Page 43 of Chaos Destiny
Satisfied I’d made my point, I walked off. On the path, I spotted a burst of yellow in the middle of an arrangement of white petals and told myself that it made me think of Tayler. However, in reality, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone more than a few moments without thoughts of her taking up space in my mind.
It took the brothers no time to pick up on mud imprints that belonged to a huge animal—a buck, more than likely. Then, while Dallas and I monitored the trap, Memphis went to the lake to search for edible marine life.
Hours passed.
We ate the small package of food we brought with us: chili made from canned beans along with a rice, oat, and grain porridge topped with dried berries and honey, which we rationed like golden syrup. After lunch, Memphis returned to the lake while Dallas stayed behind with me.
“You know the doc and Allen, that whole thing is bullshit, right?” he asked. “Ain’t no way she’s fucking him. She don’t even touch him ‘less he touch her first.”
I leaned back against the broad tree trunk that had been our waiting station for nearly half the day so far. “What else have you noticed about them?” I asked, hoping he confirmed my suspicions.
Not that the opposite would stop me.
If Tayler didn’t want me, all she would have to do was say so for me to cool my pursuit.
But she had to mean it.
At this point, only a serious “Fuck off, Gage” would remedy my preoccupation with her voice, her mouth, her hair, and my hands on her body as I removed every article of clothing covering her skin.
“I don’t think she can stand him,” Dallas went on. “Honestly, I watch her a lot. It’s like a curse. I see a pretty face, I watch it. But because I watch her a lot, I know she wants to climbyou.”
“She’s not the only one.”
“Dana came at you?”
“Well, yeah, but I wasn’t talking about who else might want to ‘climb’ me. There’s something about Tayler. I don’t know what it is, and I can’t say I’ve ever been this taken with a woman before. Definitely not this fast. But that’s not saying I’ll cheat on my wife or anything.”
He plucked a blade of grass and passed it between his teeth like dental floss. “Me and Memph, we’re real good at reading people,” he said. “We had to be. Had to know who to trust before we learned what trust was. And we don’t think Ari is your wife.”
I masked my surprise. “Why’s that?”
“Can’t say for certain, but you seem like the type that would double down on being a husband, knowing the vultures iscircling. And they’re not only looking for the womenfolk. Me and Memph know that too.”
“Fuck, mate. I’m real sorry to hear that.”
“Oh, it’s all right. We kill people now.”
Again, I didn’t flinch.
One day, I would pretend to be put off whenever they mentioned violence.
“But you and Memphis actually remind me of my twin brothers,” I said to steer his mind away from where I could tell it had gone. “Minus the crazy, of course.”
He chuckled. “Where they at now?”
“They died long before this.”
“Fate showed them mercy?”
“Exactly.”
I spotted the tip of Omar’s head through the foliage in the distance. If he and Allen were heading our way, our prey had returned to the vicinity.
“Was I right?” Dallas asked. “About you being the new girl’s husband, I mean. Know what? Don’t answer that. If you got to pretend to be somebody’s husband, it’s for a reason. I won’t go saying nothing to nobody, but know that me and Memph, we’re not like that. We don’t go hurting people the same way we been hurt. But when you need us to kill somebody for her and the baby, we will.”
“Should I shine a light in the sky to signal you?” I joked.
“You keep tyin’ me and my brother in with good people like your brothers. And Batman. We ain’t no heroes.”
