8 Mile & Rion (17 page)

Just like that, Lenny leaves and I crawl to my keys letting myself into my apartment. When I finally get the door open, I don’t make it any further. Curling up in a ball on the floor seemed like the wisest plan. Lying down didn’t help the pain at all and I wanted to vomit because of it. My head was crushing me in pain and it hurt to breathe. Sometime later, Loyal walked in and saw me there and let’s just say he didn’t like what he saw.

Gently he picks me up, takes me to the bedroom, closes the curtains bathing me in darkness. When he turns me over to cover me up, I yelp out in pain and he walks out punches a wall, and comes back in. “Your head?” he asks, quietly pressing a cloth to it “Gotta get you checked out, Rion, these headaches ain’t normal.”

Taking a deep breath I tell him what happened. “It was Lenny. He came here blown out, hit me in the head to get my attention then gave me a kidney shot on his way out.”

With a mighty roar he leaves the room and I cover my ears while he destroys all the walls in my apartment. Minutes later he comes back, lifts me up, careful of my side, and takes me to the emergency room. His behavior there had security notified, twice.

‘The night of my first kill was the best sleep of my life. Crashing out knowing there’s one less psychopath in the world because of me was all I needed. Until I met her.’

~Loyal

Killing Lenny would come later. Right now I was bringing her home with two scripts. One for pain and one for inflammation. Doc said she didn’t have a concussion but that her head would feel like she did for a day or two. The hit she took in the kidneys caused no damage outside of a nasty bruise. The damage I was going to cause would leave Lenny wishing I’d killed him.

Putting her to bed after giving her the meds, I knew she’d be out for a while. Rio would be meeting me here in a half hour to talk about her safety. Pacing the floors remembering her writhing in pain, I had so much rage stored I was starting to sweat. I could feel it taking me over but I fought it. She needed me level. This was entirely my fault and I’d kick my own ass for it if I could.

When Rio walks in, he wastes no time getting in my face. “She told you not to knock on Lenny’s door, right? That you gotta wait him out.” That’s when her instructions registered and I drop my head further in shame. “Fuck, she did, didn’t she? But you didn’t listen and went anyway! This is your fault dickhead!”

“Keep your god damn voice down!”

“The fuck I will. You were supposed to be on her 24/7. Why the fuck am I even here? Did you invite me over to kick your ass?”

“Another letter showed up,” I tell him. “Then while I was running an errand, Lenny showed. I didn’t listen, I fucked up. But it’s time to take her out of the game before serious shit goes down.”

“Take her out of the--- you’re crazy, man. She’s got us, you can’t take her out. This is all she knows. We find the asshole sending her shit and we take
him
out. When she gives you an order next time, try listening. She knows her shit. That’s how this works. This ain’t about Lenny, we’ll handle him. What you’re asking me to be a part of is betraying my only family. That woman is all I got. If you ain’t up to the job, I’ll take over but, I will not fuck her over.”

Leaving me no choice, I sit him down and explain what I did for a living prior to coming here in detail. I explain even further what could and likely would happen to her if she were to be taken. A few times he look like he was going to lose it when I explain what I saw in the field, but he needs to know I take her safety seriously. The fact was, this is a real threat and whoever id behind this isn’t going to ransom her for political gain. The police couldn’t help, no one could. Right now I am the only resource she has and even then I’m at a disadvantage because the threat is a ghost. Rion won’t listen to me on this, thinking I’m just being paranoid, but she would listen to Rio.

I am counting on it.

Once common sense kicks in, he gets on board, though reluctantly. Promising to at least talk to her about it, he tells me that he won’t strong arm her. Both of us are counting on her ability to see reason. Rio makes it clear this could blow up in our faces, but I can’t think like that. Leaving her in his care while she slept, I step out to teach Lenny a lesson and am back within the hour.      

When Lenny can walk again, he’ll think twice before approaching her with anything but kindness.

‘I need my career. That's what validates me.’ ~Anita Baker

For two days the guys have been treating me like a queen and as much as I appreciate it, I’m not dying but I do have work to do. Threatening to fire them both if they persisted in babying me, they finally give in an allow me, (cue in sarcasm), to go into the office.

Not only is VIP treatment out of character for Rio, quite frankly his over the top care was freaking me out. The Rio I know was more of a ‘suck it up, you big pussy’ type of guy. This Rio was ‘put your feet up, honey and let us take care of it’. Then there’s Loyal. He’s restless and so overprotective every noise or siren has him covering me. I know he feels guilty about Lenny, but being pissed about it is useless. There is a lesson in this and it is a simple one. Listen.

