Page 16 of Redemption
The young woman and I still knelt as we watched O.
O leaned her head back and screamed.
It made us both jump.
O kept screaming like the mad woman she truly was.
I turned to look at the girl next to me.
Her face had gone white as she raised her shaking hands to her mouth. Fear glimmered in her eyes as she scooted back.
Concerned at the terrified look on her face, I reached for her.
She gasped and stood up, stumbling back.
I stood to my feet and tried to console her. “Look, take it easy. It will be okay.”
Shaking her head, she muttered, “No, it won’t.” Turning, she literally ran toward the house.
I stood there watching her flee. I knew now, she was somehow connected to O. Not in a good way, but fuck what was a good connection to O? The woman killed her own family and anyone she hated. So, why did this girl fear her so much?
Chapter Five:A One-Time Girl
Cinnamon
Rushing to the house, all I felt was panic and terror. Her screaming reminded me of the time she got angry at one of the girls who worked for her. The girl argued with O about the percentage she took from us and she’d said she would just go work on her own because a person couldn’t survive on what O allowed them to keep. O had snapped at her telling her to not try to leave her as no one leaves Ophelia. What happened after that…O made us all watch so we wouldn’t ever go against her. It was something I had managed to block out until today. It would happen to me if O ever caught me. I would rather die by my own hand than to suffer like Kirsha had. The poor girl begged for mercy for over forty-five minutes, which O never gave her.
By the time I reached the porch, tears were streaming down my face. Someone grabbed my arm and I screamed.
“Whoa, whoa,” Redemption said as he let go of my arm. “Are you okay?”
Turning to look at him, I shook my head as my entire body trembled. I couldn’t speak as the trauma of remembering what O could do to a person ran through my head.
“What's going on with you?” he asked.
I turned away. What could I tell him? That if he got his sister back I would be skinned alive shortly afterward? I shivered even in the heat of the day and whispered, “The woman scares me is all…”
“Yes, I can see that,” he said. “Do you know her?”
“I know of her,” I replied with a little white lie.
Redemption sighed. “You know what? Let’s start all over. I never asked before this, but what is your name?”
“They call me Cinnamon.”
He cocked his head at me. “Well, that’s unusual.”
I shook my head as I scoffed. “Ok,Redemption, whatever you say.”
He paused at this then he chuckled.
I thought about telling him my real name but I already learned about some MCs like the Rebel Saints, they used IT to research records and such. So I felt like Cinnamon was good enough for now. Besides, I would most likely never see this man again. I also knew he was only interested in me out of curiosity. A man like him wouldn’t have given me a second glance if we met on a street, I knew this already. I was pretty enough I suppose, but with my plain ole brown hair, hazel eyes and a decent enough body, I still did not believe he was interested in the attraction sort of way.
“So Cinnamon, what’s your story?”
I gazed up at him and retorted, “What’s yours?”
He paused yet again and smiled. “What you see is what you get.”
