Ascending Darkness (Shattering the Darkness) (22 page)

“No, no… I didn’t mean…” Oh for Christ sakes Leslie, just fucking spit it out. “What I mean is…”

“Are you planning to tell me what the fuck you
do
mean this century, perhaps?” Stevie clenches his jaw as he asks her.

“Yeah…” She stands there and fidgets; feeling the
weight of all our anger directed at her.

“Fucking tell me!”
he loses his composure and yells at her.

“Harper thin
ks it was your gun because Niki asked her where she got it too and…”
Great. Bring Niki into it. Way to go dumbass
.
Fuck she should be right up there with Janelle
. “Well, then Harper said ‘tell me you didn’t’ and then Janelle just looked at the ground, and, uh, then Harper made the assumption that it was yours and then, uh Janelle didn’t argue with her,” she rambles on.

“Is that true,” he asks me.

“I guess that’s what just happened,” I shrug.

“You,
guess
?” he takes a threatening step towards me.

“Yeah. That’s what happened while you were in there.” I finally mutter, knowing if I don’t confirm the story, I’ll just be beaten as bad as Janelle is about to be.

That is the loophole to having each other’s backs. You can tell the truth and rat someone out if you are asked straight out about it and it will save your hide.

Stevie turns back to Janelle and punches her.

Hard.

Her head whips to the side again and her whole body stumbles back, trying to hold her up.

“Is that what you fucking did?” he growls.

“Stevie…” she begs. “This guy is always horrible and I just thought that if I had a little protection with me, that he might not try anything too awful.”

“You want protection, then you get some condoms, you fucking bitch.” He punches her again and she falls to the ground.

She doesn’t move for a moment and I wonder if he already knocked her out. He usually likes his beatings to last a bit longer. But after a minute or two filled with Stevie pacing and keeping his eyes locked on her, she begins to move again. Groaning out in pain.
He hunches down to get closer to her and grabs her by the hair, pulling her face up to his and making her cry out in pain.

“Tell me,
exactly
, what fucking happened,” he demands.

I can see the spit flying out of his mouth and landing on her face; it really doesn’t even bother me anymore. You come to expect it whenever Stevie is pissed off. Which is a lot.

“He wanted to tie me up and I told him no,” Janelle begins to speak rapidly, “and then he started to get violent so I pulled the gun out of my bag and pointed it at him. He just laughed at me and kept coming at me. I told him to stop, but he got right up close to me and tried to grab it from me. We struggled for a while and both ended up on the bed and it… it just went off,” she begins to sob, knowing there is no getting out of what is about to happen.

“Fucking whores.” Stevie throws her back down to the concrete by her hair and stands up. He then looks to all of us. “Every one of you are going to stand there and fucking watch
,” he points his finger at each of us, “until I say you can go back to the house.”

Wouldn’t have it any other way
, I think to myself sarcastically.

“Understand?” he growls at us.

We all mutter our acquiescence and watch as he begins to kick Janelle repeatedly. Then as he switches to punching her. Until she is completely out cold. He then makes Daisy, who has remained completely silent during the whole ordeal looking like a sad and caring mother, go get a bucket of ice water from the motel. She comes back and hands it to him and I can’t help but roll my eyes at her.

She always acts like she gives a shit and that she has some power in this whole fucked up life, but she is just as powerless as us. She’s just learned how to kiss Stevie’s ass and make him happy.

He throws the ice cold water onto Janelle making her gasp back awake. He picks her up by her hair again, this time she only moans, and drags her back to the motel room; Daisy running close behind them. We all stand there and watch as they take Janelle in. They spend about ten minutes in there and come back out.

Just Daisy and Stevie.

We start to hear Janelle’s frantic screams just as flames engulf the curtains hanging in the window.

“Move. Now. Home,” he orders us once he gets close.

We all turn and follow him back to the van that is parked a couple blocks away. We get in without a word. All of us in complete and utter, horrified silence. He’s never killed someone before. Chills run through me long after the van is warmed up, wondering what this turn of events means for the rest of us…

Buzz, buzz.

Buzz, buzz.

What the hell?

My eyelids flutter open at the sound of the buzzing just in time for Breccan to roll away from me and get his phone that he put on the nightstand
last night after we made love.

“Hello?” I hear him say into the phone. His voice is hoarse and deep with sleep.

I start to get turned on, thinking about having him moaning with that rugged voice between my legs.

“Yeah,” he says.

I roll towards where he is sitting up on the edge of the bed and put my arm around his waist and snuggle up to his back. He grabs my hand with his and holds it close to his stomach.

“That’s okay. What’s going on?” he asks this mystery caller.

I turn my head back and see it is four o’clock in the morning. I figure it must be a work thing so I snuggle closer to him and start to drift back to sleep.

His whole body goes rigid and his hand, that is holding mine, tightens.

“What?” he chokes out.

I am immediately wide awake and sitting up. I start to pull away and get dressed. I know something is going on and we are going to have to go somewhere. But his hand holds me in place.

Oh my God.

It’s bad.

What if it is his mom? Or his dad?

I scoot closer to him
and mold myself to his back, spreading my legs out to the side along his. I wrap both my arms around him and rest my head against his back. His body is still tight and locked in place, so I press my lips to him to try to relax him.

