DAMIEN

 

 

It all happened in a flash, although it still felt like it played out in slow motion for the second time that night. The adrenaline pumping wildly through my veins was the only thing keeping me going. I felt every fight or flight response known to fucking man in a short span of time. 

All at once. 

I jumped in the passenger’s seat after she got behind the wheel. “Amira, I’m not fucking around! Let me drive!” 

She started the car and the engine purred to life, turning her head to look at me. “I own this sports car in three different colors—white, red, and black. Though it doesn’t compare to my yellow Bugatti,” she argued, right as her foot eased down on the clutch. Popping the shifter into first gear, taking off as bullets started lacing the back of the car. Shattering the rear windshield.

“Jesus Christ! Do you see what you did? What you started?”

“What I did?” she replied, surprised by my outburst. Quickly shifting into second, then third as bullets continued to ring out behind us. Fifty, sixty, seventy miles per hour, gunning it through the steel yard, kicking up dirt in our wake. “He disrespected me. That piece of shit is lucky I didn’t fuck his face with my Louboutin heel down his throat but ruining my brand-new stilettos wasn’t an option.”

I watched in astonishment as she downshifted to first, fishtailing out onto Jefferson Avenue. Nearly causing a fucking collision with a semi-truck. The only sounds that could be heard were the squealing tires and shots being fired, shattering more windows and more metal on our car. I fired back with both my guns in each of my hands, blowing out the tires of one of the cars chasing us, right when Amira did a burnout getting us the hell out of there.

“Fuck! I’m out of ammo!”

“My purse! There’s guns and ammo in my bag!”

More bullets bounced off the metal of the R8 while I reached for her bag in the backseat. Pulling out two Glocks, a Beretta, and a Ruger.

“What?” she questioned without me even saying a word. Reading my mind. “A girl needs options, Damien.”

I scoffed, shaking my head. The rush surging through my veins controlled my actions, and we were both damn lucky it did. I acted on pure impulse to protect her, still not giving a fuck about my safety. Shots fired through the air, more bullets pinged off the metal, glass shattered, all echoing in the night. Covering us as best as I could, I moved on pure fear. Staying low, I shot out the window while ducking from glass shattering around us.

“We’re almost there! I just need to lose them. How many cars?”

“Three!” I roared, furious this was happening. Choosing to take my anger out on the motherfuckers who were chasing us, instead of the woman zooming around traffic. Putting as much distance between us as she could. “Fuck this shit!” I leaned out the window, sat on the frame, and fired in all directions to take out their windshields. Hitting one of the drivers in the head. “Two,” I stated, sitting back in the car.

I reloaded, and she weaved her way in and out of traffic. Narrowing my eyes when I saw the scene in front of us unfolding. Halting all the air in my lungs, I held an intense glare on the road sign indicating it was closed, in bright neon lights, due to construction.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Muñeca, road closed,” I cautioned, bracing myself for impact with one hand on the dash and the other on the oh shit handle.

“Don’t call me that!” she fumed, downshifting at the last second, jerking the wheel to make a sharp right turn. Our car slid, missing the orange barrels. Losing one of the cars that went head first into the construction site.

The next string of bullets rang out, missing Amira’s head by inches. It wasn’t until she shouted, “Shit!” holding onto her shoulder that I truly saw nothing but fucking red. “Goddamn it!” 

The engine over-revved and our car swerved as she tried to gather her composure from being hit, shifting into fourth gear. The adrenaline coursing through me was searing in my blood at that point. Endorphins sky-rocketing, bringing me to my fucking breaking point. Taking over every inch of my fucking body. It was time to make my presence known, letting our pursuers know I wasn’t fucking around. There was no doubt in my mind, taking a deep breath for the first time since the first shots rang out, allowing pure rage to take over my senses.

To take over my entire being.

