NEFARIOUS: B723 SERIES BOOK THREE, page 28
MILLS: Extremely sorry to hear that.
AMIRAH: I want you to stay the hell away from me and my family. I mean it. I don’t want to see you again.
MILLS: I’d have to know your family to stay away from it.
If Amirah thinks I’m going to out myself over a text message like some dumbass, she wasn’t impressed with what I could already do.
That or she’s that pissed.
The latter is sounding pretty promising right now.
“The wicked witch isn’t dead.” I glance over at Kyson, hoping he catches on since Atlas is still out here with us. “I just heard from the younger sister.”
“How did she get your number?”
I shrug. “Dunno.”
“She gonna talk?” Marty asks me.
“I have enough to do.” I nod at Ky. “You wanna have a play?”
His lips curl in a smile. “You don’t have to ask twice.”
“I’ll have Emmy look up the hospital.”
“Uncle Ky, you hurt?” Atlas’s sweet voice penetrates the tense air, and I think I feel us all ease up a little.
This is what it’s all about—family.
When this is all over, it’s all I need to be focused on.
“Nah, Princess,” Kyson replies. “But a hug would still make me feel even better.”
Atlas slides of Bishop’s lap and immediately runs right to him. Her dark brown curls bouncing along her back as she goes.
“There’s no use in beating a dead dog,” Laurent mutters at my side while I’m too busy seething at the screen of my phone.
MILLS: I’d have to know your family to stay away from it.
I want to knee him in the balls.
I want to rip his hair strand by strand and watch him wince in pain.
I want to gouge his damn eyes out with my baby blue nails.
The overwhelming smell of disinfectant and stale air fills my lungs on every huff and puff I take. Dad hasn’t stopped pacing the floor in over twenty minutes as we wait for the doctor to come back and tell us how severe Odette’s condition is.
All we know is that she’s in the ICU.
I don’t know where Solange is. My mother has yet to be seen, and Laurent has been too busy bouncing his leg ever since I arrived.
I understand why he did it. But, as stupid and ballsy as that sounds, I know why Mills attacked my sister. I guess I just didn’t think he would.
Again, I was naive enough to think that. But why should I really be surprised with someone who purposely went out to destroy everything I had? Except taking my sister’s life?
That’s upping the extreme to me.
He threw two men off the penthouse floor.
“I’m turning him in,” I tell my brother as Dad looks around the corner and down the hall. “He has to pay for—“
“With what evidence?” He keeps his voice down when he says, “She got what she deserved.”
“Laurent...you don’t mean that.”
“I do.” He bows his head into his chest and folds his hands together. “You don’t know the kind of shit I put up with, Amirah. I shielded most of it from you but, fuck, man. It was bad. It was always really bad.”
I turn my body on the maroon vinyl of my chair, watching him shift uncomfortable, and a muscle in his jaw tick. “What do you mean? Why didn’t you tell me? I—”
“And what were you going to do about it?”
“Laurent—“ My hand falls in comfort to his back. “—I’m sorry—“
“Mr. Van Doren.” Our heads snap up to see an older man dressed in a white coat standing in the doorway of the waiting room. “I’m Dr. Walter Synder, I’m overseeing—“ Dad reaches out to shake his hand.
“Yes, yes. How is she?”
“Out of surgery and—“
“Surgery?” Dad bellows out. “What kind of surgery? Wha—“
“Emergency surgery, Mr. Van Doren. One of the stab wounds hit her kidney, and we had to go in and stop the bleeding. There were many others that we needed to get the bleeding under control. I’m surprised, sir, that she made it as long as she did.”
“She’s dead?” I see my father’s face turn pale white, and Laurent shoots up to go to his side.
Me, I can’t move.
I can’t imagine going through what she did. Lying in the middle of a dirty alley, bleeding out until a passing couple found her. The fear she must’ve felt that she’d die there.
Maybe how Mills felt.
How Laurent may have felt at one time with all my sister’s bully and the things he suffered that I had no clue about.
My family is a dark lie.
And I’m wondering how much of this my father knows. How much he’s ignored and if we need to break his heart some more with what has already happened with me.
It’s time. This is reality.
Laurent’s body suddenly plops down next to mine, and my thoughts immediately flee me. Looking up, Dad isn’t in the room with us anymore.
“She’s good?” I mutter softly.
“For now.”
“Whatever happened, I know you don’t want to get into it, but I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help protect you. And…I want to thank you for always being there to protect me.”
“You know I’d do it again for you.” He leans back in his chair and kicks up his leg. “Trip said he stopped by.”
Oh my God, not now.
“Yeah. He, uh, said he came in for a friend’s bachelor party.”
“And there was a guy there with you claiming he was your boyfriend?” I feel his heavy stare and scoff off a chuckle.
