Hot Redemption (3 page)

A smile tipped up his full lips as if he were reading my mind. “You aren't just
anything
, Nixie baby. You're definitely not just a girl. You're all woman.”

Pure rage roared through my system. He was going to kill me—and he was smiling while complimenting me?

“Fuck you.” I bared my teeth into a snarl.

“Maybe later, after we've cleaned up that arm.”

His beautiful grinning face was the last thing I saw before lights exploded behind my eyes and everything went completely dark.

CHAPTER 3

Epic

“Please, Dad.” Tears singed my skin as they streamed down my face. “I can't. Not after Mom.”

“Epic.” He pulled me into him and wrapped those heavy dark arms around me. “It's better this way. With my death, you'll get a big check to last you and the kids for years—”

“We want you, not some damn insurance money.” I buried my head in the crook of his neck like a little kid. Snow landed on my face and bare arms. I shivered, but not from the cold wind breezing by or the snow that stormed down on us. I trembled from the moment.

How I wished I was only a kid. Not the man I had to be, the one who nursed my mother when she was sick, feeding her watery celery soup with a spoon, cleaning her feces-filled adult diapers, and covering her with a thin sheet when she had finally escaped the pain and passed away. The whole time I took care of Mom, Dad worked three jobs to help us survive. When he rushed home that night between breaks to tell his wife he loved her and to kiss her cheek, I was the one who had to tell him she'd died. I was the one who witnessed him crumble to the floor and drown into an unending sea of heartbreaking grief. And yet again, I was the one who stood on the roof next to this man, my dad. A man that begged me with all his heart to let him kill himself.

“Don't cry, Epic. I'm worth more dead than alive,” he whispered.

“But we love you.” My bottom lip quivered.

“Love won't pay the bills, clothe you kids, get the twins their medicine each month, and help Mimi go to college.” Dad released me. “And even if love did provide, when your mom died…she took all of my love with her.”

“Don't say that. Please, Dad, don't leave us.”

He tightened his grip on me. “Word of advice, son. Find a nice girl to settle down with, but make sure you only care for her a little. Don't love her too much. Life is complicated enough. Get a girl you can live without, so when the time comes and she dies, you move on. Don't fall for one that you can't live without.”

He let me go. I stared at the roof's ledge. It was several planks of silver and attached onto the apartment building's roof with rope. Everyone who owned aerial cars used the roof as its launching pad and paid for designated spots to park each month. Some drunk had crashed his car into the ledge months ago. Now a gaping hole in the foundation and those pitifully rope-tied planks served as the ledge. The tenants and I had begged for the landlord to fix it and explained the area was a hazard. The landlord refused.

“Take care of them, son.” Dad backed up onto the unsteady ledge. The planks quaked under his weight. Snowflakes fell to his dark skin and landed on his blond hair. “Don't tell the others what happened tonight. Tell them it was an accident.”

“No.” I ran his way and reached out my hand to grab him. A crack sounded as the planks broke under his feet. He fell, dropping down so many flights into the darkness. Broken silver and rope followed him.

“No!”

Without screaming or crying, he smashed to the pavement. Blood splattered the snow-covered ground below. From my view, his dead body looked like a sleeping bird. The blood pooling out on his sides resembled wings. And then he shifted into a huge bird. Fire blew up around him. He rose into the air, flapping his wings as the flames licked up at his claws. And then he flew away, soaring past the building into the gray clouds.

I jerked up in my crowded bed and screamed. I scanned the room to make sure it was my bedroom. All eight of my guitars hung on racks up on the wall—from the omnichord upgraded silver wire to the old acoustic one dad had given me for my birthday when I was a kid. Articles of my old band Chameleon and memorabilia of every performance stuck to the other wall. Mom had made it a point of collecting every club flyer announcing Chameleon's events, our concert tickets, any interview I did with a magazine from big publications to small local rags. She even held on to musical programs of my kindergarten guitar recitals and some of the old sheets of music I'd written, even the few songs that my brothers picked on me about and the band refused to add to our selection as they doubled over in laughter. I wasn't much of a songwriter especially when it came to the ballads. My stuff boasted of an edge and usually involved me screaming. But Mom had framed all those old song lyric sheets in gold frames—“Life is like a Wet Dog,” “Eat my Flesh,” “Pause and Piss,” and the one that Shade bothered me about for days, “Penis Voyage.”

