Page 28 of Death's Deal

Toni tries to seem defiant. “Did you think I chose to do that? That I had a choice in what happened to you?” She pushes me away. “I didn’t.” Grabbing up the half bottle, she pulls a clean glass from the cupboard. Pouring a heavy amount of the whiskey, she glugs it down in two mouthfuls. “It wasn’t all gummy bears, rainbows, and shopping dates with friends. I had to do as my father said. I had to.” As her phone pings a message, pulling it free of her pocket, an amazing grin crests her face. I’d seen it earlier when we were eating at the park. The phone would bing, she’d look, a smile would light her face, and she’d reply to the other side.

“Who the fuck is it? A fucking boyfriend? Did I take you away from some humorless, pocket protector, first-grade teacher named Charles?”

When I move to take it from her hand, she pulls back fast, slinging it behind her and placing it in her pocket once more. She’s not as forthcoming about giving up her truths. “It’s none of your business, Quinlan. I’m just a payday. We’re not friends, lovers, or even buddies. We’re nothing to one another. You’ve made that abundantly clear.”

“Oh, honey. You’re right. You’re a payday. So let me be perfectly clear, we were a thing. You ruined it. I grew up faster than I wanted. I became the king of my domain because that’s what you made me be.” Pointing to the tattoo on my right arm, Death in dark thick script, surrounded by the flames of hell and a caricature of a red and black demon. “That’s on you. I wanted out of it. I wanted to be a defensive end, I wanted college ball. I worked hard to be outside of the club, but you changed the direction of my life, Antonia.” Gulping back my glass of whiskey, allowing the simple burn to coat my throat, I set the empty glass on the counter to refill it. Placing her hand on the top of it, she blocks my chances of dealing with this conversation drunk.

Fuck.

Fine.

She wants this to be a sober moment of hatred, let’s go there.

Pushing up against her again, her spine tight to the wall, her breasts pressing close to my heart, the smell of her hair is wafting upward. Intoxicating, painfully so, I play with the heavy strands lying across her shoulder just begging to be pulled on.

“Don’t,” Toni says softly, not really meaning it with any seriousness. As I lift my hips to push into her, she tries again to seem tough. “Don’t, Quinny. I don’t think I can handle your flip-flop attitude.”

“Don’t what, Antonia? Don’t feel emotions. Don’t remember what it was like to have you under me? Don’t remember what it was like to feel you squirm and squeal when I would make your clit pulse. To feel your heart race and your breathing hitch when I would make you come silently in your father’s home. Which part is it you don’t want from me, Antonia?”

“I can’t do this again. It cost me everything last time. I can’t—”

“You can’t? It cost you everything?” I lean close, ready to argue with her. “I do as I please, Antonia. I take what I want now. There is no room for can’t in my life.”

“You’re not that man who takes what they want. I may not know Death, but I know you, Quinny. You are not that man.”

On that she’s right. I don’t take from women what is not given freely. “Fine, Toni. I’m going to ask you a question, and if you tell me the truth I’ll leave you alone, and we’ll never speak of it again. I’ll back off. Just remember I know you better than most. I know when you lie.”

Turning her eyes my way, trying to appeal to my better judgment, which at this moment, I don’t have a “better judgment,” I ask, “Why did you lie and send me to jail instead of those fucking assholes who were the criminals?” Her answer will determine where we go with this next.

Pushing me away from her gently, Toni attempts to walk out of the kitchen. I block her path. I want the answer. “I had to make a hard decision between my future and you. I chose what I thought was right.”

“So a Prada bag took precedence,” I snidely remarked.

“No, Quinny. I didn’t choose money and fame.” Placing a hand along my cheek, softly stroking it once, before I halt her, she carries on, “I had no choice.”

I remove her hand. “We all get a choice, Antonia. Your choice is what has made you a hostage of the Army. Your family, who you chose, they threw you to me as if you were a stray cat that pissed on their favorite shrubbery. You mean no more to them than their illegal immigrant gardeners do.”

As she’s about to reply, probably to curse me out for calling her an unwanted member of her household, when her phone pings twice quickly.

“Give me your phone.”

Removing her hand from my face, she looks frightened and backs away. “No,” Toni grinds her teeth defiantly.

“It’snota request. Give me the phone.”

“No. You may be the leader of your men and can tell them what to do, but not me.”

Reaching around her, I cage her in so I can pull free the phone. “I won’t have you fucking texting some lovesick asshole while you’re in my home, telling him how you care for him, how you want to be with him, and wish you were lying naked beside him, all as I keep you safe.” Grasping it, I pull it free as she wrestles to gain it back. “If he wasn’t man enough to keep you safe, then he doesn’t deserve you.” Right now, I’d love nothing more than to knock his perfect fucking teeth in so he can’t smugly smile her way ever again.

“It’s not like that! It’s not, I swear. Just give me the phone back, please!” She’s clearly distressed I have her lifeline to her lover. “Please, Quin. Don’t.”

Turning the screen my way once I finally get Toni’s grubby mitts off of it, it lights up with the texts bannered across the face.

Don’t be worried. I’ll be fine.

Love you, Mom. Be safe.

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