“Nah, just a friend who likes to make me uncomfortable because he’s an asshole.”
Why am I lying right now?
Thankfully, karma or God wants to give me a break because my brother doesn’t press further.
“How’s the school hunt?”
“Honestly, I haven’t thrown as much effort in as I should. As a result, I’m…discouraged.”
“Well, you only get this week to wallow and then back to it. When one door closes, another one opens. This isn’t the end for you.”
Easier said than done.
Regardless, I lift my lips as high as I can in a reassuring and faux confident grin. “Tell the unfinished dress in the spare bedroom that I’m working on that. It sits on the mannequin all day depressed and lonely.”
“You’ll finish. And Odette will live, hopefully with a new perspective on life.”
“Where are Mom and Solange?”
“Flying in, I guess.” He pulls out his phone and begins going through his emails. “God forbid there isn’t a First Class ticket for them to jump right away. They had to wait.”
“I don’t want to be here when they do. I’m—“
“Hiding?” He perks a knowing brow, but he doesn’t know everything that has happened in the last two weeks.
And it’s time I stop hiding behind everyone’s feelings.
“Solange sent two men to rape me.”
Laurent’s eyes widen before murderously narrowing in on me. “The fuck did you say?”
I wave a dismissive hand in the air. “They didn’t and—“
“What do you mean?” His voice raises, and so do the hairs on my arms. “What happened? Amirah, what the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I-I didn’t want to bother you and, honestly, it’s okay. I’m fine. There wasn’t—“
“Did you get free? Like, how did you take on two dudes by yourself? No offense, Amirah, but you’re not a fighter.”
“No, I’m…definitely not.” I remember Mills’s soft eyes and tender voice. How I immediately felt safe from a man I assaulted and received the brunt of his revenge. “Mills.”
“Huh?”
I swallow and avert my gaze to a grief therapy poster on the far wall. I’d give anything to not have to relive this, but it’s my life now. It’s what’s happened. “Mills saved me.”
“How?”
“He showed up.”
“Show—that’s it—“ Laurent stands, and I rise right after him as he begins slamming his fingers on his cell.
“He did what he did, Laur, but he protected me. He saved me from those two guys.”
“Why?” He scoffs. “He ruined your fucking shit.”
“I know. I don’t know why.”
I don’t know why I’m defending him either.
He just stabbed my freaking sister.
“This is utter bullshit. This has to stop, Amirah. I sent you to New York to be safe. You’re obviously not.”
I nod. “I agree. But what am I supposed to do? You just said with what evidence.”
Laurent locks his jaw and looks over my shoulder, lost in what to do, just like me. Except, I think I know how to solve all of this.
It’ll just destroy Dad and my brother in the process.
However, that he-said, she-said crap might work in my favor.
“I need Odette’s phone,” I gush out, grabbing her purse off one of the empty chairs. One of the nurses practically shoved it in my chest as she hurried along, leaving my multiple questions unanswered and a response of my having to wait for the doctor. “I need to see if there is any evidence on it.”
“For what?”
I meet my brother’s green eyes, ones that look almost identical to mine. “Because I’m going to turn them in.”
And me.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Odette and Solange will toss me right under the bus with them.
“She has it coming,” Laurent states. “They both do.” I glance over at him to find him shaking and trying to contain it.
“Laurent,” I say slowly. “What is it?”
“Rhett Mills isn’t the first one they’ve ever raped.” I see him swallow hard, and my heart locks in my chest.
I don’t want to hear what he has to say all of a sudden.
You don’t know the kind of shit I put up with, Amirah. It was bad. It was always really bad.”
“I lost my virginity to Odette. I was assaulted by Solange. The belt wrapped around Vince’s neck…I don’t think that was you.”
I just stare at my brother, who looks like he just wants to die from admission of what he’s had to go through. My eyes water as my big brother’s eyes redden, trying to hold in his emotions. The memories he just had to cipher through to tell me how Odette has had this coming for a long time.
We stare at each other silently for a moment, lost in what his truths mean. It’s always been him and I against them. I’ve never wanted to admit it out loud or spend too much time thinking about it, but it’s the truth. We were always the outsiders. The ones—and I thought it was mostly me—being picked on.
Apparently not.
And apparently not as bad as my brother.
“Solange has a kink,” he mutters so low that I barely hear him. “A…a choking fetish, I guess. She likes when her…victims pass out. That belt, she’s done that to me, when I was sleeping. Wrapped it around my neck and…”
He doesn’t need to finish his sentence as my body bumps into his, and I wrap my arms around his waist.
We’re both victims.
We’ve both ignored it.
And we’ve both protected each other.
I assaulted Mills to save my brother. I guess I’d do it all over again.
I stare at the receding hairline of the detective in front of me, chomping on gum like he’s at a baseball game and boring his gaze into me like I’m not the victim in this whole ordeal.