I pulled up the emergency brake and forcefully reached over, pushing Amira’s foot down on the brake at the exact same time, then jerked the wheel to the right. Causing her petite frame to be tossed toward her door as our car spun out. Abruptly stopping parallel to the motherfucker’s windshield, exactly how I wanted. His eyes widened when he realized where my gun was now pointing. Directly in between his eyes. My forearm held Amira against her seat as shot after shot erupted from my gun. Shooting out of the shattered driver’s side window. Bullet casings flew past my face, one right after another only provoking the sadistic monster inside of me.

“He’s dead, Damien. You don’t have to keep shooting him.”

I shot him a few more times, enjoying the blood erupting from his dismembered, lifeless body. Being ruthless and unforgiving was what I did best, and nothing would ever change that.

“He hurt my girl, he’s—”

“I’m not your girl!” She threw the shifter into neutral, and leaned her head back against the headrest. Her chest heaved, trying to catch her breath. It was then I noticed the blood on her shoulder was only a flesh wound. The bullet nicked her. “It’s not the first time I’ve been shot at, and it won’t be the last. People want me dead, it comes with the territory of being me. I’m not yours to protect or take care of. The second we get to my safe house, I want you gone. Do you understand me?”

“The fuck I am, Muñeca! You think it’s going to end here? This is just the beginning. I have to protect you from the shit storm you just started!”

“Stop fucking calling me that!” she snarled, shifting the car into first and taking off. Adjusting from gear to gear every time the engine protested from her excessive speed. She floored it to ninety going down the highway, taking the next exit going toward Woodward Avenue. “Do I look like a goddamn doll to you?”

“Amira—”

“And who the fuck protected me when you left me in Cuba, surrounded by your corruption?” she snapped, going faster and faster to get to our final destination. Driving through a secluded back alley for a few miles.

“I left you to protect you!”

“Oh, how considerate! Fuck you!”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” I gritted out through a clenched jaw.

She slammed on the brakes, jolting my body forward against the dashboard from the unexpected blow.

“You left me to fend for myself, and I did,” she rasped in an eerie tone.

We locked eyes.

“You don’t need to protect me from the monsters anymore, Damien.” She got close to my face. “I am the fucking monster.”

I jerked back from the force of her words, and she took my moment of weakness as an opportunity to run away from me. Like that would stop me from going after her. She opened her door and swiftly got out, rushing up the driveway of what I assumed was her safe house. I chased after her only to be met with the door being slammed in my face. I simply wedged my foot and bulky frame between the threshold in the nick of time. Pissing her off even more.

Seconds later, I rammed it open, causing her to lose her footing in those fucking heels and stumble backward.

“We need to talk! The faster you speak to me, the easier it will be on both of us.”

“No! The easier it will be on you, because I don’t want to fucking talk to you. Not now. Not ever!”

“I have all night. I can wait here as long as it takes for you to start talking and stop fucking cussing at me!”

She reached for the glass vase on the foyer table. “FUCK YOU!” Chucking it at me.

I ducked and it shattered behind me. Mariposa flowers lining the floor. Reminding me of another place and time. “You want to throw things at me like a goddamn child?! Only proving my point you’re just a little girl trying to play a mobster! Control your temper, Muñeca, it’ll get you killed!”

Her eyes widened, cocking her head to the side. “Oh, motherfucker, I’ll show you a temper!” She reached for whatever was in her sight, hurling it at me with all her strength. “You selfish son of a bitch!”

My hands fisted at my sides. Traitorous waves of anger rolled off me, witnessing the woman I turned her into. Immediately feeling the guilt of her being a loose cannon just like me.

She was the female version of me.

“Enough!” I roared from deep within my chest, blocking another piece of crystal aimed at my head.

Our chests heaved in sync with one another, both of our heated emotions were running wild. It had been over a decade of solitude and years spent apart fueling the emotions pouring out of both of us. It was an endless stream of hurt, pain, and emptiness.

I could feel her love.

But mostly, I could feel her hate.

