Betrayal of Cupids (6 page)

“It’s a start.”

We both downed another beer, and I retreated to the kitchen to restock. 

“Another Yuengling?”  I called.

“Keep ‘em coming!” 

Upon my return, I tossed Danny another bottle.  He caught it with one hand as he snuck his phone back into his pocket with the other.

“Danny, if you have to leave, I completely understand.  You’ve been…” Words had escaped me.  “If there were words, I’d say them to you.  But, uh, yeah… thanks, man—for all of this.” 

Now the alcohol was causing me to get emotional.  Maybe I
was
turning soft. 

“You know, I was actually thinking that maybe I would stay down here for a bit.  I could help out until you got back on your feet.”  He patted his pocket, referring to his phone.  “I was just checking with a buddy of mine about crashing at his place.”

“No.  Go home.  Get back to your life.”  While I didn’t truly want him to, I felt as though I should put up a fight for the sake of looking tough.

“Just think about it.  You know, my club is small, and things are slow right now.  They can get on without me for a while.”

“Are you saying you want to hang around to watch the Cupids go legit?”

“I’m saying I want to hang around and make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m done with stupid.”

“What about Grace?”

I hated hearing her name uttered from any other lips than mine.  Although we were having a good time before, something inside of me exploded.  “Whatever I decide to do with Grace is none of your fucking business.”

“I know that, but you said it yourself, you don’t think straight when it comes to her.”

“The hell I don’t.”

“You just attacked me for saying her name.  She obviously has you on edge.  What, is she hiding upstairs or something?”

“No.”

The conversation paused and his eyes widened.  “She’s upstairs, isn’t she?” He joked, as he made his way to the stairs.

I stuck my arm out, stopping him.  “I’m serious.  She was here.  Not anymore.  She went home, back to Alexandria.””

“So she left you, huh?”

“No, she didn’t fucking leave me.  She just had to go handle something at home.”

He cocked his head and squinted his eyes.

I was getting tired of this game.  “Spit it out, man.”

“It’s… no, it’s nothing.”

“That wasn’t reassuring.”

“It’s just… She didn’t tell you why she was leaving?”

“No.  So what?”

“Now, don’t freak out.” He put his arms out, hands splayed.  “It just seems to me that you might not be able to trust her.  I mean,” he added, seeing the rage building inside me, “you know her better than I do, but doesn’t it seem fishy that she showed up at your Pop’s funeral and then suddenly had to leave?”

I spoke slowly.  “What are you implying?”

“You don’t think she was sent to get information?  To find out how vulnerable the Cupids are right now?”

“She wouldn’t do that.”

I could see him trying to rationalize the thoughts spinning through his head, but he knew it was a battle he couldn’t win.  I did trust Grace.  There had to be another reason she rushed off so quickly.

There had to be another reason.  It had to be something else.  But what could it be?  Why had I drunk so much?  Clarity was not a feasible option, but I still let my thoughts run, trying to focus on a possible excuse.  After what seemed like both forever and only a second, it came to me.

Sean.  My head instantly began to pound.  What if it had been Sean on the other end of that phone call?  What if Sean was waiting for Grace?  That was the only thing that made sense.

Danny must have sensed my anxiety.  “Dude, I’m sure it’s nothing.  I was just thinking out loud.  I was being stupid.”

“But you’re right.  And I didn’t even think twice about it.  Maybe I really don’t think straight when it comes to her.  What if he’s…? What if she’s…? Fuck.”

“Who?”  I had lost him.

“Sean.  What if Sean was the reason she had to leave in such a hurry?”

“You said yourself he wouldn’t show his face around these parts, and especially in Shadows territory.  They’d burn him for sure.”

 I shuffled my feet in front of the coffee table, trying to work things out in my head.  He was right.  It would be sheer stupidity for Sean to try to befriend the Shadows
. 
They would kill him on the spot, no questions asked.
 
But then again, Sean was no stranger to getting what he wanted through acts of seeming stupidity. 

“What are you thinking, Ryan?  Smoke is about to start pouring out of your ears.”

“I’m thinking… hear me out.”  I wasn’t used to having someone to bounce ideas off of.  “Being that their president just kicked the can, the entire system is down, right?”

“Yeah…” He eyed me suspiciously. 

“And things didn’t work out the way Sean had hoped…”

“I think I’m still with you…”

“Because, in Sean’s mind, if my Pops had been killed by one of the Shadows, he might have been bumped up to president.  But, since he accidentally shot him, he automatically gave up the right to be in this club… or even be alive for that matter.”

“Right…”

“So, who’s to say that the first person he’d go after wouldn’t be Grace?”

“And now you’ve lost me.”

“Sean will try to get back at me.  In his mind, I’m the one who ruined everything.  Therefore, Grace becomes an attractive target for two reasons.”

“The first being that she’s your broad.”

Had I not been on a roll, I would’ve stopped him from referring to her as a ‘broad’, but things were connecting too fast to switch directions.  “And the second being that she’s connected to the Shadows
. 
If he could infiltrate…”

“They’d never let him in.  He killed Bowie.”  Danny interrupted me.

