Page 9 of Rage & Paradise
The door to the clubhouse opens, and I hear Coca and another woman whispering to each other. I can’t hear what’s being said, but just that little bit of sound leads me to believe whoever our head bunny has brought in here is having second thoughts.
Finally, the click of heels comes in our direction.
I’m looking down at the papers in front of me, notes on what we’re specifically looking for.
“Así… now that’s what I’m talking about.” Digger growls from his seat and hums in appreciation.
“Shit, she’s fucking gorgeous,” Pooh mutters, which catches me off guard. He’s usually stingy with compliments.
I turn in my seat to see what the big deal is, and the second my eyes land on the woman walking my way, it feels like someone shoved a hook into my gut, twisted, and is trying to rip my insides out.
I can’t be seeing who I think I’m seeing.
She can’t be here.
Her eyes scan the room, and the second they land on me, they widen. There’s no doubt, the fucking bitch who ruined mylife is in my club, about to interview for a job as a glorified whore.
The tension in the room thickens, and all at once, the side conversations come to an end.
Vado must realize something is off. His eyes are locked on me. “Oro, everything good?”
No. Everything is most definitely not good.
I stand before she has a chance to make it all the way to the middle of the room.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
FIVE
Estrella
Oro. That man called him Oro.
That’s not what I know him as.
When I knew him, his name was Santiago.
The skinny, fair-haired little boy I once knew isn’t the man standing here in front of me. Even if I didn’t recognize his face, there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize that piercing glare.
Santiago, or Oro, I should say, hates me. He’s hated me from the very moment his mother ran down to the courthouse with my father to get married.
“Are you deaf now?” Oro snarls, taking another menacing step in my direction. “I asked you a fucking question. What are you doing here?”
He continues to glare at me, but my mind can’t seem to comprehend what to do in this situation.
I know that Oro hates me, but I’m at a loss as to the cause. I have a few suspicions, but I’ve never been able to get a clear answer, mostly because I never thought I’d see him again.
I asked his mother about him a few times after he left, and the few times I was able to get through her drug-induced stupor,she let me know in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t care less where her ungrateful son had gone.
It was hurtful. I couldn’t understand how any mother could be so callous to her own flesh and blood. But then again, if she could marry a monster like my father, then I guess disowning her son wasn’t as far-fetched as I might assume.
After never being able to get any real information out of her, I stopped asking. Instead, I kept my curiosity about Oro to myself. Still, I always wondered, not only where he was, but if I had done the right thing. I wondered if Oro got dealt a better hand at life after the night he was run out of the apartment.
Based on the way he’s looking at me right now, I’m inclined to believe he didn’t.
I lift my chin and barely look up at him. “I heard you. I’m just not sure what makes you think you can talk to me that way.” I keep my eyes from narrowing on him.
“Oro, I’m starting to think you might be the one who’s deaf here. Do we got a problem with this woman?” the one with the tattoos on his face asks.