The barricade surrounding her heart was a ticking time bomb, counting down until it exploded.

It was loud, disastrous, and chaotic.

It was going to take everything around her with it, like a tornado spinning around in circles. It elicited feelings I never thought would be possible, emotions no one should ever have to experience. I felt every loss of breath uttered from her broken heart. It cluttered my mind, willing me to keep going, to push through. I couldn’t keep up with her agony that grasped onto my heart like a fucking vice.

I simply said the only thing to be true, with desperation in my tone. I had nothing left to lose, but everything to gain. “You don’t belong in this godforsaken life, Amira. You never fucking did.”

She maliciously smiled, gesturing her hands around the room. “Take a look around, Damien.”

I did. For the first time since I stepped foot into her safe house, I peered around the room. My eyes widened, this wasn’t only her safe house, it was a mansion. Grand, angled staircases led up to a set of custom stairs with intricate latticework covering all the steps. Opening up to a wide foyer with shiny marble floors. Walls ascended as far as I could see. To our left an elaborate living room complete with an expensive pool table on the far wall.

“Not bad for a girl from El Rancho, eh? I’ve done well for myself. I have power, more money than I know what to do with, and the respect from anyone and everyone. No one crosses me and lives to tell about it. I’m not a drug lord, District Attorney Damien Montero. I am the drug lord. So, unless you’re here to fucking arrest me, get the fuck out!”

I don’t know how long I stood there stunned by the turn of events, raging with fury of my own creation.

Her.

“Muñeca—”

“Oh my God! I swear if you call me Muñeca one more time, I will put a fucking bullet in your head!”

I ignored her bullshit threats, they meant nothing to me. “What are you doing in Detroit, Amira? How did you even get to the States?”

“It’s none of your business how I got here, or what I’ve done with my life. I stopped being your concern the morning you left me alone with my virgin blood still on the fucking sheets. After you fucked me!”

I stepped toward her, she stepped away. “I didn’t fuck you, Amira. You and I both know what that was.”

“A waste of fucking time, that’s all it was. I want nothing to do with you, do you hear me? Stay the fuck away from me! I’m not your little doll you can play with whenever you want. Not fucking anymore.”

I growled out my frustration, unleashing the craze, the wrath I no longer had any control over. It pounded into me as furiously as the truths she believed and was spewing at me.

“I’m hanging on by a thread here. So, unless you want to see a side of me you haven’t fucking seen in years, I suggest you play nice and answer my fucking questions! Do you understand me?”

“I don’t know how to play nice!” With that, she started throwing shit at me again from the living room. I fell to the floor, taking cover behind a sofa. “We’re done, Damien! We’ve been done since you fucked me over! I want nothing to do with you!”

Glasses, plates, lamps, a shitload of books and decorations flew at me.

“We’re far from fucking done. Nothing will ever be done between us! We are Andromeda and Perseus, remember?” I slowly stood, surrendering my hands, making sure I wasn’t about to take a candelabra to the head. “We’re written in the stars, surrounded by nothing but darkness and the love we’ve always had for each other. Since day fucking one!”

Throwing a marble ball decoration at me from her coffee table, she snidely smiled. I caught it with my bare hand, whipping it to the floor. Shattering it into a million pieces.

“Damn, El Santo really knows how to lay it on thick. I can see how you became District Attorney. You should actually be thanking me. I gave you years of practice for spewing your bullshit lines to people! Starting with, ‘I love you!’”

Picture frame after picture frame came at me, but it didn’t stop me from moving forward, intercepting and deflecting random shit. She stepped back, grabbing everything in sight to keep me away.

