Page 76 of Boss

“And you think I don't live with that, every fucking day? Do you!” he shouted at her.He stopped arguing. He cast his gaze to the fire. The flames caused shadows to flicker over his hard features.

“I didn’t know what my father and Dale had done until it was too late. And when it was over... it was over. She didn’t want me, and I didn’t want her. She killed my fucking kid without a fight. What kind of heartless bitch could do that?”

“A confused girl who thought she was sacrificing herself for you.”

“Bullshit! Did Maria Garcia tell you about the paid off mortgage for their hotel by the sea? Ah, she didn’t, did she? Or maybe while she kissed your boo-boo's, and helped you with your homework she didn't mention how she took the money, and drove Clarissa to the clinic to flush my fucking kid down the toilet! Her own mother did this. The both of them kept it from her father. She turned to her mother for help and this is how she helped her. Because she didn't want me to run off with her daughter any more than my father did. So I got revenge. The final time I saw Clarissa. After they convinced her father to take the payoff to keep his beach home but stop protesting MGS. A deal he thought was given to him because your family died. I told her father what she did. And that broke Clarissa. It destroyed her. Two days later she committed suicide. I can never take that back. Whatever, she’s the baby murderer not me. That’s the fucking true story.”

Kassidy blinked in horror.

“I am not a monster,” he told her.

“You aren’t a victim either,” she said.

He picked up the bottle of tequila and toasted her. “Okay, then I’m something in between.”

She pressed her lips together. The Garcia family hated Tarek Marshall. Maria Garcia never spoke of Clarissa and Tarek. Not even when Kassidy was a young girl, and begged her to explain why Clarissa was dead and buried. No mother could live with doing what she did. Especially being reminded of the fact that they were bought, and their business paid off by the Marshalls. Kassidy stared at him, and he stared into the fireplace. No one was ever who they seemed, she supposed. Maybe his truth, this time, was indeed fact. Either way, it was plain sad.

“What are you going to do to stop them?”

“My father is old, a relic. He’s recovered from his stroke but he isn’t half the man he was. Dale is pulling the old man strings now.”

“They have to be stopped. You may not have caused the death of my parents but Alek Marshall did. He has to be made to pay for his crimes,” she said.

Tarek chuckled. “Everything is good and evil with you Kassandra. Somebody has to be the villain in Kassandra’s world. No in between.”

“Not really, I only...”

“Yes Really.”

“I was a kid when this all started. But I grew up tough. I had too. The Garcia’s were so racked with guilt they just spoiled me instead of raised me. And I did things. I lashed out, I rebelled. I used my talents for evil not good.”

“What talents?” Tarek asked.

“I have what my psychiatrists told me was an addictive personality. I’m a thrill seeker. I walk into danger and get off on it. That’s why I slept with you even though I thought you killed my family. That’s why I wasn’t scared in Alaska. Why I’m not really scared now. This was supposed to cure me Tarek. Finding you. Defeating you. Finally putting all my demons away. So I could be normal. And nothing has changed.” She took the bottle from him. It was strange, but she had developed a taste for the bitter liquid. The alcohol confused her emotions. She switched from sad to giddy in a blink. And that relaxed her.

“That explains it.” Tarek said.

“I guess so. You know everything now.”

“Yeah,” Tarek mumbled.

The lights flickered. They both looked up and waited. The lights blinked back off. She sighed. She put her hand to her forehead.

“Come here,” he put his arm around her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me,” she moved.

“You didn’t mind before,” he said.

“Can we forget that we ever had sex, please?” she rolled her eyes.

“I don’t want too,” he said.

“Not funny.”

“You’re not easy to forget,” he teased.

“We can’t stand each other. Remember?”

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