Page 66 of Dangerous Contract: Part 2

Monique nodded.

"You sure you don't want to at least break something before leaving?" Toya asked. "That usually makes me feel better."

Monique shook her head. The person whose legs she wanted to break was avoiding her.

"Come on." Toya wrapped her arms around Monique's shoulders. "We don't have to come to this raggedy-ass casino ever again. I hope they lose all their money and get audited by the IRS," Toya snapped, glaring at the guards before leading Monique back to Toya's car. Once inside the car, Toya opened the glove compartment and handed Monique some Kleenex.

Accepting it, Monique asked, "What's this for?"

"You can cry now," Toya told her.

"I'm done crying."

"Good!" Toya exclaimed. "Looks like it's time for the revenge phase of the breakup cycle. Are you ready to get angry? I'm talking angry enough to kill?"

"Kill? I mean, I'm mad, but not mad enough to kill. I'm not going to prison for no man. Why would you even suggest something like that after all we've been through?"

"That's precisely why I suggested it. You have to fight fire with fire. To get to Raz, you have to speak his language. We now know the Cattaneos are not against cutting off heads..."

"Toya!"

"I'm just saying," Toya started as she backed her car out of the casino's parking space. "Maybe we need to cut off some heads to get Raz's attention."

"Are you seriously talking about decapitating people?"

"I really don't think it's that hard to do."

"Toya!"

"What? I'm just saying, I watched a few how-to videos about it last night and..."

"Toya!"

"Stop yelling my name. You're going to make me deaf."

"I'm just shocked by you," Monique told her. "Why would you watch something that gruesome?"

"It wasn't human heads being chopped off. I couldn't find any videos about that. So, I watched videos of people cutting off chicken heads instead."

"That's still gruesome. I swear, you're one extreme, and Meka is the other. She refuses to leave my house and return to her own. She refuses to discuss what happened to us at all, which isn't healthy. And you can't stop talking about it, which also isn't healthy. It's like you enjoyed the thrill of it or something."

"I mean, I'm seeing a therapist," Toya told her.

"You were seeing one before all of this happened."

"True. That's beside the point, though. What else do you want me to do, Monique? Do you want me to sit around looking crazy, staring out the windows, and refusing to leave the house like Meka is doing?"

"No. I don't know," Monique mumbled, leaning back against the seat and staring out the passenger side window. "I don't know what any of us should do right now."

"You're the one who needs to be seeing a therapist right now," Toya told her.

"Hmmm."

"I'm serious, Monique. You've been through a lot. I mean, your ex kidnapped you, the sorry fucker. You saw your father..." Toya went silent, sentence trailing off.

Killed right before my eyes,Monique thought, finishing Toya's sentence. I saw my father killed right before my eyes, and I can't even tell my mother he's dead because of Orazio's NDA. Yes, I should be dealing with the trauma of that right now.

The sad thing is, I'm more traumatized over my conversation with Orazio than I am over my father's death. I should feel guilty about that. But the truth is, I'm glad both my father and my ex are out of my life.

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