Ruin & Rule

I didn’t move. Something cold slithered down my back. As nice as Grasshopper seemed to be, I didn’t like the reason why he was here—in his boss’s bedroom.

“Sorry, my mistake. Kill. President Kill.”

Grasshopper nodded, holding out his hand again, waggling it a little in impatience. “Yes, I know the dude. He’s a good man and for him to have snapped the way he has means you’re not good for his health, little lady. Come on, get up. Time to go.”

I baulked. “What? I don’t want to go.”

Grasshopper gave up the pretense of waiting for me to hand myself over to his control, and grabbed my elbow instead. Dragging me to my feet, he noticed the eraser in my clenched fingers. “Shit, where did you get that from?”

I cradled it to my chest. “I gave it to him. A long time ago.”

The jovial, almost curious interaction faded from his eyes. “Ah, I get it now.” His face hardened; his persona went cold. “You’re playing with him. Sorry, but I don’t have time for bitches trying to fuck up one of my brothers—especially my Prez.”

Snatching my wrist, he forced my fingers to unclamp and tossed the eraser on the bed. The same bed where Arthur had fucked me; the same bed where I’d seen the level of his grief. “Come on. You’re not going to hurt him anymore. You’re done.” He strode toward the door, dragging me easily.

I jammed my heels into the carpet, scratching at his hand. “No—wait. I can’t go. I have to stay.”

He didn’t say anything, carting me out of the room and down the corridor.

“You don’t understand. I know him. I might be—”

He jerked to a stop. “Did he fuck you?”

I blinked. “That’s none of your bus—”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Answer me three questions—if you answer them right, then I’ll leave you here and tell Kill to be a man and sort it out with you face-to-face. But if you’re wrong—you’re coming with me. You’re never seeing him again. And you better hope to God the man who has bought you has a better tolerance for liars.”

Bought? I was already sold?

The world fell away. The corridor spun sickeningly. Kill told the truth when he left.

I never want to see you again. We’re through.

Shit! I’d been prepared to leave because of Kill’s horrible silent treatment, but that was before I’d seen the truth glowing in his eyes. He was just so used to being hurt, so used to nursing his grief and living with a broken heart. He hated me because I represented hope. That would scare anyone who loved someone as much as he did.

“I’ll answer your questions, only if you answer one for me.” Please, know the answer. Please, be close enough to Kill that he told you. “What was his dead girlfriend’s name?”

Grasshopper froze, and his fingers bit into my flesh. “How do you know about her? Damn, you’re good. No wonder he’s been so fucking screwed up the past few days. If it were me, I would’ve killed you for bringing all that back.”

“Bringing what back? Please—I need to know!”

He threw me away, running both hands through his hair, messing up the perfection of his mohawk. “Fine! You want to know? Kill was sentenced to life imprison—”

Life?

“I know—he told me he was in jail when she died.”

He shook his head, smiling cruelly. “Not when she died. He was in jail because she died.” He crowded me against the wall. “Don’t you get it? He was done for murder! He killed her.”

My heart didn’t know if it should give up or explode. “That can’t be true! He told me she died in surgery—”

“Injuries that he gave her.”

My mind turned into a vortex, swirling faster and faster with horror.

Flames.

The smoke disorientated me, skipping my mind back to my birthday two weeks ago.

I’d turned fourteen. My parents hosted a barbeque for the entire Chapter. Men in leather jackets, women wearing their lover’s patches, and children all raised in the lifestyle came to celebrate my day.

We’d been a family. A happy, tight-knit family.

But now I crawled along the carpet that was drenched in blood. I scurried from flames hotter than any barbeque and the right side of my body became as char-grilled as any hamburger.

The pain.

It was excruciating, but then… it disappeared.

Shock, gave me energy to keep crawling and choking and reliving the horror of seeing who’d poured gasoline through my family’s home.

I saw who struck the match.

I knew.

I had no choice but to survive so they would pay.

“Anyone in there?” The voice crackled with flames.

My throat was parched, my eyes blind from fumes. I couldn’t answer.

I crawled…

I dragged my burning body…

I… crawled…

I went blank.

Grasshopper shook me. My neck bounced on my spine like a rag doll as I blinked the horrible flashback away.

“He set fire to my house?” I whispered, terror squeezing my lungs.

My soul fractured into a billion pieces. The boy with the green eyes tried to murder me?

I scrambled at Grasshopper’s jacket, hating the skull and raining coins embroidered into the thick leather. Something about it looked wrong… terribly, terribly wrong.

“Why?” I begged. “Why did he try to kill me? We loved each other!”