Dante
The blond man who’d bumped into me the day before stopped beside my breakfast table. I looked up at him, catching the scowl on his face before it changed into a false smile. Clearly, he didn’t like me, though fuck knew why, since I’d done nada to him. He’d ploughed into me, not the other way around. Or maybe he was like everyone else, assuming I was a criminal due to my tattoos, scum who should be in the slammer, not some fancy-schmancy rehab clinic.
“There’s a woman at the reception,” he said. “She won’t leave until she speaks with you.”
I groaned, hoping like fuck it wasn’t Kara, but knowing it probably was. Looks like it wasn’t me he was annoyed with, because Kara could put a scowl on anyone’s face—mine included.
“Is she blonde, gorgeous, and with a Croatian accent?” I asked.
He nodded, his floppy blond fringe falling over his eyes. He swept it off his face, giving me a hard stare, as though I was at fault for my ex showing up. He looked like a preppy shit, white-bread who wore polo shirts and drank lemon, lime, and bitters, pretending it was beer so he didn’t look like a prude. He probably went to church every Sunday, a good Methodist or Mormon boy... Yeah, I could imagine him knocking on doors when he was younger, trying to convert people. I smiled at the memory of what Jasper used to do when Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses came over. He would whip out his Satanic Verses, laughing his head off as the good li’l Christians ran like hell.
“We don’t normally allow visitors,” Preppy Shit added, “but she said it was urgent.”
“I bet it is,” I replied, pushing up from my chair, everything to Kara urgent.
I headed out of the dining hall and along the corridor, the counsellor, or whatever he was, following me to the reception area. As I rounded the corner, I spotted Kara by the large kauri counter, dressed in her usual attire: fuck all. Her fake leather micro-skirt barely covered her shapely arse, while her massive tits were trying to split apart her leopard-print top. Add all of that to her sky-high black stilettos, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had men propositioning her. But, although the wannabe prostitute getup was trashy as hell, I fucking loved the way she looked, Kara always giving me a boner. I just hated the way she treated me.
“What are ya doin’ ’ere, Kara?” I asked, making a beeline for her.
She spun around to face me, the sour expression on her gorgeous face instantly changing. She lit up like a born-again Christian seeing Jesus for the first time. Before I knew what was happening, she was launching herself at me, wrapping her legs around my waist. She started kissing me all over my face, probably covering every inch with her bright red lipstick.
“I missed you so much, Dante!” she cried, her Croatian accent thick.
I pried her off me, the guard behind Kara grinning widely. “What are you fuckin’ lookin’ at?!” I snapped at him, knowing damn well he was ogling her arse, her skirt having ridden up, Kara wearing a G-string.
He gave me a Can you blame me? shrug, then turned away, the smile still on his ugly mug. For some reason he looked familiar, his leathery skin reminding me of someone else. I just couldn’t put my finger on who that someone was. Either way, I had more important things to do than trying to remember who he looked like.
I turned my glare on my ex as she fixed her skirt. “I asked, what are ya doin’ ’ere?”
“I told you, I missed you,” she replied, looking hurt by my tone.
I grimaced, knowing I was being a right shithead to her. Despite being my ex, she’d still been one of the people who’d been there for me during the intervention.
“Yeah, sorry, still, you ain’t allowed ’ere,” I said. “And how did’ja even know where I wuz? Only Jade and Ash know, and those two wouldn’t tell you squat.” My manager/producer hated her with a passion, while my brother was a hard motherfucker who wouldn’t crack under pressure, and especially not from Kara. He was one person she couldn’t push around, Ash taking no shit from her.
“Sledge,” she said, mentioning my younger brother.
I frowned, wondering how Sledge even knew I was here, then the penny dropped. Ash would’ve told our li’l sister, who would’ve told her twin, and knowing Sledge, he would’ve blabbed it to Kara without thought. I shook my head, thinking Juliet should’ve known better than telling her twin. Sledge was incapable of keeping secrets due to his brain injury, the bullet having stolen his ability to censor himself. He’d been shot in the head while trying to save his boyfriend, my bro thankfully pulling through.
Kara’s face soured. “Why aren’t you happy to see me?”
“I’m in rehab, Kara,” I replied, avoiding saying the real reason. I didn’t just need to quit booze, I needed to quit her. I still loved her, just couldn’t deal with the abuse. “You know I’m not s’posed to have any outside contact,” I added.
“But I had to see you. I missed you so much.”
“So...” the blond counsellor spoke up behind me, “this isn’t an emergency.”
Kara turned her pale blue eyes on him, giving him an icy stare. “Of course it’s an emergency! I haven’t seen Dante in over week.”
“The conditions of his stay—”
She cut him off, “I don’t care what the conditions are! He’s my boyfriend, which means I should get to see him whenever I please.”
“I’m not your boyfriend anymore, Kara,” I said, frustrated with her.