“But, did anyone actually see that?  It could easily have been me, or Pops.  You weren’t there.  It was a mess.  And if anyone could swing votes in his direction, it’s Sean Cassidy.”

“I think this is a long shot.”

“Still…”

“Still what?”  Danny raised his voice.  “Ryan, you’ve had a long day, a hard day.  I see how you’re making these connections, but honestly, I think you’re grasping at straws.  The possibility that this grand scheme you’ve cooked up is anywhere close to the truth is next to nothing.”

Maybe he was right.  It had been a long day.  Maybe I was becoming delirious.  But, what if I was right and I did nothing?  What if Grace was about to walk into a trap? 

I needed to know.  I slid my phone from my pocket and dialed the number she had just written out for me.  The phone rang.  My hands began to sweat.  I set the phone on the coffee table and turned on the speaker.  I continued to pace the length of the table as I counted the rings. 

Danny tried to calm me down.  “It’s fine, man.  She’s going to pick up, give you a silly reason for running out of here, and you’re going to laugh about this later.”

I really hoped he was right.

The phone finally clicked to life, but there was only silence on the other end.

“Grace?”  I called.

Still nothing.  I bent down to retrieve my phone, but as my hand made contact, my body chilled at the quiet growl that answered from the other end.

“Why hello, Gracie.  Welcome home.”

Grace

I sped toward home, unsure of what I would find once I got there.  I never heard Aunt Kathryn on the other end of the line, and I prayed there was good reason for that.  I prayed she had nothing to do with this.  I prayed that she was home, in her own bed, and she wouldn’t realize until tomorrow that she had absent-mindedly left her phone lying around somewhere.  I prayed that I would be the only one who would have to deal with Sean Cassidy.  After all, it seemed as though his fight was always with me.  Why involve anyone else? 

I pulled down the long stone driveway to my childhood farmhouse.  The red barn to the left was in the early stages of decay, and drunken bikers had knocked down the wooden fence that once held in three pinto horses.  There was a giant tree just up ahead holding an old tire swing that was bouncing with the wind.  There were a few broken branches scattered across the lawn, highlighting how I had made my earlier escape.  I killed the engine and walked up the fractured stone path to the screen porch.  The latch was broken, and the door was eerily banging against the frame.  I felt a rush of nausea sweep through my body as I stepped back into my house, my prison.  I heard nothing.  Something was very wrong. 

“Aunt Kathryn?” I called.

Silence.

“Aunt Kathryn, are you here?”

Please don’t answer.  Please don’t answer.  I repeated those words to myself over and over again as I called to her.

I walked through the empty living room and into the soundless kitchen.  The lights were all turned off.  Was Sean here?  Was this place not what he meant when he threatened me and told me to come home?

Just as I was about to turn and make my way upstairs, I heard a small squeaking noise.  I stepped back into the kitchen, assuring myself the sound was nothing but a haunting dream.  But there it was again.  As I stepped further into the kitchen, I saw a light shining through the doorframe to the back room.  Although a part of the main house, I hadn’t set foot in that space in twenty years.  It was the same room where my mother hid me in the wall.  It was the same room where I watched as the man with the cupid tattoo raped her.  It was the same room where I watched Sean murdered my mother.  The thought of it stopped me from breathing.  For all I knew, my mother’s blood still stained the carpet.

“Aunt Kathryn?”  I called yet again.  My body froze as I felt my phone begin to buzz in my pocket.  Was it Sean again?  I sneaked a peek at the number: 215.  Philadelphia.  Was it Ryan?  I couldn’t answer now.  I needed to continue with the task at hand.  My quick fingers slid the phone into my back pocket and the buzzing ceased.  Maybe he had hung up?  I’d call him back after I had dealt with this mess.

“Aunt Kathryn, are you back here?”  I cautiously pushed the door open and peered my head around the frame, preparing myself for the rush of memories the room would bring.  But I didn’t get to the memories.  My focus was instantly drawn to my worst nightmare: my stark naked aunt, whimpering in the center of the room, bound with wire to a wooden chair.

I ran to her.  “No!  What happ—“

A hand was around my mouth, and my body instantly flew back.  The hand, the smell, the breath: it was all too familiar.

“Why hello, Gracie.  Welcome home.”

He had found me.

I tried to fight, but I was no match.  He had me pinned to his body, and every swing I took only allowed him to pull me closer.

“Mmm, I missed your feistiness,” he whispered into my ear.  The nightmares began to play in overdrive as his right hand wrapped around to my left hip and his left hand cupped my breast.  He pushed his hips into me, making sure I felt his pleasure. 

“Stop,” I coughed, trying to catch my breath.

“I will,” he pulled tighter, “once you give me what I want.”

What more could he want from me?  I had nothing left to give.

“Let Kathryn go.  She has nothing to do with this.”

“Now, where would the fun be in that?  If she weren’t tied up, I wouldn’t have the upper hand.”  He squeezed my chest in his palm.  “And you know how I love the upper hand.”

I couldn’t go through this again with him.  “What the hell do you want?”  I screamed as I stomped my heel into the top of his foot.