Mom had clapped at them all and said I was the best.
Damn, I miss you, Mom.
I'll have to tell Dad about that crazy dream. He'll . . .

It took me several seconds to remember he was dead too. He'd committed suicide three months before by jumping off the roof. But sometimes I thought he was still around. I closed my eyes and clutched the little heart hanging on the chain around my neck. The locket monitored my heartbeats and made sure my stress didn't place me in the red zone.

Tears swelled behind my closed lids. I rubbed them away before they could fall down my face. It took two minutes to overcome the pain that gripped me. I checked to make sure no one stirred in their sleep as they crowded my bed.

Good. They'd just start worrying about me again.

Both of my twin brothers' feet dug into my thighs, but at least they hadn't wet the bed. My green-haired dog Turtle lounged on my other pillow, farting with every third snore.
He has such a hard life.
I scooted to the edge of my bed and realized one of the twins had in fact pissed in the bed. A wet yellow stain slicked against my calf. The twin closest to the stain was Andy.

I yanked my leg away and shook Andy's small frame. “Get up. You wet the bed. Clean it up.”

“Turtle did that.” Andy sank into a pile of blankets and covered his head.

“Still your responsibility. You wanted the dog.” I shoved him off the bed. He dropped to the floor with a bang and shrieked. Black curls hung all over his head in disarray. He stomped off and mumbled something, but made sure it was just low enough that I couldn't hear him and get enraged.

I stretched my arms and brushed green strands off my chest.
Turtle must be shedding again. I'll have to shave it off. I don't have time to groom him every week.

“Just one morning I'd like to wake up to a bed full of naked women.”

“Ones that don't piss in the bed, right?” Toy rolled over at the end of the bed and yawned. His moppy red hair splayed out across the pillow. His long legs hung over the edge and his feet touched the floor.

“Why are you in here?”

“Because you put that sexy trek in my room.” He nudged a sleeping Randy to the side and positioned his body more onto the bed. Nix's face flashed in my mind.

“She's not a trek.” I rose. “And I thought you were sleeping in Shade's room.”

“Shade's got two chicks in there and refused to share.” He propped a pillow over his face. “And he wouldn't let me watch either.”

“Then why didn't you sleep on the couch?”

“Your brothers built a fort there last night and the cats have been sliding down it all morning.”

“My brothers, huh?”

“Clearly, I'm adopted. I'm the only civilized one of the bunch. How's your arm?”

I removed the metal bandage. A scar blossomed on the skin, hard and blood red, but nothing else. The pain had decreased into an ache that would leave as soon as I snorted some quake. “My arm is fine. It'll be brand new in a few days.”

He propped a pillow over his face. “Good. Now let me sleep, man. I've got work at the diner tonight.”

“My bad. I'm just talking in
my
room.”

He groaned. I laughed but tried not to make too much noise as I got up. Tiptoeing, I arrived at my dresser and slid my top drawer open. A small tube, barely three inches long and full of quake, lay under my folded boxer briefs. The drug sang to me and promised to cloud out my bad dreams. Sighing, I dug my hand into the drawer, searched, and found it. The slick glass of the tube chilled my fingertips. Quake was cold because it was harvested within special craters found on Mars, a planet coated in ice. I gripped the tube. My nose itched in anticipation.

“You okay, man?” Toy watched me from the bed and let his focus go to my hand.

Does he know what's in it? I hope not.

“Go back to sleep.”

“You want to talk about what type of dream would make you scream?”

“Yeah. Right after I take a dump in your mouth.”

He blew out a long breath and rolled over. “Yep. I'm definitely adopted.”

“Epic!” My sisters banged against my door in unison. The wood rattled underneath their knocking.

“May the Duchess choke in light. What!” I slipped the tube into my pajamas' pocket.

Can I just get a few minutes to myself?

All five of my sisters burst through my door, arguing with each other. Their voices rose high in the air and surely woke up the family living in the apartment above us.

“Mimi put us on punishment!” The triplets yelled and pointed their brown fingers up at her. I never knew how the triplets did it, but most of the time they spoke in unison as if their birthday wasn't the only connection between them. They spouted off more blame against Mimi, their auburn curls bobbing with the movements.

