Liv
“HEY, WAKE UP, lazy bones!” I kicked the bed with Audrey and Saul sprawled across it. I hoped they weren’t getting it on while I was knocked out on the next bed over. That’s just wrong.
Stuffing the rest of my clothes and things back into my pack, I ran my hand through the soppy wet mess of my hair. It was about time to check out and no one was moving.
My sister groaned and sat up, yawning and rubbing her eyes. “What time is it?”
“Time to check out. Let’s go.”
“Shoot! Okay, I didn’t really unpack, so it’s cool. I’m ready.” She stretched and started tossing her stuff into her own pack, simultaneously running a brush through her long, honey brown locks. “Where we headed today?”
“I guess we go ahead with our plan to hit the rest of the coast bars. It’s not like we can hide from Jonas anyway. He’s got his dogs sniffing our arses, so let’s just get to it before he has a chance to waltz back in here and grace us with his lovely charm again.”
Audrey nodded, about to reach over to shake Saul up, but he was already stirring. He sat up and pulled on a shirt before reaching down to pull on his socks and shoes. That man was delish, like a refined wine. Even his blind eyes took nothing away from his chiseled looks. I smiled and turned away before I embarrassed Audrey by eyeing them both too long. She deserved a nice specimen of a man like that. I’d never be able to hold one like him. I always picked the wrong ones to hang with and pushed the right ones as far as I possibly could. Let’s just say, I didn’t want to settle down, now or ever, not after all the crap Audrey and I had to go through in our childhoods. I’d never put a kid through that. Family was my sister, and that was all I wanted. If she chose to have kids, that was up to her. I’d be there for her and the kids, but no man was going to anchor me down with kids ever.
“Give me your pack. I’ll stuff it in the trunk.” I took the bag Audrey handed me and headed out the door. Pausing to peek around me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Jonas did have his little bitches sniffing around, watching our every move. Sighing, I clicked the trunk open and tossed our stuff into the back, including my guitar. Somehow, after last night, my little safety net felt incredibly absent. I was naïve to think Ruben wouldn’t send someone like Jonas after us. We’d kept all our plans secret, never telling anyone in his vicinity where we were planning to go. Jonas was an entirely different kind of monster, and we were truly at his mercy—a fact I hated with every fiber of my body.
How do I fix this? How do I twist it to our advantage? Reaching up, I touched the tender bruise that had blossomed around my eye. The swelling had come down, but it had left me feeling weak and shattered. Jonas was such a dangerous man. What could I do to quell his thirst for control over us? How could I swipe the reins of power from him willingly enough that he wouldn’t notice the loss of it? I slipped my sunglasses on, large bug-eyed ones which movie stars tended to favor because they covered so much of one’s face. Underneath the shades, I felt a bit better- less vulnerable, less broken. It was a partial mask to hide the fragility I always tried so hard to squash about myself.
I’d pondered on this, especially since Audrey volunteered to drive down the coast. I could take a moment and think it over, finding the solution to this puzzle. I would, too. One thing I had acquired from years of taking care of just me and Audrey was I knew how to survive and figure out stuff no one else would even think about as a problem. She always told me I could’ve gone to Harvard, for I was a damned genius, but that wasn’t the road for me. I wasn’t the kind of girl who could sit in an institution and accept things as they told me they were. I’d lose my damn mind there, surrounded by mindless robots operating in the system they were told they had to maneuver to become the ‘it’ people of America. I’d rather do it the hard way, like actually get the street smarts to make it. I didn’t need corporate America to save me. I’d save myself.
“What is tossing about in that head of yours, Sis?” Audrey’s voice broke through my cloud, and I shifted to face her. My feet were kicked up on the dashboard, so I slipped them down to stretch them out.
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
“You never just think, so cough it up.”
I laughed, shaking my head at Audrey. “If I tell you what I’m thinking, you’ll institutionalize me immediately.”