I can hear the voice on the other end of the line speaking quickly. I can tell it’s a man, but I can’t make out the words
or tell who it is.

“Okay…” he nods his head.

It’s got to be okay.

We can’t handle something else.

“Yeah.”

Maybe we’ll get to the hospital and they’ll apologize for alarming us, because whoever it is, is doing fine…

That happens, right?

“Okay, yeah. We’ll be there soon. Thanks.” He sets the phone back down on the nightstand and places both his hands over mine, intertwining our fingers.

“What is it…?” I whisper, my mouth against his warm skin.

He turns to face me, moving me onto his lap with my legs still around him. My hands move up and run through his hair as he looks into my eyes. He looks sad. But not like one of his family members are hurt. He looks like…

Oh.

My.

God.

Like he has to tell someone bad news.

Me…

My hands and legs tighten on him as my whole body goes solid.

“Dove…” he whispers.

“Who?” I ask through clenched teeth, trying to hold off the tears.

He shakes his head and says, “It’s
Ricominciare
, dove…” he brushes my hair back, “it’s gone…”

“What do you mean ‘gone’?” I ask clearly confused about what my bar has to do with anything and relieved it is not
a some
one
.

“It was burned to the ground. They say it was arson,” he tells me.

I sit there on his lap utterly still, aside from my eyes blinking rapidly.

Arson…

It’s gone…

Burned to the ground…

Arson…

Stevie…

“That motherfucker!” I screech and jump off the bed.

I run to my closet and throw on a pair of jeans. I find a t-shirt, throw it on and reach for my light jacket. Just as I’m slipping it on Breccan’s hands stop me.
I look up at him, impatiently.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“I’m going to the bar to see what the fuck happened and then I’m going to kill that fucking prick!”

Why does he not know this? What the hell does he think I’m doing?

“Harper,” he says calmly and gently, “Take a minute. Slow down.”

“Are you
nuts!” I try to break free of his grasp to finish putting my jacket on, but he just holds onto me tighter.

I twist my arms at unnatural angles, but it does me no good so I try to maneuver my body, bending at the waist and pulling away. He keeps a firm grip on me, seemingly barely trying. I work harder and harder without success.

“Stop!” he orders me, his deep voice echoing through the small space.

I freeze in place and look up at him
slowly, a little breathless and completely shocked. He has
never
talked to me like that.

Never.

“Let me get dressed,” he tells me, his voice much quieter and softer, “and then we’ll go. But you need to calm down.”

“Brecc,” I breathe out, “Why are you stopping me?”

He pulls me close to his naked body, wrapping his arms around me and kissing the top of my head.

“Because we will do this together,” he answers running his hands up and down my back, “after last night…” He pulls back so that he can look at me. “Things changed last night, dove. You need to wait for me to get dressed and I will drive you down there.
We do this
together
. Nothing is going to change in the time that it takes for that to happen. So catch your breath and try to think of what we will need to do.”

Well
. Now I feel like an asshole.

Of course he wants to come. I nod my head and take a deep breath trying to calm down as he instructed.
He lets go of me and walks to his bag in the bedroom. I slip my jacket back off and put a bra on under my t-shirt, then slip my jacket back on. I pull my tangled hair back into a messy bun to keep it out of my face. Breccan is just putting his shoes on as I come out of the closet. He stands up and my mouth goes a little dry.

Okay. Completely dry.

His hair is loose and falling around his shoulders and into his face. He’s wearing a grey Harvard University hoodie and dark wash blue jeans that mold to his body perfectly.

“Ready?” he asks me as he pulls his hair back into a ponytail. I nod my head; completely turned
on and not sure what I’m ready for, but willing to follow my Adonis anywhere. “Dove?” he asks with a sexy smirk forming on those amazing lips. Oh… God… I want those lips on me. “Harper?” he says a bit louder, shaking me out of my daydream.

“Yeah?” I shake my head and look into his eyes.

“Come here,” he points to the floor in front of him and I walk to him. He encloses me in his arms and tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “If you keep looking at me like that…” he leans down and presses his lips softly to mine, “we’re not going to make it to the bar.”

That pulls me back to the present.

“Oh. Yeah. We better go.” I start to pull away and he tightens his arms to keep me close.

“Tell me again…” his mouth brushes over mine.

My breathing turns erratic and I lick my lips; licking his in the process.

“I love you, Brecc,” I whisper.

His mouth opens over mine and his tongue enters, searching for mine. My hands grip onto his biceps and squeeze as I deepen the kiss. He slowly pulls away before I am able to shove him back onto the bed, forgetting, once again, why we don’t have time for that.

“I love you, too,” he whispers and brushes his lips against mine
, one last time. “Let’s go,” he says standing up straight and leading me out of the room.

About twenty minutes later Breccan pulls my CTS up to the front of
Ricominciare
. Well it is kind of in front of it… minus about three blocks since it is surrounded by fire trucks and police cars.

I cover my mouth as a sob chokes out of my throat looking down the street at the smoke still pouring out of the windows.

I worked so hard to build this. So many years to do something with my life and he just takes it all away…

“Oh my God…” Breccan breathes out as he takes it in.

My hand immediately reaches out for his as I choke back another sob. His hand wraps around mine and tightens, trying to give me a small measure of comfort.

“Breccan…” I whisper in horror.