Page 54 of Roma Queen
Because yousawwhat he did.
Twenty-Six
PASHA
There’s no sound,but I can see the board Garrett’s holding in his hands, and I can guess well enough what’s going on between the man and the woman I love. He’s telling her a disjointed tale, explaining how he came to be tied to Lazlo. I’m so fucking far away. There’s nothing I can do to protect her from him. There’s no way for me to prevent him from hurting her. All I can do is stand here, trapped in the very bowels of the fucking earth, watching as my Firefly confronts this dangerous, unknown entity with a gun in her shaking hand.
I knew that bastard was trouble. I fuckingknewit from the moment I set eyes on him.
“Ididclaim him. That’s a good way of putting it,” Lazlo says. “A long time ago, I went back to the church where Calliope left me, and I saw him there. Sullen, tiny little thing with a defiant look in his eyes. The nuns remembered me. They didn’t say a word when I said I wanted to take him. No one does that, y’see. No one ever wants to adopt the weak, scrawny, angry looking ones with the chip on their shoulders. Those kids just rot in places like that, causing trouble and sullying the other kids by sheer proximity alone. Those bitches were glad to get rid of him.”
I’m not concentrating on what Lazlo’s saying. I’m far too concerned with what’s going on on the screen. Zara’s in danger. She should have stayed with Seo-Jun, for fuck’s sake. She would have been safe there. She should have trusted me, and told me that she suspected Garrett was involved. I realize the irony of this thought, even as I brush it away; I didn’t tell her I was coming here to confront Lazlo, after all. This is different, though. I’m a fighter. I’m used to this world. I’ve been hurt and threatened more times in my life than I can even count. I can handle this. What I cannot handle is witnessingherget hurt.
“You don’t remember when I came back to live with the clan,” Lazlo says. “You weren’t even born. Garrett was sixteen, though. I’d taken care of him for six years. I’d molded him into a man. I’d shown him how the world worked. He resisted at first. Tried to rail against me. He broke the rules and paid the price, over and over again. In the end, he submitted, though.
Leaving him was difficult, but I wanted to cleanse myself of this poison inside me. I couldn’t do that if a single member of the Rivin Clan still existed. They needed to pay for what they’d done to my mother. So Garrett remained in New York, while I caught up with the Midnight Fair. I found them in Wyoming. Creatures of habit, Calliope always called her people. They were easy to find, if you knew their routes and their traditions. Killing Jamis took all of a second. I slit his throat while he was sleeping in hisvardo.
“I was going to burn the entire camp to the ground. It would have been quick. It was summer, a hot summer, and the clan had chosen to set up in a field full of long, dry grass. Tinder everywhere. The wagons would have gone up in seconds. I was ready to do it. I had the lighter in my hand…” Lazlo’s eyes become unfocused. “But then I sawher.” He points at Kezia; she flinches away from his finger as though he’s just lashed her with a whip.
“You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but her hair was red, too. Red like Calliope’s. She spoiled it with all that bleach. I saw her running through the grass, laughing, the most…the most beautiful smile on her face. She reminded me of my mother, but she was so different at the same time. I wanted her right then and there, but I made myself wait. If she saw a stranger in the camp, she’d know I was responsible for killing Jamis once they’d discovered his body. So I left. I caught up with them two months later, here, in Spokane. Introduced myself to the clan. Your father had already been crowned king. He didn’t want to let me stay with the group, but Calliope had taught me all about theRivins,” he spits. “I managed to convince him I was from another clan, and I wanted to travel with the new king. Archie had shown up around the same time, saying the same thing. Convenient for me. Made my claim all the more believable.
“So I stayed. Kezia and I started seeing each other. I would have to leave for a month at a time to check on Garrett, but when I came back, she’d be waiting for me. We kept it secret. She didn’t want her sister finding out until we were ready to get married. She did find out, though, didn’t she?” Lazlo calls out to Kezia. The woman just hangs her head, leaning against her restraints. She isn’t trying to free herself, though. From looking at her, it’s clear she’s accepted the bindings that tie her to the chair, and now they’re nothing more than a means of keeping her upright.
