Page 43 of Hale's Pawn
Once we’re outside,Mikonos is waiting by the car for us. “Can you give us a minute?” I say to Oran.
He blinks, still so shell-shocked. Mikonos looks at him. “No, you’re not driving. Walk around the estate and breathe.” Mikonos may sound rough but he means it in a good way.
Once Oran starts walking, Mikonos turns his anger on me. Mikonos is never really mad, he’s just antisocial. He crosses his arms over his chest. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t lose my shit, Ainslee? ONE!” he yells.
I flinch. Mikonos hasn’t yelled at me in forever. “I can explain…” I say.
“Explain then. Explain why this… this fucking woman was hurting you and you said nothing. NOTHING! Not to me, not to Markos. We’re your family, we would have protected you. You mean everything to me!” A tear slips out of his eye.
I take a step towards him but he glares at me, causing me to stop. He wipes his lone tear away. “I love... I loved her,” I say.
Mikonos bends a bit, acting like he didn’t hear me. “Come again? Because it sounds like I’m going to have to lose my shit even more.”
“I did love her, Ry.” a nickname from his real name, Orion. “She was my mother and I thought I could convince her to love me, even like that. She was all I had as a mom. You don’t know how that feels.” The moment I say it, I regret it. “I didn’t mean th—.”
“Fuck off. Go get in the Escalade. I’m tempted to shake your ass, but I won’t. Don’t you dare act like the rest of us don’t love you. I get you wanted your mother, but fuck her and fuck you for acting like I don’t know what it feels like to want a mom. Mine unfortunately DIED, AINSLEE! SHE DIED BECAUSE MY FATHER IS A PIECE OF SHIT! So fuck you, royally. Get your little ass in the car and Markos is going to drive you home. I can’t look at you right now.”
Mikonos starts to walk away and I grab his arm. “Don’t be mad at me, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
He softly pulls away. “I forgive you, Ainslee, but I’m going to that bad place right now and I need an outlet. That outlet is getting rid of your mother’s body,” he says in Greek.
He walks away and I sigh.
ORAN
The car ride is quiet. Honestly, I’m just trying to process what’s going on. Did Andres Bishops just shoot his wife? I mean, sure, I thought he was going to send her to jail or something, but no, the man did something I could never even think of doing. I’m no punk, but neither am I some killer. What the hell have I just witnessed?
“You okay?” Ainslee reaches out and slips her fingers into mine.
No.I blink. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Don’t lie to me, Oran. I know you’re not okay. I see it in your eyes.”
“So then, why did you ask?”
“Because I need you to admit it out loud. If you don’t tell me out loud, I won’t always know. I was like you when I first saw my dad shoot someone. You need a minute to take things in,” Ainslee says calmly.
“I don’t know how you can be so calm about it. I feel like I’m still in some dream,” I say.
“You just need to relax. Take a good swig of some hard ass liquor and take your ass to bed. It’ll eventually blow over,” Markos suggests.
“If that doesn’t work?”
“Then fuck it out of your system. No holding back. Let that anger seep through your body and then boom. Done.”
“That sounds like you’re instructing me to have rough sex.” I glare at Markos.
He looks at Ainslee and smirks. “She can take it. She’s a big girl. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the one that’s yours. We all know about that,” he says, looking out of the window.
I nod and say nothing else. After a bit, Ainslee speaks. “Do you think Mikos will forgive me?” she asks Markos.
“Mikonos is mad at you?” I ask. “What happened?”
Ainslee shrugs. “I was out of line. I said something that triggered him and now he doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“When is he not mad at you?” Markos teases her. It works because she smiles a little. “But, just try tomorrow or something. He’s not going to be mad at you forever. You know what you said is triggering, give him a moment.”
Ainslee looks away. “I can’t handle it when Mikonos is mad at me. That’s the last thing I want him to be like with me. He means the world to me,” Ainslee says and if I didn’t know how close they were as siblings, I would be a bit jealous, but I understand her. I get it.
