Page 30 of Room Seven

Easier said than done.

Two. Picture a fire in the center of your chest and let those flames burn away all the chaotic emotions.

Yeah, I could use some matches right now and a Molotov cocktail. Burn this car so they can chase me. Burn baby burn!

Three: Let nature’s voice in to hush your anger. Chirping birds, the brush of butterfly wings.

Ahhh fuck this.

Back to basic criminal mode I go. Rule one: Lie until you get what you want.

“I promise to behave,” I offer sweetly. I even slide on a smile.

His hair has come loose in our exchange to hang softly over his broad shoulders. My fingers itch to feel its softness and let memories take over. I can feel Luther watching us in between navigating us through the streets of New Orleans.

“Sweetness?” he says and the question in his tone lingers in the car’s cabin. He’s asking why I am fighting them.

“Don’t call me that, Luther. I’m not sweet anymore.” There’s more than one way to lose your innocence. I might not have lost my virginity the night they left me, but they took something just as valuable. My trust.

Viper’s steel hold on me loosens and his curious hands roam over my sides to dip down my waist. His warm touch falls over my ass.

His mistake. Years of using the Genesis sparing gym pay off and I perfectly place my right hook.

Viper’s face snaps to the left, his hair whipping around with the sudden jerk.

But the single drop of blood dripping from the crack in his lips doesn’t make me feel any better. Acid gurgles deep in the pit of my stomach.

He slowly turns his head and looks me dead in the eyes. Hurt glitters in those amber depths, but instead of lashing out, my torturer easily recaptures my hands.

Scarlet smears over skin soon to be swollen and purple. “Stop hurting yourself, or I’ll have Mirsha use the rope in the trunk.”

I nearly fall off his lap.

“Not a bad idea,” Luther says and I turn to level a flat, narrowed look at him through the rearview.

Viper brushes unruly strands of hair from my face.

“Try it.”

“Baby girl, you’ve gotten mean in our time apart. But if it will keep you from hurting yourself, that’s fine by me.”

He pushes me between him and Mirsha, who has sealed his lips for a while now.

“Nice Aster died the night you three left me hurting and alone in the dark.”

The car falls silent, and for a moment there is nothing but the hum of rubber over Louisiana tarmac. That’s fine. It gives me time to plan my escape from them and figure a way to make my cousin pay for his disloyalty.

“I know Harlon called you. Don’t feel obligated to do his bidding. I would think by now you three would be tired of being Constantine bitches.”

Three sets of eyes level on me and I feel their weight like I do the enormous boulder in the middle of my chest.

I release a sign of frustration to keep myself from going off on one of them again. In my opinion, they deserve all my wrath, but I am bone tired.

“Look, I am not trying to be difficult. It’s just been a really fucktacular day. I don’t want to be here. I know you don’t want me here. Help get me on my way, please. That is all I need.”

Blue eyes sear me through the rearview mirror. Luther’s icy depths reveal turbulent waters as dangerous as the agitated waters of the Mississippi River. I drop my gaze to the glow of the dashboard. Through the low light casting onto him, I finally take notice of the suit he’s wearing.

That they are all wearing, I realize.

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