Her eyes snapped back to me. “You will be once you get better,” she replied, her Croatian accent growing thick with emotion.
I shook my head at her. “No, Kara.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean no? There’s nothing stopping us from being together once you leave here.”
I shook my head again.
“Stop shaking your good-for-nothing head at me, Dante Rata!” she barked. “I’ve stood by you, waiting for you to get over Beth’s death—”
“Beth’s still alive!” I snapped, not believing she’d said that.
“Barely. I heard they’re going to pull the plug after she reaches full term.”
I stiffened at her insensitivity. “You’re a callous bitch.”
She waved her hand at me dismissively, the rosary tattoo wrapped around it extending to her forearm. “What I said wasn’t callous, you’re just oversensitive when it comes to that woman. And I don’t understand why you’re still so hung up on her. You admitted you loved me more, so get over it. Just because she’s got one foot in the grave doesn’t make her a saint. If anything, she’s more likely going to meet the Devil, than God.” She scowled at me. “Stop glaring at me, you know it’s true. She was a lying bitch who thought way too much of herself.”
“You fuckin’ lied to me way more than Beth,” I said, thinking it was rich of her. “The cameras in my room, your fake husband—”
“That wasn’t by choice. You know Craven threatened to kill my family if I didn’t do what he wanted,” she replied, mentioning our old boss. The man had ordered her to hook up with me when I was nineteen, so she could put cameras in my bedroom. He’d wanted to sell the videos to his clients, since he’d had an illegal porn business hidden in the dark net. But Kara had ended up falling for me, moving into my house without his permission. Craven had allowed it to happen for a while, then had forced her to leave me when his clients wanted me to fuck more than just her. It had devastated me when she’d walked out on me, leading me down a road of drunken debauchery, my sexual exploits now legendary. Then out of nowhere last year, she’d walked back into my life. Craven had ordered her to become my girlfriend again after my brother had told the prick we were cutting ties with him and moving. Craven had wanted her to move with us, so he could keep filming me without my knowledge.
“You can’t throw that back in my face,” she said. “Not to mention, I risked my life for you,” which was true, Kara almost taking a bullet for me in a game of Russian Roulette.
“Fine, but you’re still a nasty bitch.”
She clicked her tongue, giving me one hell of an eye-fuck, her gaze basically stripping me bare. “The right kind of nasty, baby, especially for you.”
I sneered at her. “Not bloody likely, so don’t you dare think you can swan back into my life and start where we left off. It ain’t gonna happen.”
She took a step closer. “You said you love me, so why not?”
“We’re not good together, Kara, you know that. It always ends badly.”
“It doesn’t have to, if you tried.”
My eyebrows shot up. “If I tried?”
“Stop repeating what I say, you know what I mean,” she said, reaching for my hand.
I whipped it back. “Yeah, for me to toe the line, doin’ everything you say. That’s what you mean. Which I have no intention of doin’. So, leave, Kara, before you ruin our friendship too.”
“I don’t want a friendship,” she spat out the word as though it was vile. “I want all of you.”
I shook my head at her. “You know that’s not gonna happen now.”
“Why?!”
“I can’t take the shit you throw at me.”
“This is about me knocking you over, isn’t it? That was an accident, Dante, so get over it.”
“It’s not just ’bout that shove, Kara, and you damn well know it. We’re too volatile together. It won’t work out.”
“Don’t you dare say that! You said you wanted to be with me, until that bitch lied about having your baby.”
“Leave!” I yelled, finally losing my shit, the continual mudslinging at Beth too much.
“I’m not leaving until you admit we’re meant to be together!”
I let out a choked laugh, thinking this took the cake, the woman delusional.
“Don’t laugh at me!”
“What do ya expect me to do? You’re yelling at me, insulting me, and we’re meant to be together? Your words are a fuckin’ joke, Kara. You’re a joke.”
Her face turned red, anger warping her beautiful features. Then her hands whipped out, shoving me back hard, almost knocking me into the blond counsellor.
I righted my footing and stepped closer, lowering my head to her level. “This is exactly why we can’t be together. You can’t control yourself,” I growled out.
Guilt crossed her face. “I didn’t push you that hard, so stop making a hill out of a mountain,” she said, getting the saying wrong, her English not fully up to speed. But it didn’t lessen what she’d said, the woman always downplaying her actions.
“What ’bout the last time?” I snapped. “You pushed me so hard I wuz knocked unconscious. Or what ’bout that time you threw a knife at me?”
She blanched. “That was years ago, and you said you forgave me.”
“Forgiving you won’t stop the abuse.”
“Dante—”
“No, Kara, this is it. Leave.”
“No, Dante!”
She went to grab me, but I backed away, snapping at the counsellor, “My manager said no visitors.”
The counsellor moved towards her as I turned to leave, along with the security guard. I ignored her scream for me to stop, knowing this was it...
Our friendship was as dead as our relationship.