me for all of a second before he grinned at them and answered, “One.”
I froze in place.
Excuse me?
“Oh, stop!” the blonde practically squawked. “What, were you engaged?”
“Away. On business.” Jesse took a drink. “And under a lot of stress. Didn’t have much time to go out, have fun. Didn’t really want to distract myself with women either. So I took a little time off from having sex.” His grin spread wide at the girls’ floored expressions. “Sue me.”
You bullshitter
, I shook my head at him when he flicked his dirty gaze back at me. It was a lie. It had to be. No way did he go a year without having sex.
I
went the past year without having sex but that was different. I was depressed and alone. It was the last thing on my mind.
Though it might’ve been the same for him
. I blinked as part of my brain argued for Jesse.
He was running for his life to protect his kid brother. He spent a year looking over his shoulder. He had no clue who was coming for him when.
Staring into my drink, I suddenly remembered my first impression of Jesse, back when I thought he was Sean. He was sweet. Awed by my body. Boyish to the point of seeming virginal. The way he looked at me had truly led me to wonder if he’d never seen a pair of breasts before. But the sex quickly nixed any suspicion of inexperience. He knew exactly what he was doing. The way he’d positioned me, squeezed me, pumped into me – he’d fucked me like a man who knew how he liked it and he’d done it with the hunger of a wild beast.
Shit
. I blinked. Suddenly, it made sense to me. Before disappearing, Jesse’s life was probably like Abram’s – about sin. Indulgence. But then he spent a year on the run, stripped of all the daily pleasures he was accustomed to enjoying. No wonder he’d acted like a sex-starved animal in my bedroom. That was exactly what he was.
I held my glass to my lips without taking a drink, my cheeks burning as I felt Jesse suddenly next to me, his grinning voice in my ear. “Yeah, so I swear I usually last long enough to make her come.” I turned to his face of amusement, realizing the girls had run to meet their friends at the entrance of the bar. They pointed excitedly toward Jesse, who waved at them before returning his attention to me with a laugh. “Don’t look so disturbed.”
“I’m not. Just surprised.”
“That a man’s got a clearer mind when he isn’t chasing pussy?” He fingered the rim of his lowball. I could practically hear him smirk. “I still owe you an orgasm.”
“Stop. We’re not going to talk about that night again.”
“Really? I was kind of savoring the moment I could drop that bombshell on Abram.”
I cut my eyes to him. “Jesse, please.”
“God, I like when you say my real name.”
“
That’s enough
,” I shot him daggers. “Jesse, I’m serious. We’re not going to talk about that night again and you’re never going to tell Abram what happened between us. Ever. Got it?”
“Only because I get a little hard every time you boss me around.”
I pushed him away just as the girls came scurrying back, the group now tripled in size and ten times as loud. The newcomers were even drunker than the first two girls and in no time, they were all begging Jesse to lift his shirt, promising to give him the bride-to-be’s feather boa if he showed them his six-pack. They moaned and whined when he said no, rubbing their hands all over his shirt, turning the bar into some kind of big, horny petting zoo. It was the kind of spectacle I’d normally run away from but today I took comfort in it – especially as I spotted the pack of four men in the lobby. They were all broad, all muscled, all dressed completely in black.
Here we go.
My body flashed with instant chills. I recognized a few. The suited ones were from Abram’s private lobby – the guys whom I assumed were his security of some sort. As the bachelorette party fawned over Jesse, anticipation prickled my skin, my pulse rising as my eyes frantically scanned the lobby for Abram.
But instead of him, I spotted Nate.
Shit.
His harsh grey eyes met mine and in a flash, he and the men were marching toward the bar like soldiers. “Jesse…” I started, but the girls drowned me out. Nate shook his head at me from afar. Eyes locked on him, my heart pounded, my lips repeating Jesse’s name louder and louder as I realized that being in public was not about to save us. A pit of dread sunk to my stomach as the men finally reached us, shoulders flexed and fists balled.
No, no, no.
“Excuse us.”
A voice boomed over the squealing women, immediately parting them to reveal Jesse. He looked up just as a fist sunk into his eye.