She did it.
Amirah actually grew the balls to turn her and her sisters in. Which still boggles the living fuck out of my mind.
She’s sorry. She only said it over a dozen times.
“And you’re telling me that she came up with this story?” I shrug, meeting the overly worked and underly paid man who just wants to get to the bottom of shit he’s not going to get his hands on.
That or he really just likes his job.
“Must’ve,” I deadpan.
“This Amirah Van Doren stated she raped you, Mr. Mills. She and her sisters.” He glances at his partner, a skinny prick with even smaller glasses who hasn’t been able to hide his pleasure of me allegedly having three women on my dick.
Like I said before, a bunch of dudes would love to have this happen to them. Minus the basement part, the chains, the two Andre the Giant sized motherfuckers, and the drugs.
Oh, and let’s not forget the main reason—being a human blood bag.
“Not sure how many times I have to tell you no, Detective,” I reply. “I don’t know them very well.”
“But you do know them?” Skinny Prick presses. “You’ve been at their home?”
I crane my neck to him. “And?”
“These are serious charges, Mr. Mills. Kidnapping, sexual assault, assault with—“
“You act as though I did all these things.” I glance down at my watch. “And I’m seriously running out of patience. I’ve been here for over an hour. I told you I didn’t have those things happen to me. I’m dating the youngest daughter, Amirah. She’s a little fucking crazy, but—“ I shrug. “—I like crazy.”
“And why would she waste her time?”
I shrug. “Ask her.”
“She’s been under a lot of stress,” Balding states, opening up his manila folder again for the fifth time like something magical is going to come out of it. “She got expelled from fashion school.”
“A misunderstanding. We’re working on it.”
Balding huffs. “Well, Mr. Mills, if you’re not singing, we can’t convict anyone.”
“And you can thank me for not having to do any paperwork, gentlemen. Are we done here?”
Skinny Prick rises. “I guess so.”
“I’d like Amirah released as quickly as possible,” I convey. “I’ll take her home.”
“Of course.”
They lead me out and back downstairs to their main lobby. Taking a seat in one of the tattered black chairs, I text Kyson.
MILLS: She turned herself in.
KYSON: No, shit. I’m assuming she’s innocent, of course.
MILLS: Of course. How’s our patient?
KYSON: We need you to practice on your shanking, brother. She’s recovering.
MILLS: I made my point.
KYSON: And that’s it?
MILLS: That’s it. For now.
KYSON: The baby sister wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would she?
MILLS: Nope.
KYSON: I made the call to Lucien for you too. He’s ready when you are.
MILLS: Thanks.
KYSON: What are we doing about Solange since you gave her a get out of jail free card?
MILLS: I have a feeling when she sees me with Amirah, she’ll do something stupid.
MILLS: I’m her date for her mother’s charity event.
KYSON: LOL. Does she know that?
MILLS: Nope.
KYSON: I’ll be on stand by then.
I move screens, hearing a bunch of cops laughing over something from the other side of the room when I text my best friend.
MILLS: I need Amirah enrolled back in school.
EMMY: Why?
MILLS: Because she turned herself and her sisters into the cops.
And Emmy knows how much that means to me. My best friend knows more than I want her to, but getting drunk at her place last weekend, I spilled too much and got too emotional.
Emmy knows that I wanted Amirah to prove to me how sorry she was for everything.
How I wish it wasn’t her that did things to me.
How I wish…for a lot of things.
EMMY: Okay. I’ll work on it tonight.
MILLS: Work on it later this week. I want to see how she does with her sister and me in the same room together.
EMMY: Why are you giving this girl a chance? I know you wanted to before, but…she fucked up. I hate her.
MILLS: You hate all the women I’m attracted to, Lou Boo.
EMMY: And this was what I was afraid of.
MILLS: You know I have a soft heart for damsels in distress.
EMMY: I hate her.
MILLS: You said that already.
EMMY: Just wanted to make sure you heard it right.
MILLS: I’m not going to bring her home. It’s not like that. I just want to get past this, and I told her I’d forgive her. This is just a gift.
EMMY: And she’d deserve this, why?
MILLS: I told you what Odette said.
EMMY: It’s still screwed up.
EMMY: But…I get protecting family.
MILLS: I would think you would when you all but faked your death, Ems.
EMMY: Ha, ha.
MILLS: Remember how much you said you loved me. You owed me?
EMMY: At least you caught onto the I love you part.
EMMY: And I know. I’ll wait for your green light.
MILLS: Love you, Lou Boo.
EMMY: Yeah, yeah.
EMMY: Love you too.
Right on time, I feel her before I even have to look up to confirm it. Amirah strides through the front lobby with Skinny Prick at her side and an unconvinced expression on his face.