Frowning, Mimi carried my sleeping baby sister in her arms as she stepped closer to me. At fourteen, she possessed hips and other developed things that I'd prayed to the Duchess she would never have, but she got them anyway.

Which proves the Duchess of Light is no mystical goddess that has arisen from the dead. She's just a human that rules all the planets.
Although I would never say that out loud. It was an offence to talk bad about the Duchess on any planet.

“Did you punish them, Mimi?” I slid my thumb against the tube of quake in my pocket.

“I took away their dessert and gave them extra chores.” Mimi nodded. Her long blond hair hung to her hips. Like me, she had Dad's hair and Mom's golden-tan skin.

“She's not the boss,” the triplets declared. “Tell her, Epic. She's not the boss!”

I rubbed my eyes and turned to Mimi. “Why did you punish them?”

“They painted your prisoner red and green.”

I snapped my face to them. “Did you paint her?”

The triplets beamed. Each was missing two teeth in the top front row of their mouth. “We made her pretty.”

“Your prisoner looks like a bloody Christmas tree,” Mimi said.

I gritted my teeth. “She's not my prisoner.”

“I'm sorry.” Mimi sucked her teeth. “They painted your new girlfriend that's chained in Toy's room with tape around her mouth, red and green.”

“She likes it,” the triplets declared.

Ignoring Mimi, I directed my attention to the triplets. “Mimi is right. All three of you are on punishment. No dessert tonight and you clean the kitchen after dinner.”

“What?” they began to protest.

“We don't paint people.” I stepped forward. Their mouths closed. Although they were only six, they'd lived hard lives. They knew when to fight and when to shut up and deal with it.

“Go get towels, soap, and water for my . . . guest.” I caressed the tube inside my pocket with my fingers.

“Guest?” Mimi smirked as the triplets marched away with frowns plastered on their faces. “Do you think this is the proper thing for us to see?”

“You all aren't supposed to be in my room,” Toy growled from under the pillow.

“Who is she?” Mimi rolled her eyes. “Did you all kidnap her? Why would you put her in chains and wrap her mouth with tape?”

So she wouldn't kill and rob us all.

Mimi spotted Nix and saw an olive-skinned beauty with haunting green eyes and the appearance of a delicate manner. She didn't understand that Nix was danger wrapped in a tight dress.

“Mind your business,” Toy yelled.

“I live here too.” Mimi pouted.

“Both of you be quiet. And, Mimi, we're taking care of this,” I said. “Don't worry about it. She'll be gone by the afternoon.”

Mimi shook her head. “It's not proper. The girls will think it's okay for their boyfriends to chain them up—”

“No one's having a boyfriend!” I targeted her with my eyes. “Let's make that clear right now.”

“We're not talking about boyfriends. We're talking about chaining women.”

“Still,” I growled, “no one's having a boyfriend.”

“And if one of us already has one?” She tilted her head to the side.

“If I see a guy near you, I'm loading him with siphons.”

“I hate you!” She pouted and stomped off like everyone else.

I'll have to visit her school. Surprise this idiot guy during lunch. Maybe bring Shade along so the kid can wet his pants in the cafeteria in front of everyone.
I laughed at the thought and then frowned at how upset Mimi would be if we did it.
I'll have to do something else. Something that will keep the kid away from her, but not point to me being responsible.

“This is a record,” Toy said from the bed. “You've managed to piss off five of our brothers and sisters in only fifteen minutes of being awake.”

“Shut up and go back to sleep.”

The tube of quake vibrated in my hand, but I couldn't attend to it at that moment. I had a date with a Christmas tree. The triplets claimed Nix loved her new look. I doubted it. Besides, it was time to tell her why we'd dragged her back to our place. Nix would be a vital component in our last hit. I'd explained that to my brothers last night when I rationalized why we were taking her. I planned on giving her the opportunity to join. If she said no, then I'd drop her off wherever she wanted.

She won't say no.

She had nothing. I knew breeds of roaches that would've cringed at crawling in that motel she slept in. My heart broke to see it. She deserved better—silk sheets caressing her skin, diamonds draped around her neck, and chocolate delicacies between those slender fingers. My dick clenched with hunger at the thought of those soft hands. I paused in the doorway and shut my eyes tight.