Chapter five

SILVIA'S POV

"Do you like him?"

My heart jumped out of my chest as Josiah’s voice infiltrated my ears from behind. I turned on my heels to find him glaring at me. My tongue slid over my bottom lip as I desperately tried to search for an excuse for my prolonged staring at another guy.

I shot him a disbelieving look before a snort left my lips: "What? Of course not," I answered, but it only appeared to make him angrier.

I could have sworn I heard him growl before he said, "You were practically drooling at the sight of him!"

My lips parted to defend myself, but Chloe had chosen that moment to step in, "Ugh! Stop being such a drag, Jos. You can’t deny that any woman could be attracted to him; he's so fucking hot!"

My eyes fell on Josiah’s clenched fist and chin. It was obvious Chloe’s words had made things worse. A wave of panic rushed through me as he pushed past the both of us and stormed down the hall. I threw Chloe an exasperated look before throwing my hands in the air. "What did you do that for?"

She only rolled her eyes before saying, "Do what? "Tell him the truth?"

"You know he doesn’t like hearing that type of stuff," I said with a sigh before massaging my temples. It was almost impossible to get Josiah to calm down the very same day he got angry; sometimes it took weeks. I remember the time he caught me hugging one of my classmates. He stayed mad for an entire month. And although I like it when he is so possessive over me, sometimes it feels like he is taking it a bit too far.

"Not my problem, just remember what I told you to do."

She must be mad. "You seriously cannot expect me to go anywhere near that guy, especially after what just happened." I said but frowned when Chloe stared at something over my shoulder.

"Well, something tells me he will be the one coming to you," she replied with a click of her tongue.

What?

Looking over my shoulder, my eyes met the school’s new heartthrob. My cheeks felt as though they had been set ablaze because he was staring right at me. I felt like I was drowning in those deep blue orbs of his. God, I should probably stop staring, but my body won’t move.

Until he started walking towards me.

"Holy shit," Chloe and I said at the same time, and I quickly tore my eyes away from him.

"I can’t do this," I inform Chloe hurriedly before proceeding to walk down the hall, not bothering to look back. I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually felt this way when my heart was beating wildly in my chest. With the type of life I have had, it seemed almost impossible to feel anything, especially for a boy I barely knew.

I walked into my first class, taking a seat in my usual spot before dropping my head on the desk. I was not at all interested in this period since I didn’t share it with Josiah. The only class we had together was gym, and that’s only on Fridays.

"Hey," an unfamiliar voice said next to me. The voice was so melodious yet intimidating, I almost felt scared to look up at the person.

Almost.

Although I wish I hadn’t because the new Greek god was sitting right next to me. He had his elbow planted on the desk and his palm beneath his chin. There was something about the way he was staring at me that made me want to walk out of not just the class but the whole school and never look back.

"The name is Gerald, and you are?"

"None of your business," I didn’t bother to get a look at his face before bringing mine back down on the table. I was glad he didn’t make any more attempts to have a conversation with me. The last thing I need is to speak to the guy my boyfriend feels threatened by. I know I may have sounded a bit rude, but it would be better for both of us if we did not interact. 

When the teacher walked in, I sat up straight and made sure to keep my eyes ahead, even though there were times I would feel Gerald’s gaze on me. I would not return it. That was how the rest of the period went; after that class I rushed onto the next, and the next two hours went by in a flash.

Finally, it was time for a break. As I stepped into the cafeteria, my eyes scanned the massive sea of bodies for my boyfriend. They landed on him sitting with the rest of the football team at their usual table. I didn't even know when my lips started to lift into a small smile as I walked towards him. But when I saw Madison, the head cheerleader, wrap her arms around him, I knew that whatever hint of emotion I had on my face was washed away. My heart clenched as I witnessed her lean over and whisper something in his ear; whatever it was, it made him laugh. A lot.

My movements were slow as I neared them. Every athlete on the table stopped what they were doing to stare at me and Josiah. It was like they knew something was about to go down. My silver orbs scanned the rest of the table for a space to sit but found none, not like I would have wanted to sit anywhere that wasn’t beside Josiah.

"Can I talk to you?" My question was directed towards the guy that seemed to be taking way too much pleasure in the arms of another girl. His green irises aligned with my silver ones, and I almost flinched at the intensity behind them.

"I have nothing to discuss with you," he answered coldly, and I could not believe how immature this whole thing was. All this because I stared at the new guy? My anger was slowly starting to crawl up to the surface, because one moment my hands were gripping both sides of my tray and the next my fist was slamming down on the wooden table, causing its occupants to flinch back and stare at me with surprise.

All except Josiah.

"Why are you being such a dick right now? I am sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear?" I snapped, not minding that the contents of the tray were now splattered all over the floor and table.

His gaze did not leave mine as he said with a cold tone, "You know what I want to hear." I gave him a puzzled look before realizing what he was saying.

Yale.

He only wanted to hear about the money that I was going to make to support him.

Unbelievable.

The scoff that passed my lips was bitter. Stomping out of the cafeteria, my eyes fell on the reason behind Josiah’s anger in the first place. It was hard to tell exactly what his expression was as he sat on an empty table, watching me. But I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything.

●●●●●●●●●

It had been two years since I last stepped foot into this underground world of death. The metallic scent of blood hit my nostrils, and if not because I was so used to the awful stench, I would have thrown up. I knew my way around the ring. I was just happy Joe gave me a pass without asking too many questions because I was not in the mood to answer any.

I knew exactly what they were, especially since I swore I would never come back to this dump.

Not bothering to knock, I pushed open the doors to the boss’ office before stepping in. I was not even in the least surprised by the number of strippers he had perched atop him. I cleared my throat loudly to make my presence known, and all of his girls quickly jumped off him. My eyes swept over their naked forms, and I thanked whatever being above that I did not agree to take this part of the job.

Despite his ancient age, Don Casillas was a well-known man whore who feasted upon any woman that was unfortunate enough to cross his path. It was a miracle I was not one of them. The old man smiled up at me, putting his set of gold teeth on full display before rising to his feet. He wore his usual dark suit and, as always, he had a cigarette between his lips.

"Sil, my beautiful girl. I thought I wouldn’t live long enough to see you again," he laughed.

I didn’t waste time before getting to the point. The sooner I got out of this hell hole, the better. I would not want to add to his body count because he was beyond unpredictable. "I wanted to know if you had any jobs available for me, Don."

His smile only widened, and the crinkles on the corner of his eyes were more prominent.

"They always come back for more," he chuckled to himself before pulling open one of his drawers and taking out a file. His eyes scanned through it before he released a shrug. "Sorry, I've got nothing for you."

I stared long and hard at him. He seriously did not expect me to believe that. He was the don of a well-known notorious gang; these types of organizations always had jobs available.

"I can take it," I said quietly, and all humor was wiped off his face.

"I said there was nothing available for you, Sil. Go home." He said it with hard eyes, and I could see the lies in them. There is always something available. He was just scared I would screw it up.

"From the first assignment I received, I swore omerta."I  tried once more as he motioned for one of his prostitutes to sit on his lap.

He took out the cigarette and puffed out the smoke in the slut’s face before refocusing his gaze on me. "That’s not it, it's just… You are young and this is extremely dangerous."

Without a hint of emotion on my features, I repeated my previous statement, "I can take it."

Anything to make Josiah happy.

Don Casillas stared at me in silence; he could be very hard to read, if not impossible. He pulled out a picture from his drawer and slid it over the table. As my eyes fell on the contents of that photo, I immediately regretted my words from earlier.

I can’t take it.