I screamed, the bachelorette party shrieking as it scattered away. I charged at the men restraining Jesse but suddenly I felt myself jerked backward, my wrists yanked behind my back. “You know, I always knew you were a fucking idiot,” Nate secured them with a calloused hand. “But you just went above and beyond my worst expectations with this shit,” he hissed, shoving me toward the door as I heard the sound of Jesse’s wind knocked out by two hard blows.
“Nate, just let me explain – ”
“Shut up,” he growled, pushing me toward the elevators. “You can explain all you want to Abram.”
My heart pounded as I was pushed out of the elevator, just a couple floors below the penthouse. It took barely a second for my ears to register the sounds echoing from down the hall.
Oompf. Thud.
Groan. Repeat. Over and over as I tried to wrestle out of Nate’s grip. “Let me
go!
”
“Quiet,” he snarled as we made our way down the hall, my feet going fast till I heard it – Abram. The sound of his fists delivering Jesse’s vicious beating, the seething gravel of his voice getting louder with every harsh blow. Fear slowed my step to a screeching halt.
“Wait,” I breathed, feeling sick. But Nate dragged me on, so frantically I tried to prepare myself for the moment. The last time I’d seen Abram had been so sweet. So perfect. I hadn’t imagined that our first time together again would be all blood and gore. But then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Swallowing hard, I readied my stomach for some sort of horrible sight. Raw flesh, broken bones. I wasn’t unfazed by these things yet, despite all that I’d seen in the past three months. Weak, my chest heaving, I let Nate finally push me into the big, empty room.
Right away, my eyes landed upon Abram.
Or rather, his back. The back that I still memorized down to every dip, line and muscle. Each one was flexed tight, perfectly visible under the stretching cotton of his white T-shirt as he hovered over Jesse, his torso blocking my view. Though behind it, I could hear Jesse and his smug, blood-muffled drawl. “I don’t blame you, Abe…” His laugh was half groan. “She’da thrown off my game too. With those… perfect legs… those… nice… perky – ”
Abram’s fist cocked back. I squeezed my eyes shut, a cry ripping from my lips just as I heard the God-awful sound. The crunch of knuckle on bone.
God, oh God.
When my eyes flew back open, I couldn’t stop my legs from rushing to see if Jesse was dead. It felt like he had to be. But what I found was him bleeding on the floor at Abram’s feet, his shirt stretched, ripped and soaked from the blood trickling out of his stupid, laughing mouth.
What the fuck. What’s funny right now?
I wanted to scream the question in his face but I suddenly registered the scorching heat of Abram’s stare.
Looking up, I saw him turned to me, his wolfish gaze rendering my knees instantly weak. He didn’t look at me the way he did when I last saw him. He looked at me with a fury that scared me so much that I instantly trembled. My eyes wide, I tried to focus on the blue of his – on all the parts of his face that I knew and loved. Those sculpted lips and cheekbones, that long straight nose. I tried to remind myself that this was the same man who’d come to find me at the elementary school, to say a proper goodbye. The same man who had pulled me onto his lap and kissed me as he helped me dream about the normal life I’d live while he was gone, as Miss Maran, the fifth grade teacher whose students would worship the ground on which she walked. He’d laughed so adorably when I rolled my eyes, and he had promised that when it was all over, he’d come back to find me.
But standing in front of me, in just a matter of weeks, he no longer appeared to be that man. He looked stony now. Stoic and mean. Shaking, I gave him a minute to study me, to perhaps remember what he had been like around me. But the silence was killing me so I finally murmured his name, testing the water and mustering all my strength for every step I took toward him. “Abram let me explain…”
“What did he do to you?” he finally demanded, each word short and tearing like sandpaper from the pit of his throat.
I took in a jagged breath. “Nothing.” I was close enough to touch him now. But I didn’t. I was distracted as Nate yanked Jesse’s limp body off the floor. I winced as flecks of his blood slung onto my skin. When his reaction was to laugh, I stared. Now had to be the worst time for jokes and yet here was Jesse, damned near giggling over Abram’s wrath. “What the hell is
wrong
with you? Why didn’t you tell him?”
“Tell me what?” Abram pulled me closer, holding me in front of his face to study me – my eyes, my jaw, my lips. I stood still for him. Adrenaline still coursed through his veins but I could see it now – his blue eyes softening as he took me in. “Isla,” he exhaled, his touch still rough as he pushed my hair back. “What the hell is going on?”
