Page 104 of Dead Serious with Benefits
I stared at him as I noticed a visceral reaction from Plain Face. The name didn’t make any sense, other than it wasprobablynot Plain Face’s name, though it was clearly important to him. I didn’t think I even knew an Olivia, let alone be able to connect the name to this man.
“Isn’t that interesting?” Plain Face said. “Your boyfriend knows more than you do, isn’t that fun?”
“I’m not sure fun is the word I would use,” I said quietly, beginning to regret ever using ‘interesting’ to describe things.
“So you know her,” Plain Face said, staring a hole in Arlo’s face. “How?”
Arlo shifted uncomfortably. “I...was the one who prepared her body for the service and burial. I’m a funeral director and embalmer.”
That was when I realized who they were talking about. “That woman from my...party?”
Plain Face whirled on me, his brow stitched together so hard he looked like he had one brow. “That woman? That woman was my sister, you son of a bitch.”
“This is probably a bad time to make this point, but...I didn’t do anything to her,” I said slowly, wondering how I was implicated.
“Without you, she wouldn’t have been at your place. Without you, she wouldn’t have been there to take all that shit. Every time she went, she got lost in the shit you surround yourself with. If it weren’t for you and your constant need to surround yourself with all that junk, if you didn’t need to pull everyone into your mess, she would still be here! But no, you had to go out of your way to pull anyone and everyone you felt like into your mess,” Plain Face hissed in my face, and I could only lean back to avoid the spittle that flew from his lips.
“I have never dragged anyone to my parties or the clubs with me,” I told him, bewildered. “And I’ve never forced anything on anyone. And I certainly didn’t forceher.”
“You don’t even remember her,” he shot back, and I reeled when the blow I should have seen coming cracked against my face and almost sent me to the floor. As far as backhands went, that one was a doozy and hurt just as bad as the fist to the faceearlier. Then again, the fist to the face had probably primed me to be more sensitive. “How are you?—”
“Because I havenevermade anyone do something they didn’t want to,” I spat back at him. “You don’t know me any more than I knew your sister! I spent my whole damn childhood controlled by someone else, and if I had let her, she would have controlled my adult life too. I’m sorry about your sister, but I am not responsible for what happened to her. I didn’t force anything!”
“But you still can’t bring yourself to care, can you?” he demanded, and his foot lashed out, catching me in the chest and sending me sprawling onto my back. Arlo and Matilda cried out, but another harsh sound told me Arlo had been forced back into his seat.
Heaving in a breath to fill the lungs that had been knocked empty by the blow, I stared up at the man standing over me with a furious look. There was no denying the fury in his features, but there was more to it; there was sorrow, and God save us, he was losing his mind to that grief. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do in the face of his grief, not when he was focusing it all on me.
“It didn’t even have to be like this,” he snarled, and I flinched when he yanked his gun from his holster and waved it around. “But you? You just couldn’t die, could you? Everything I tried...didn’t stick. Couldn’t get you to fry, couldn’t get you to get crushed, couldn’t get you to burn, couldn’t get you to fucking bleed out in an alley like the piece of shit you are!”
I stared at him in confusion, and then a grunt of surprise was ripped out of me as understanding slammed into my chest. I couldn’t help but stare at Arlo, whose eyes were wide as he stared at the plain-faced man, his lips parting in surprise.
“You?” I gasped; now I could actually get air into my lungs. “Are you kidding me? The bad wiring, the...fire, the goddamnmugging? Are you serious? You have been trying to kill me for three weeks?”
“Trying,” he repeated, “and failing horribly. You might be willing to pass the buck, to blame her for what happened, but it wouldn’t have happened without you. God damn you.”
It was beyond absurd and made absolutely no sense. I didn’t know how to get control of the situation. We were already at a point of no return, and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do to ensure everyone got through in one piece.
“She was my sister,” he seethed, and I felt my heart flutter as I tried to figure out a way out for all of us. The problem was, there didn’t seem to be an option that wouldn’t result in violence. Someone was going to get hurt, and I just hoped it wasn’t Arlo...or his parents...or mine, for that matter. If it had to be me, since I was the focus of this...person’s anger, then so be it.
“What’s your name?” I asked calmly because it was the only thing I could think of saying.
He hesitated. “Devon.”
“Well, Devon. I can’t begin to understand what you’re going through. I grew up as an only child, and the only family I’ve really gotten to witness is that man’s over there,” I said with a nod toward Arlo, who was still sitting stiffly. Mask was beside him, but he seemed to be dropping his guard now Arlo wouldn’t be giving them much trouble. “But you know I have to ask...is this what she would want?”
“It doesn’t matter, does it?” he snapped, his hand clenching his gun. He didn’t draw it, which I considered a blessing. “She’s not here to say what she likes and doesn’t like.”
“You knew her better than anyone here,” I said calmly. “You would know what she’d want and what she wouldn’t. So you tell me, is this something she would want for you? Or would she want you to choose differently?”
“You’re just not getting it, are you?” Devon demanded as he straightened. “It doesn’t matter what she wanted or liked, because she can’t like or want anything anymore. She was finally making a name for herself and doing something she loved. And then she got caught up in your bullshit, and the next thing we all know, she’s going out all the time, she’s partying, she’s missing work, and she’s ignoring our calls. And the next thing we know? She’s dead, onyourbathroom floor. So you can stuff your bullshit understanding right up your ass, you hear me?”
“Warden,” my mother hissed in warning.
“Shut up, Mother,” I ground out. “You sit there and look pissed and pretty, alright? You’re not the one dealing with someone trying to shoot them.”
“Who the fuck said anything about trying?” Devon demanded as he pulled out his gun, and I felt my stomach drop.
“I understand,” Arlo said in a low, quiet voice that almost went unnoticed.