“I wouldn’t doubt that.” Audrey huffed, pointing at a McD’s for late breakfast. I shuddered at the thought of the greasy food, but she loved the stuff, so I agreed.
“Look, about Jonas, I’m sorry we got caught up in this crap, so I’m going to fix it.”
Audrey threw me an unconvinced glare before she pulled into the parking spot. “Like what, Liv? I don’t like the sound of that whatsoever.”
I groaned and pushed some loose strands of my hair behind my ears. “Look, Jonas isn’t a reasonable man. He’s used to getting everything he wants. What if I give him that? We give him the music he wants. He gets to be with me the way that he wants. I can manipulate a man in lust, or even love, get him to comply to my whims…our wants. He’ll be so wrapped around my finger he won’t even know he’s leaving us to our own devices. Then, when he gets tired of me, he moves on and we’re free again.”
“What?” Audrey ripped off her shades and grabbed my arm, her fingertips digging into the flesh uncomfortably. “Hell no. What are you thinking? You’re insane. No, you’re worse than that, delusional.” She slammed her hand against the steering wheel a couple of times before she stopped and leaned back, letting out a long, defeated sigh. “You’re kidding, right? Please say you’re pulling my leg, you psycho.”
“No, I’m not. I just texted him, letting him know I’d like to get to know him better.”
“What the hell, Liv! You really have some suicidal issues, don’t you?”
“He’ll leave you alone. He’ll let us do our music the way we want—hell, maybe even get us a contract. I’ll just…get a bonus, I guess.”
“You’ll just be his sex slave. No! Absolutely not!”
“It’s done, Audrey. It’s the only way he’ll eventually leave us be.”
“No. Are you not right in the head? What the fuck? Hell, even I know that already, but still, what the hell!” Audrey scrambled out of the car, barely letting Saul scramble out before she slammed the door, shaking the entire station wagon. “You’re mental. I suggest you get something to eat because your brain is devouring itself for lack of food and too many drugs. Get the hell out of the car, Liv.” Her voice was filled with bitterness.
I obliged, but not without throwing her a deadening glare for yelling at me in public. It was always humiliating, and she was the queen of humiliation when she wanted to straighten me out. I hated it.
“Whatever! You’re already killing yourself by eating that junk food, so who’s suicidal now?” I laughed and strutted behind her, head tall even with only Saul as the audience, no matter how immature I sounded. Maybe she was having this epic fit to impress him. He looked pretty calm and followed along quietly. Now why can’t Audrey be more like that? I liked him more and more as time went on.
Inside, Audrey had already ordered, even for me. I groaned and sat down in a booth. I knew my plan was foolproof. As if to reassure me, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I yanked it out, a text from Jonas flashing across the screen, and a smile spread across my face as I read it.
I’d love to meet up. When and where? Wear a dress.
Yep, falling right into the palm of my hand.
“I agree with Audrey. What you’re doing is a very bad idea.” Saul slipped in next to me, his shades covering up the icy blue eyes underneath. His face was still and calm, like nothing ever flustered him. His dark hair was neat and unruly all at the same time. How a man like him had lived life so effortlessly was beyond me.
“It’s what will get us through this intact.”
“He’s a dangerous man.”
“You don’t know him. I can read people really well. He’s mush under that hard exterior, like put
ty I plan to mold to fit me.”
“You don’t know him. You may think you do, but you’re playing right into his hands. He’ll make you pay for it, and you’ll regret it. There will be consequences.”
“You don’t know me, so don’t underestimate what I can do.”
“You’re right, I don’t know you. I do know men like Jonas, and they are unforgiving and don’t know how to love anyone, even someone as amazing as you. Don’t do this. Audrey wouldn’t be able to lose you if something terrible happened.” Even through all that, his face remained stoic and his voice steady. Maybe I didn’t like him as much as I thought I did.
“I got this, Saul. Nothing will happen. I got this.”
“I hope so, seeing that you’re not budging one bit. Be careful.”
“Careful is my middle name.”
“I’m pretty sure it is.”
Chapter Ten