I recognized this voice and it melted me with relief. “I just wanted it to be over,” I whispered desperately. My fingers dared to graze his chest and when I felt him exhale at my touch, I pressed my hands flat, letting out a long breath of my own. “I just wanted you to be safe again. And I think he’s telling the truth, Abram. He showed me proof of everything.”
“Of what?” He cupped the back of my neck and I closed my eyes, dipping my head against his chest and wishing I could just live in this moment without having to speak. It felt so good but of course it wasn’t a reality, so I savored the peace for another second before replying in a murmur.
“You already killed Gavin’s murderer. It was Stefan Toro the whole time.”
I held my breath in the beat of silence. Then I felt Abram remove me from his body.
“Abram – ”
“Stop.” In a flash, the other Abram was back. Cutting me off, he turned stiffly to Jesse, whose bloody cheek had begun to bruise. His eyes were half open as he stood on his own two feet now, swaying from side to side like some jovial drunk. When he caught Abram’s expectant stare, he blinked and feigned surprise.
“You got me,” he finally said, giving a shrug as if to say “
oops
.” I rolled my eyes at his continued need to be a fucking jester.
“Explain it to them, Jesse,” I gritted my teeth.
He lifted his lazy stare at me, his split lip curling into a smirk before he turned back to Abram and held up his hands. “Surprise, I didn’t kill your fucking friend. He died on April Fifth, right? In some warehouse Upstate?” He looked from Abram to Nate, patiently waiting for an answer he knew he wasn’t going to get. “Well… maybe you can get some… old surveillance video from Missus X on Spring Street. Ask them for April Fifth. I rented out the entire place for my twenty-eighth birthday. Only found out what Stef did by the next morning. And then I made a couple big, maybe stupid decisions. Arranged with Pops to make it look like it was me and that was a wrap.” A slow grin spread his lips as he looked at the guys, jolly as a clown. “Family. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em, am I right?”
There was silence. The room was so still it felt like the Earth had stopped spinning. I slid my wary gaze to Abram, who had yet to move, to blink or react. The look on his poker face struck fear in my heart because I knew it was merely the calm before the storm.
Finally breaking the silence was Nate. “No.” I turned to see him fuming, his face so red it looked as if the blood was boiling right under the surface of his skin. “See, I don’t think so,” he hissed, shaking his head adamantly. “He was a fucking useless, pampered prince. Your little shitstain brother couldn’t walk two steps without someone telling him how, so no fucking way you had no hand in this, Toro. You’re a fucking lying son of a bitch.”
Bored, Jesse spit blood onto the floor. “The video they sent you. Of Gavin,” he started casually. The mention had Nate’s nostrils instantly flaring, his chest huffing and puffing. “It’s shortened. We’ve got the original version. Where Stef and his friends take off the masks when they’re done.” He reached into his pocket, tossing his phone to Abram, who didn’t so much as blink as he caught it. “Don’t have that on me now but I’ve got pictures. Probably a hundred of them from April Fifth,” Jesse offered, tilting his head as he paused. “And a couple… explicit videos that you probably shouldn’t watch,” he added before turning to me with a dirty grin. “You, on the other hand.”
“Shut up,” Abram growled. The breath hitched in my throat as I took him in. His veins bulged with a life of their own. They pulsed under his skin as he finished with Jesse’s phone, looking up slowly to exchange a sick look with Nate, who was suddenly pale, the blood actively draining from his ghost-like face.
What the fuck is going
on
?
“This just means it’s over, right?” I frowned at Abram. “Isn’t that a good thing?” I pleaded gently. But he ignored me, his eyes still glued to Nate’s. They were having some sort of silent conversation – one so grim that it piqued even Jesse’s interest.
“What’s wrong? Would’ve tortured him longer if you knew?” Revulsion dripped from his voice. “Why don’t you just take fucking comfort in the fact that you killed him, huh? You put my kid brother in the ground and he’s gone now, asshole, so why don’t we just call it even and go on with our merry fucking lives?” Jesse asked jeeringly, his question finally breaking Abram from his silence. He looked to Jesse slowly, his jaw so tight I could almost hear his teeth grinding.
“We can’t do that just yet.”
“And why the fuck not?” Jesse sneered as a look of darkness clouded Abram’s eyes.
“Because Stefan isn’t really dead.”