“Shelta caught us naked in Kezia’svardo.She wasn’t happy. Said she was going to tell the king, her husband, that she’d sullied herself. She was no longer pure and worthy of a true Rom husband. I left to check in on Garrett, and Shelta followed me, didn’t she? She threatened me. Told me not to see you again. Said she’d expose me as agadjeif I so much as looked at you again. I didn’t listen. I came back and fell straight back into your bed. We barely surfaced for air for three weeks, and when we did, Shelta was livid. There was a storm. We were camped at the glen, in the exact same spot your family are camped now, Pasha. Shelta dragged your aunt down to the river in the pouring rain. Had her by the hair.” Lazlo walks over to Kezia and curls a wave of her hair around his finger, almost lovingly. “I didn’t see her push you in, but she did, didn’t she?”
Kezia whimpers.
“She told everyone you were dead. I think she really believed it, too. For the longest time.”
I’m so fucking sick of listening to Lazlo’s masturbatory storytelling. If he wanted to tell his life story, painting himself as some kind of hero, then he should have written a fucking book and had done with it. I’d rather die an old man in bed, not knowing the reason behind any of this than have to listen to the sick fuck prattle on for one more second. “Where’s the key?” I growl.
Lazlo starts, as if he’s forgotten I’m even here. “What key?”
“The key to the mask.”
Lazlo grins, flashing crooked, yellowed teeth. “Right here in my pocket. No need to concern yourself with that, though. You just worry about what’s going to happen to Zara if I don’t call Garrett soon.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Lazlo lets his head rock back. He reaches his arms high in the air, pointing the gun at the ceiling, groaning as he stretches, cat-like. “Oh. Well. Y’know. Garrett’s well aware that I’m watching everything that’s going on in that apartment. I’m a planner. I like to think things through from all angles and create contingency plans accordingly. This possibility—Zara figuring out Garrett’s involvement and holding him at gun point—wasn’t something I anticipated. But I did think perhaps she’d go to him for help. I figured there was a possibility she might end up in his apartment. I gave Garrett standing orders, should that ever happen. I told him he was to slit her fucking throat if I didn’t call and give him counter orders within a set time frame.”
“Hah.Bullshit.” It has to be. He’s so full of shit, there’s no way he’s telling the truth. “You’d let him slit her throat? After you spent so long cueing this whole thing up? She’s too important to you.”
“Important? Why the hell wouldshebe important to me?”
“Because she reminds you of Calliope, just like Kezia did. God, you’re a sick fuck, Lazlo. Did you think you were gonna have her? Is that it? You saw her walking down the street in Spokane and you decided you were gonna stalk the shit out of her?”
Lazlo grabs a handful of Kezia’s hair and yanks on it, forcing her head back. The woman cries out in pain, and a tyrannical, terrible light flares in the black pits of Lazlo’s pupils. “Careful, Pasha. You don’t want me to hurt her, do you? Your lovely aunt?”
My stomach drops when I look down and I notice, for the first time, that every single one of Kezia’s fingernails is missing. I want to fucking throw up. “Looks like you already did that.”
“I’ve been very good to her so far, considering whatshedid tome.”
“What the fuck did she do, Lazlo? She was just another fucking victim to my mother’s spite!”
“SHE DIDN’T COME BACK FOR ME!!!” he roars. “She told me she loved me. She swore she’d never leave me. She did, though. She took the opportunity that presented itself to her, and she didn’t fucking turn back.”
Kezia’s shoulders are shaking. I don’t see her tears streaking her face, thanks to the mask. I see them rolling down the column of her neck as they pour out from underneath the thick, heavy metal. Something snaps inside me. “My grandfather was right. You areprikoza. The very worst kind. Everyone you come into contact with pays the price. Everything you touch turns to ash. Three generations of my family have suffered at your hands. You’re filled with so much hate. Even your love is fucking corrupted. You’re tarnished, down to the roots of your soul, Lazlo. Calliope should have left you to fucking freeze on the side of that railway track.”
