Page 5 of Together We Burn
“I know I scared you. I know I’ve been the biggest pain in the ass, Alex,” I paused, taking a deep breath, “but thank you for finding me.”
He glanced at our joined hands with a look crossing his face that I couldn’t make out. Dragging his gaze to meet mine, his mouth opened like he wanted to say something, but the words fell short. Instead, he gave a small smile of his own and squeezed my fingers with his.
“Speaking of vengeance. What are your plans, exactly?”
“Sit and wait.” Alex’s brows furrowed. It wasn’t like me not to retaliate. I rolled my eyes in mock frustration and said, “C’mon, Alex, you gave me the idea with all the bloody nature shows you watch.Ambush predator.”
Nature boy looked confused, clearly not following my train of thought.
“Emilia will expect me to come at her,get revenge.It’s what I’d expect if she was me. But why waste my energy on that? I’m going to make her sweat. Perhaps drop her guard, and when she and her little fuck boy least expect it…” I held my hand up, turning my fingers into a gun, and popping it twice as I said, “Bang, bang, motherfuckers.”
My smile was carnal as I imagined putting a bullet through my mother’s skull, quickly followed by Jake’s. But the latter didn’t fill me with as much joy as I hoped.
"You're a little bit crazy; you know that?”
"All the best people usually are."
Alex snickered as he rose to his feet. “And on that note, I’m going to take the dog out; you need anything, little psycho?”
Chapter two
Jake
“Wassheanytrouble?”
“No.” My answer is short and clipped as I watch Emilia’s two henchmen drop Stefany unceremoniously into a wooden chair and tie her up. Her head lulls to the side as the drugs injected into her veins still pump throughout her body.
“Was the tranquilliser really necessary?”
“Oh, Jacob darling, stop pouting,” Emilia says, pursing her lips mockingly as she clasps her hands and cocks her head at the sight of her daughter unconsciously slumped in front of her. “It was just a little sedative to get her here safely. She has a tendency to overreact, if you must know. It was merely a precaution for her benefit.”
I side-eye her as she steps forward, her heels loudly echoing in the vast empty room, save for Stefany’s chair. She circles her once, then holds the collar of my shirt between her thumb and forefinger, looking over to me with twinkling eyes.
“You take your assignments very seriously, don’t you, Jacob?” she asks, sounding amused, but there’s no hiding the undertone of jealousy. Releasing my clenched jaw, I shove my balled-up hands into my pants pockets and smile.
“It was too easy, how could I not?”
Humming in response, she releases the shirt and rubs her fingers together like she’d held something dirty. Flicking her long smooth black hair down her back, she walks away, pausing when she reaches my side.
“You and I are more alike than I thought,” she says, and I try not to bristle as she places a finger at the side of my jaw and turns my head to face her. “Sex is always a good manipulation tactic. I approve.”
Emilia reaches up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to my cheek. Not exactly my cheek, though, as I can feel her lips brush against the corner of my own.
I look at Stefany, drugged and beaten.
What have I done?
“What is the point of you?” Emilia snarled down the phone as she opened her office door and beckoned me with her free hand and a tight smile. Her eyes blazed as the carefully constructed façade she had created cracked.
Since she and her daughter had becomereacquaintedduring Stevie’s time in that rundown warehouse, Emilia’s firm hold on her emotions was weakening, and she was slowly letting the unstable parts of herself show.
Emilia stormed across the room, dragging her hand through her long black hair like her daughter did when she was stressed, as she listened to whatever the person on the other end of the phone had to say.
“I don’t pay you to get nothing in return, Harlin,” she continued, pointing toward the bottle of Dom Pérignon sitting on ice by her wet bar. She held her hand over the speaker and mouthed, “Pop.”
Unbuttoning my suit jacket, I walked over to the bottle, picked it up, and wiped the bottom with the linen napkin draped over the ice bucket. I watched Emilia prop herself on the edge of her desk, her back rigid as she nodded at whatever the caller had said, as if they could see her.
Wrapping the napkin around the neck of the bottle, I popped the cork with a muffled bang. Bubbles frothed over the lip, tumbling over my hand as I positioned it in the bucket. Ignoring the two crystal glasses that were obviously there for us, I walked over to the window overlooking the vast ground surrounding Emilia’s estate. She worked from home, having converted one of the many rooms into an office, and only frequented the city when she had meetings. I was one of the selected few who got an invite to her house. Something she insisted on for our little arrangement.