“Oh, fuck you! You want the truth! I’ll give you the fucking truth!” I took a few steps toward her, nothing but glass and debris crunching under my shoes. “I didn’t know you were a virgin. We hadn’t spoken in so long. Fuck! I wasn’t even in your life in any shape, way, or form. You know that as much as I do,” I paused, letting my words sink in. Watching her wall slowly come down. “That night with your boyfriend at the park, I thought… I mean his pants were unbuttoned. Imagine what I thought was about to go down?! Regardless of claiming you were just fooling around with him. I’m a fucking man, and you’re a naïve little girl. It wouldn’t take much to pull down your panties and make you beg for his cock!”

“Naïve little girl?!” she sneered with so much fury. “How’s this for naïve little girl!”

Before I could say another word, she kicked the flat screen T.V. off the stand, almost laying me the hell out.

“Goddamn it!” I snapped, picking up the T.V. and throwing it out of the way of her path of destruction. Kicking shit in my way over to get to her.

“Stop! You’re nothing but a bullshit liar! No amount of apologies, gifts, or lies you tell me will change how I feel.” She backed up some more, shoving furniture in my direction. “It makes me sick to my fucking stomach, standing in front of you right now. I don’t want you in my life. I don’t need you. Don’t you get it? I fucking hate you!”

I felt the truth and severity of what she was saying. She meant it all and more.

“I’ll earn back your trust, even if it takes me the rest of my life!” I picked up one of the chairs and threw it to the side. Taking a few more steps toward her.

“I’ve been in the States almost as long as you have, and not once have I wanted to reach out to you. To see you. I want nothing to do with—”

“But you’ve followed my career? Oh, fuck off… I’m not buying it.”

“Don’t twist my words. It’s hard to avoid it, Damien!” Another lamp, another picture frame, another fucking glass crystal came at my head. Dodging right, left, ducking low. “Your pretty boy face is plastered all over the press and the news. Everyone knows who you are, El Santo. You’re a national celebrity. Stop trying to cross-examine me, my verdict is already in on you. Am I just supposed to forgive you because you suddenly have room for me in your life? When all I ever wanted was for you to let me be a part of it!”

“I did let you in. In my own way, I had let you in. I didn’t go to you that night to deliberately fuck you and leave. I went there to see you one last time. I had to. I had every intention of giving you your gift, spending some time with you, and leaving for good. But when I was in my car, I remembered I still had Yuly in the inside pocket of my jacket. I was just going to place her back on your bed and get the hell out of there. I don’t have to explain what happened next, you were there.”

She stopped. Finally, she fucking, stopped stepping back and throwing shit at me. Placing her hand out in front of her instead. “And look, you still fucked me! Knowing you were leaving the next day. Un-fucking-believable the shit you spew and think is okay. Fine, Damien… it’s okay! You win. You always fucking win. Thank you for explaining yourself, I truly appreciate it. I answered your questions, now you can get the fuck out,” she snidely relayed.

“You haven’t answered a goddamn thing! Jesus Christ, Amira! I know I fucked up. I’ve known every day for the last twelve years. I. Fucked. Up. That’s all I’ve ever done with you! Come on, give me a little bit of fucking credit. I loved you. I still fucking love you. And you know that. You know that for a fact because you know me. You’re the only person in this world who knows me,” I reasoned, feeling as if I was battling a war I didn’t have a chance of winning.

I didn’t care.

I would fight for her until the end of time. I always had.

“The only thing I know is how much I fucking hate you! I fucking hate you so much!” she yelled, her body shaking.

The intensity vibrating deep into my soul.

“I fucking hate you!” She reached behind her, grabbing onto the pool table balls, hurling them at me. Repeating she hated me over and over again as if she was desperately trying to make herself believe it.

Only fueling my determination to get over to her, right then and there.

My heart pounded and my ears rang as I blocked and shoved away each and every ball rushing my way. Nothing would stop me. Not even her. I was over to her before she even saw it coming.

 

“I hate y—”

Slamming her against the wall behind us, she winced from my touch. Breathing out, “I hate you, Damien.”

And I grimaced from her words. Stating, “You wish you fucking hated me.”

Crashing my mouth into hers.