I am confident from this point on he would. Although, about an hour ago, Lenny not only came in and paid up, he paid with interest, flowers and an apology. Laughing to myself about it even now, it was the look on Lenny’s face that told me Loyal had everything to do with it. I’ve known Lenny for a while, he’s a vet and very cagey. Senior usually dealt with him personally because Lenny ran hot and cold but. After today I’m guessing he’ll think twice before acting out.

Last night I tried being intimate with Loyal, but he shot me down hard. Worried I could injure myself further, although I don’t see how, he shoved a pill in my mouth and ordered me to bed. Once that pill kicked in, I had no choice but to sleep and today I feel more like myself again. Last night though, I could hear those two chatting, but I was too out of it to be nosey. They formed a friendship and I was glad of it. My two favorite guys like each other. A girl couldn’t ask for more than that.

Well, she could, but I wasn’t going to. I knew I needed to be patient with Loyal and since he committed himself to therapy, I could see the results but the Lenny thing was still a wedge between us. We could work on his guilt together, it’s not like he planned on forgiving himself anytime soon so I decided to give him a chance to work on it before I said my piece.

Tallying up today’s collections and adding them to the system, I almost cry when I see we are three grand away from breaking even. A lot of the debts owed were losses because the person moved or simply fell off the grid. I didn’t have the resources to allow for travel yet so selling the car bridged that gap.

That, combined with the money those two pulled in, had me wondering if Senior can see this and, if he can, is he proud of us?

When I hear the knock, I look up waiting for his entrance. Loyal likes me to notice him, so when he knocks, I stop what I’m doing to make sure that happens. “Taking the Taurus to the shop for an oil change and tire rotation. Be back in a couple hours.”

“Wait,” I tell him, reaching for my bag. “Use my credit card.”

“I got it,” he says bluntly. “Rio’s coming up now.”

“What’s the rush?” I ask him as he tries to bow out. “Could you at least say goodbye properly?”

“Properly?”

“Yeah you know, your tongue my mouth. Properly.”

“Forgive me,” he says grinning, then comes around my desk, tilts my head back and gives me my goodbye.

“I miss you,” I whisper against his mouth when he pulls away.

“I’m right here,” he says quietly.

“You are but you aren’t,” I tell him “Is something wrong?”

“No,” he says schooling his features, but I know he’s full of shit. “See you in two hours.”

Blinking at his departure, I didn’t even have time to kick it around because Rio was there to distract me. “Our boy has it bad for you Junior,” he says, winking at me before taking a seat. “Doesn’t surprise me, I mean, you’re the shit, but I’m shocked you’re into him too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You usually go for the safe ones,” he says, putting his size twelves on my desk.

“Yeah well,” I say shrugging, “I decided to go for emotionally unavailable to see what the fuss was about.”

“You went for the safe ones because it’s what Senior wanted,” he points out. “Glad to see you thinking for yourself again.”

“Excuse me?” I argue. “Care to explain that?”

“Later. I need to talk to you about something else first,” he says looking far too serious.

“It’s just us here. If you have something to say, spit it out, Rio.”

And for the next hour with a heavy heart, I listened to everything he had to say. Instead of asking questions, I offered silence. Listening to him serve me this pathetically rehearsed speech made me sick to my stomach. When he asked me for my decision, I asked him to leave. The betrayal I felt was both emotionally and physically painful. Rio didn’t want to have the talk with me, Loyal convinced him to do it. He didn’t say that, but he didn’t need to either.

I knew.

Senior didn’t raise me to walk away from a fight and Rio is always the first one
to
a fight. We always had each other’s backs, always. Betting wasn’t just a career it was a part of me and if anyone understood that it was him. For the first time ever, Rio didn’t have my back and I couldn’t believe it.

I also couldn’t believe the first guy I actually fell for would turn my own best friend against me. I couldn’t believe the guy I fell for would fuck me over like this at all. That’s when I knew that the guy I fell for, didn’t fall back.

I was the only one who fell, right on my fucking face.

‘The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish.’

~Michael Porter

I was leaving the shop when Rion sends me a text asking to meet her at the bar around the corner for drinks. Stopping at the gas station to top off her tank, I also grab the flowers someone stuffed in a bucket and were selling for $6.99 too. It wasn’t much but it was something and flowers seemed like a good idea. I hadn’t heard back from Rio but I figured no news was good news. Rion was a reasonable person, she’d understand. Pulling up to the bar, I park around back and head in. When I don’t see her right away I panic but then she stands up waving me over from a booth in the back and I could breathe again.

Leaning in and kissing her on the mouth, I don’t read too much into it when she doesn’t kiss me back like she usually does. I figured I had probably caught her off guard. My therapist says public displays of affection when done properly would make her happy. Handing her the flowers she looks at them then back at me and doesn’t look happy.

Setting them down on the table she slams her beer and signals the server for another one. “Want anything?” she asks me casually.

“Beer’s fine,” I tell her, wondering what has her upset.