“Bitch!”  The shock of his pain caused him to drop his hands from my body.  I tried to run to Aunt Kathryn, but within two steps his fingers were curled into my hair, yanking me back to him.  He was too quick to allow me to react as he swung me around and threw me to the floor.  His foot was on my chest, crushing me to the ground.

In my peripheral I could see Aunt Kathryn struggling to free herself from her bonds.  Her screams were muffled, but I knew they were for me.  Sean dropped to one knee and released his weight from my chest.  His other knee swung around, straddling me.  I tried to buck him off, but I couldn’t compete against the force his easily two hundred and fifty pound, muscled body.  He lowered deeper on top of me, making sure I felt the weight of his pelvis on mine.  One at a time, he took my wrists in his rough, powerful hands and pinned them over my head.  He lowered his chest to mine, his burning breath finding my ear. 

“This seems oddly familiar,” he teased.  He rocked his hips slowly on top of me.  “You know, your mother was a good fuck.  Maybe I killed her too quickly.  I could’ve taken her out for a few more spins.”

“You bastard,” I growled through my teeth. 

“But now I have you.  I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“You’ll never have me.” 

“Oh yeah?”  I felt his tongue follow my jawline to my mouth.  “You taste so sweet, little Gracie.  I wonder what the rest of you tastes like.”  He bit down on my bottom lip.  “Mmm, even sweeter.” 

I tried to swipe at him, but he held my wrists even tighter.  I could feel pins and needles begin to attack my fingertips.  He was holding me so tight.

“I want to taste more.  And I want you to like it.”

“Fuck off,” I snarled.

“You know, that just makes this more fun.”  His voice rumbled as he moved to my neck, his tongue gliding across my voice box.  With his free hand, he pulled my shirt up, exposing my naked breasts.  “Oh,” he moaned as he blew on his handiwork, “this looks like it hurts.  Does it hurt, Gracie?”

“Not as much as you will, when I’m through with you.”

“Feisty.  How about this?  Does this hurt?”  He took my nipple in his mouth, sucking so hard that I screamed as I felt my hatred for him spread throughout my body.  “Or did you like that too?”

“Go to hell.”  Aunt Kathryn was crying loudly now.  I tried to stay strong for her, tried to get through it with some semblance of dignity.

“You can pretend all you’d like, but I know you’re a dirty slut, Gracie.  Just like your mother was a fucking cunt whore.”

“Take it back.”  He could insult me all he wanted, but not my mother.  Not her.

“Not until you admit that you like this.”

“Never.”

“Then you’ll take it like the slut you are.”  His free hand moved to the brim of the sweatpants I was wearing.

“What are you doing?”  He wouldn’t.  He couldn’t take it that far.

“I told you I wanted to know what you tasted like.”  He smiled as he forcibly shoved his hands under my pants and stuck his fingers inside of me.

I shrieked.  “Stop.  Please stop!”  It hurt.  He was hurting me.  I tried to move, but it only made it worse.

He produced his hand, holding it up to my face.  “Do you see this?  This is your cunt juice.  You liked it, you whore.”

“Just stop.”  Now I was begging.  He had gone too far.  I couldn’t take any more.

“Stop what, Gracie?  This?” One at a time, he slowly licked his fingers.  “Oh God, you taste good.  Does Ryan tell you how good you taste?” 

“Stop fucking around and make your point.”  I had had enough.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I thought you were enjoying this.”  He was so stupidly proud of himself. 

“Get it over with already.”  I had given up.  If he was going to rape me, I just wanted it to be over fast.

“Oh, no, no, no.  You’re not getting off that easy.”  He sat up, still holding my wrists tight above my head.  “I need you to do something for me.”

“Why the hell do you think I’d help you?”  I started to cry. 

Sean flashed a sinister smile.  “Because if you don’t, I’ll keep killing off the people you love.  I’ll start with your pathetic excuse for an aunt over here…” His voice lowered to a deep snarl.  “And then… well I guess next is Ryan.  I’ve already killed everyone else you love.  So yes, I’ll get Ryan.  Oh, and I’ll have fun killing him.  I’ll take my time.  And then… well, then you’ll have no one.”

“Please, no.”  My shocked whisper was practically inaudible.

“Yes.”  His tone mirrored mine.

I knew it wasn’t an empty threat.  He had already killed my mother and father.  There was no doubt in my mind that he would take away the only two other people I cared about.

“If I help you…” I was desperate.

“
When
you help me.”

“When…” the word slowly slid from my lips, “then you’ll leave them alone.”

The corners of his mouth rose.  “At least until I want something else from you.”

It stung, but I knew it was my only choice.  I would need to play it his way until I could figure out a way to stop him.

“What do you want?”  I sighed.

His smile faded, and his eyes deadened.  I had never seen him look so powerful, so frightening.  Our eyes were locked, and I felt fear fill my veins.  Then the corner of his lips lifted, and he found his sinister smile yet again.  Sean Cassidy was clearly a psychopath.  He knew it, and he loved it.  “I want to be patched over to The Walking Shadows.  And you’re going to make sure that happens.”