I woke up to a hand touching me. I opened my eyes, terrified, to see Maximo sleeping next to me. When the hell did he get here? I was still clothed, thank God.
“Good morning.” He said with his eyes closed.
“Morning.” I mumbled before getting up and going into the bathroom. I decided to run a bath. My muscles ached. This baby was draining me.
I poured thick bubble bath with the falling water before climbing into the deep tub. I let the water fill up enough to cover my chest. The door opened and Maximo entered. “Room for me?” he said flirty.
“No, there’s not actually.” I retorted. The smile left his face. To my surprise he pulled up the stool under the mirror and pulled it over to the tub. “Um, are you okay?” I asked, honestly questioning his sanity.
“I’m fine. I thought about what you said, that you were willing to try for me. I thought about it until about 4am this morning and decided to come sleep with you. I tried waking you, but you slapped me in your sleep and rolled over. I opted to just lay down next to you and try to talk to you when you woke.” I was staring at him unbelievably.
“I slapped you in my sleep?” He nodded. I broke out into a hysterical laugh. He just looked at me, questioning my humor.
“What is so funny?” He asked dumbly.
“I slapped you and you didn’t do anything about it?” I was still laughing. He just crinkled his eyebrows together and put his hand in the warm water.
“Are pregnant woman allowed to take baths? I read something that said they weren’t.”
“I don’t know, they haven’t killed me yet, Maximo.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. Did he actually care? Or was this a ploy to get me to feel sorry for him somehow?
He chuckled. “Have breakfast with me?” he asked, almost innocently.
“Fine.” I answered his request. He smirked.
“Wear something comfortable. We are going out.” I looked up at him questioning his intent. “Hurry up.” Then he left.
I got out of the bathtub and dried off. I combed my hair, pulling it into a ponytail. I needed to cut it. It was so long it almost hit my butt. I didn’t bother wearing makeup. I got hot too easily with this baby. I pulled on a loose bra, jeans, tennis shoes, and a loose V-neck t-shirt. I sprayed myself with my favorite perfume and walked out of the room.
Joe was waiting for me when I opened the door. “Are you ready?” He asked before handing me a 9mm pistol.
“Where are we going?” I asked, taking the gun and tucking it in my jeans.
“We have business to attend to.” Joe said leading me outside to the SUV waiting in the driveway.
“Drive.” Maximo ordered from the backseat. He looked handsome in his black jeans and black t-shirt.
“Where are we going?” I asked nervously.
“You’ll see.” He answered dryly, not looking at me.
I pulled my legs towards the door, facing away from him. This was going to be hell, I just had a feeling. “Well, this gun is digging into my hip, Maximo.” I retorted while looking out the window. He chuckled.
“Good, I like when you are uncomfortable.” I huffed. He enjoyed making me miserable, just like his son kicking my bladder.
Before long we pulled up to a large industrial building. It didn’t look familiar. The car came to a hold and Maximo jumped out. Joe opened the door for me and helped me out.
“Jesus, hurry up.” Maximo yelled from the door to the building.
We hurried inside and I followed Maximo closely. He was walking so fast through the building, which was empty. Just a large open room with no lights on. Maximo came to a stop and flipped the light switch.
It revealed three large men bound and bleeding in the middle of the room. He laughed wickedly when he saw them.
“Now the fun begins.” He said with a twinkle in his eye. “Pull out your gun.” He ordered. I obeyed. I held the gun firmly in my hand. “Fallon, I want you to pick one of these men to kill. They have all betrayed me in different ways, so I want you to chose who to kill to avenge me.” He chuckled and pushed me forward. I decided to play into his game.
“How did they betray you, my love?” I asked almost too sweetly. I saw his smile grow.
“The one to the left stole a shipment from me. The one in the middle killed one of my whores. The one to the right tried to rob my club. All of them worked for me.” How descriptive, I thought. I knew this was a game to him. He wanted to break me down, but I wouldn’t let him.
“All of these men betrayed you, and you only want me to kill one? Why not all of them?” He smiled again.
“Surprise me, mi amore.” I walked closer to the men, none of them would look at me.
“Look at me!” I yelled, making the men jump. They reluctantly looked up at me, expect the man in the middle. I walked closer to him, using the gun to raise his chin to look at me. “Killed a whore?” He nodded. “Why?” I asked.
“She stiffed me, ma’am.” He answered sadly.
“So she stiffed you, not giving you what you paid for, and now you’re here?” He shook his head.
“She owed me for my protection. She refused to pay or find a way to pay me, so I choked her, I didn’t know she stopped breathing.” I took a step back. What an asshole. I walked to the man to his right.
“You tried to rob our club?” He nodded. “Were your wages not sufficient?” He didn’t agree or disagree. “Answer me!” I yelled. He just stared me in the eyes, not answering me. So, I raised my gun and pistol whipped him, making him fall over and cry out in pain. Maximo laughed. “I said answer me!”
“I wanted more money; I wanted more money so I could buy coke!” The guy yelled from the ground.
I walked over to the man to the left. “What did you steal?” I asked the very large man.
“None of your business, bitch.” He grunted. I raised my pistol and shot him between the eyes. Easy decision, but for some reason, this felt like a set up. Then I stepped to the man in the middle and shot him and then the man on the right. They all hit the floor so hard. Blood was pooling at my feet and my ears rang.
I felt a hand reach for the gun, and I pulled it away, turning around quickly and pointing it at the culprit. It was Julio. I hadn’t seen him in weeks. I put the gun down and hugged him hard. He held me back. “It’s okay, bello, it’s okay.” The decision on who to kill wasn’t hard, I would have killed them all anyways because it was my life over theirs’. I handed him the gun and walked out of the building.