Page 124 of A Dark Duet

She walks over to an elevator and swipes a key card, and it opens. She waves her hand so I can proceed into the car with a sarcastic but curious expression.

When the elevator reaches his floor, it dings and opens. A large office comes into view with floor-to-ceiling windows and a single wooden desk in the center. Ethan is standing leaning over his desk with his hands placed on the surface facing me.

My fingers slide over the smooth key fob to the Bentley burning below in his parking lot and the look of fury is etched on his face.

“Are you fucking crazy?” he says through clenched teeth.

“Maybe or I’m just a little unhinged,” I say, shrugging my shoulder.

“They will think someone is trying to attack me.”

“I don’t give a fuck about who thinks whatever the fuck. The same way you didn’t give a fuck about me. I heard what you said to Jaden over the phone when you called me. I have a target on my back because of you. You think you can just come into my life and lie to me? You preyed on me and deceived me, you bastard,” I say, my voice full of rage, throwing the key on his desk. “Here is the key to your fucking Bentley. If you want to send someone to kill me, go ahead. I don’t give a fuck anymore.”

I walk toward him until I’m close enough, and I smack him across his face. Thwack! He grabs my wrist and his nostrils flare. “I’m going to let that slide because I know you are angry. Don’t you ever come up to me and hit me.”

“Or what? You’re gonna kill me? There is one thing you didn’t factor in when you picked me out of the bunch. You may think I am a whore with a fucked-up upbringing that no man wants but here is the thing. I have nothing to lose. No family. No money. No husband. No children. Not even parents who would come looking for me. There is nothing to take from me that hasn’t already been taken. To someone like you, I am worthless. Collateral damage. I see you no different than the monsters who raped me and left me to die.”

I snatch my wrist from his grasp and he lets me take a step back. “I told you I was sorry. I made a mistake in deceiving you but I want you to know I have fallen for you. I won’t let anything happen to you. You have my word.”

“Maybe in your little Mafia world.” I wave my hand around his impressive office. “But to me, it means nothing. I don’t trust you. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t want your car or your money. I prefer to keep dancing on a fucking pole to get by then to take another dollar from you.”

“You know he is incapable of loving you. You realize that, don’t you?” He changes the subject and redirects it to Jaden because he knows how I feel about him. I regret telling him how much it hurt when Jaden let me go. What he is telling me is something I already know. Something I have already accepted.

Giving him a hard stare, I tell him, “Where I come from, you cannot miss or hope for something you never had. It just makes it easier to accept things the way they are. I want to thank you for reminding me.”

He flinches and I walk away from him toward the elevator. When I push the button and the doors open, I turn around once I step into the car.

He stands facing me with his hands inside his trouser pockets and watches me with an expression of defeat. “Remind you of what?”

Before the elevator doors close, I answer, “That I’m worth nothing.”

When I reach the outside of the building, I quickly call an Uber to get to my apartment and grab my motorcycle and ride toward the gym. There is a voice message from her that is out of jail. I know it is just a matter of time before she owes money again to Daniel and Ben. They are the ones that run the streets in South Dakota and handle all the drug deals. All the hard stuff is filtered and run by them. They are the ones that raped me. They are coldhearted and filthy. They graduated high school when I was just in seventh grade. They would come around and sell drugs to my mother. I was still a kid and they left me alone, but when I fell for Jace in high school, I gave him myV-card and then the whispers began about how the star football player was dating trailer trash. He was so worried about his image that he told everyone I was just an easy lay that would end up being a drug-addicted stripper. He made up lies and said that I begged him to have sex with me for money.

It wasn’t long before Daniel and Ben got wind of the rumors. Football is a very popular sport in a small town, they would believe anything Jace would say and no one except Giselle believed me when I said the rumors were lies. The night they left me to die, they were afraid I had told the authorities what had happened and left me alone.

Soon after, I left when I turned eighteen and began dancing to support myself. I had no skills, no money, and everyone thought I was a drug addict and a whore like my mother. I quickly realized that day with Jack that my mother was too far gone and only used me to get her fix. It was a mistake that Giselle and I paid for, and I vowed to never fall into that trap again. Jaden and Nate just bought me time.

Jaden promised to protect me, but I quickly learned his protection had an expiration date when I was left on my own. My only saving grace was that my mother was still incarcerated. There weren’t many options for a girl like me. Either way, Daniel and Ben have enough resources to come looking for me and if they think I can pay them with cash or my body, they will come after me to collect. I need to be ready when they do come for me.

Briana

Entering the gym after parking my motorcycle, I spot Jaden near the cage, coaching Nick and Brian as they spar. Charlie sees me walking over and I wave at him but don’t stop to talk like I usually do. He watches me walk over to the cage curiously, when Jaden sees me, he signals for the guys to stop.

“Hey, is everything alright? Why are you riding instead of driving?”

“That is because I don’t have a car and the only way I have to get around is my bike.”

He frowns at me and then his gaze travels to where I’m watching the flat-screen TV behind him showing a breaking news report about a car lit on fire in front of billionaire Ethan Carter’s building as the firefighters extinguish the flames.

“Where’s the car?” he asks but I dodge the question.

“I need you to train me on how to defend myself.”

He frowns and then gives me a cold, hard stare before he says, “No. I asked you a question. Where is the car, Briana?”

Rolling my eyes upward, Giselle and Nate walk up beside me as I point to the TV.

In slow motion, everyone, including Nick and Brian, turns to see that I am pointing to the screen where the Bentley is a charred piece of aluminum.

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