DARLENEI watched the woman’s hands reach out to settle on the lapel of his suit for the second time that night, unable to tear my eyes away from the look of what I was certain was faux innocence on her face.“Dar love? Are you okay? You seem a bit cold,” Laura whispered, breaking away from the circle of giggling women. I snapped my eyes from the handsome man’s profile to meet my best friend’s worried face, her large silver earrings catching my eye as they slapped against her cheeks when she leaned in.Ugh! I hated this, the feel of my heart racing so fast it threatened to break from my chest.Everyone was having fun at the party, drinking, and gossiping, even the occasional fist-throwing I'd been surprised to see at one of the elite’s tables, but here I was freaking lovesick and unable to get as much as two flutes of Bailey’s past the lump in my gullet.”Yeah, Yeah I’m fine, just thinking,” I whispered, managing to arrange my face into a somewhat grateful smile, but it must not have
Alexander McKenzie“W-what do you mean? Your father invited me here,” The dark-haired buxom woman whispered, her lip quivering in just the slightest fashion and my ears started to ring.Why would my father do that? Just what was wrong with the mafia lord?I gave the wide-eyed woman a look of disbelief, feeling the corners of my lips turn down with irritation.“He did! I swear on it! Here, I- I have proof,” She muttered, her voice cracking at the confrontation as she dug hastily in her purse, fishing out the gold-embossed invitation letter my mother had made sure to deliver personally to the invitees.”We’ll goddammit Xander, you are one mighty prick,” Fredrick droned beside me as I tried to reach for the card, my hand stilling at the wonder in his voice before I retracted it.“I can leave if you want me to, I-I really would hate to impose,” Kayla whispered and I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head, my hand snaking out to grip her wrist faster than I could think to stop it.She paus
DARLENE BERNARDOThe noise of the siren faded around us as I stood in silence with my husband, what felt like minutes since I’d told him his mother had been poisoned.I watched emotions play across his face, the thick black of his eyebrows scrunching together before his lips twitched violently and he let out a loud, reverberating laugh, keeping over and gripping his stomach like he had been kicked in the shin.What the hell was so funny? I hadn't wanted to admit it, but something about the way he was behaving seemed different.It was almost as though he was disconnected, in a different reality, one where I wasn't his wife.Instead, a stranger who had just told him I had a pet fish who I fancied was Whitney Houston reincarnated.“My god Darlene! Have you gone mad?” He boomed, and I felt the whip of shame land heavily in the middle of my back as I turned to see a few heads angled our way, their searching eyes snapping away quickly when they saw I had caught them looking, but the tilt of
AlexanderI was fucked. Fucked in three different languages.So knee-deep in shit that I might as well have been a shit mausoleum humanoid for all I cared.How could I have hurt my wife so? What had come over me?I remembered the first time it had happened, the lapse. Our first night in the heat of the ring’s operations.My father had introduced us to the roguish-looking men, their dark eyes and thin lips lifting slightly with appraisal before settling back into a blank canvas.It had frightened Fredrick, more than it had frightened me when the killings started. Round-eyed men tortured so badly their skin was hanging on to the sinew of minced muscle by a thread.“Where’s the shipment Quavo?” My father grinned at the muscle man shaking his head wildly, but we had all known it was just a formality. The man couldn't very well speak when his tongue had been seared off.I hadn't even been certain he could hear us until the exposed balls of his red-rimmed eyes rested on me.”Dear God!” Fred
FREDRICK“Stay with me Ma! Stay with me!” I needled, feeling the sting of tears pooling under my eyelids as I jogged along the gurney where my mother tossed and turned mutely.The ride in the ambulance had been hell, sitting stiff-legged like a fucking vegetable unable to do anything!I fisted my hands beside me, my suit hanging limply off my frame as I willed my hands to stop shaking.“That's it, Mr. McKenzie, We’ll take it from here,” The sonorous voice of the doctor came behind eager-looking bright eyes, piercing eyes, and the blue cotton of a face mask.I nodded exasperatedly, feeling beads of sweat gather in my armpits as I watched the statuesque line of my father’s frame still beside me as he inhaled sharply, the ball of cotton in my throat turning to steel.“You were supposed to be watching her Fredrick! What were you thinking?” My father’s hard baritone gritted beside me and I felt my heart bottom out from the seams of my goddamn trousers.“She isn't MY wife, is she? Where the
DARLENEMy hands were still shaking when I got out of the silver Royce Phantom I’d parked hastily on the sidewalk overlooking the private hospital where my husband’s mother was no doubt being looked at.I couldn't stay in the McKenzie mansion a minute longer. I didn't know what I’d do if I saw my husband again, after what he had done, I just couldn't think clearly.I needed space to think!He’d said he was sorry, looked it. But I'd seen the passion in his eyes, If he couldn't control that part of him, his rage, I didn't think there was a future for us.I couldn't think about that though, I had to find out if it was true, if the madam really was poisoned.“Dammit Darlene, don't think like that!” My mother’s voice echoed in my head, making me wince as a stab of guilt twisted in my gut. I had no idea what I would have done if it were her that was poisoned.I’d have lost my marbles too wouldn't I?I sighed, brushing the bush of hair that had fallen from my updo back behind my ears as I
ALEXANDERDennis Lucas sat in my office study with his head bowed and his eyes closed as I told him the whole story.I watched as the hanger of his shoulders shook with what I took to be subdued laughs before his fierce black eyes snapped open and I saw a hint of the rage swimming underneath before he killed it.“What do you mean gripped her?” He whispered hauntingly, the tenor of his baritone echoing in the empty study as he straightened from the marble desktop to pace the space.I stuttered, pressing my hands into my eyes so that all I saw was red, instead of the man’s broad back and auburn shoulder-length hair.Dennis Lucas had been best friends with us since I could remember, but lately, I had the feeling he was more best friends with me than with my twin brother.It was why I had called him over, the fall of my disjointed voice on the telephone had him here faster than I could pour myself the sweet poison of opium from the wine rack.We were just too much alike, too much of the s
DARLENEMy best friend was not in the music room when I closed the door softly behind me.I knew this the minute I let my eyes roam over the light layer of dust in the room that showed the servants had not been up here for a while.At least not since Mrs. McKenzie had passed out the other night at the dinner party.I winced embarrassedly, remembering the blog article Fredrick had shown me as we sat thigh-to-thigh in his matte black BMW, of his mother’s condition.ALLEGED MAFIA MATRIARCH AND BARONESS POISONED AT DINNER PARTY! Click to read more...It was absurd! Did the bloodsuckers never rest? And only hours after the ER doctors had come out to confirm my suspicions too?It couldn't have been an outside job, I had a feeling whoever this was, it was someone on the inside.“Did you tell anyone?” Fredrick’s tone had not exactly been accusatory when he’d asked, but it wasn't as trusting as it was earlier. The golden brown of his eyebrows had tightened almost imperceptibly, and I could t