Page 3 of Ache
“Good. Because your life is my main concern. It’s my priority. My duty. And I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing. That I have a plan.”
“Want to give me a few details of that plan?” I fish.
“I can’t give you many. I can just tell you soon. Very, very soon.” He swipes the pad of his thumb across my heated cheek.
Soon. That sounds so . . . hopeful. Tage is one of my stepfather’s foot soldiers. He’s a thief, and a liar, even a killer when he needs to be. I’ve been surrounded by men like that since I was seven. Since my sleazy, drug-addicted mother entered into a relationship with Malcolm “Gunner” Tremmall, a Chicago Southside drug runner who was quickly making a name for himself.
Eight years later, he’s built one of the most lucrative drug-trafficking rings north of the Mason-Dixon line.
My life wasn’t always this secluded, though. When we first moved into the compound, I had my freedom. I could roam when and where I wanted. Neither my mother nor my stepfather bothered with me much. They were both concerned with more important things — my mother getting high, and Gunner carving out his empire through intimidation and fear. He’s no one to fuck with. It’s clear by just the way he presents himself. He’s an imposing figure. Tall, stoic, and ruthless as hell, with black eyes that are a perfect match to his black soul.
But one day, everything changed. Everything I had grown accustomed to was taken away from me. The little freedom I had, gone.
It happened right after my thirteenth birthday. It was like any other morning. I woke up, brushed my teeth in myen suitebathroom, and then tried to go downstairs for breakfast.Triedbeing the operative word. Two of Malcolm’s huge goons were guarding the door, and when I attempted to walk past them, they stopped me.Blocked me. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I never really received an explanation either. From that day forward, I became a prisoner. Sentenced to spend my life alone, in solitude, in an elegant prison decorated in pink and white. I was Rapunzel, minus the long blonde hair, staring out at the world from the window of my tower. And for three years, that’s how I lived, secluded, until the night Tage Andrews appeared and changed everything. Changed me.
I had seen him many times walking across the courtyard — a paved square in the middle of the property surrounded by beautiful climbing vines in the summer and snow-covered grounds in the winter — and every now and again the path of our eyes would meet. Only for a fleeting second, but the connection was like fire. For me, anyway. I don’t know how many times it happened, countless probably, but I felt his stare touch the same place inside me every single time. Deep in my core, it kindled my insides in ways I didn’t understand but became addicted to. I would search him out, just to feel that little flash of excitement. I began to live for it, and soon, live for him. I didn’t even know his name. He was a stranger, a mystery that occupied my mind. A person I could never touch, or meet, or talk to. But that all changed the night he climbed into my window. The night he altered everything, my entire existence.
One kiss possessed me. One kiss turned a fixation into an infatuation.
I watch quietly as Tage drags up his jeans and zippers his fly. My heart deflates. I don’t want him to go. It’s getting harder and harder to watch him leave. To be alone.
“Please don’t go yet.” I reach for him desperately. Tage grabs my hand and plops back down on the bed.
“Soon, I’ll never have to leave.” He traps my face and embraces me wildly, one wet, starving, paralyzing kiss right after another. I’m light-headed by the time he’s done, and dizzy with so many emotions. “Be patient, Juliet, promise me.”
“I promise,” I sigh. “I’d wait forever for you.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” Tage stands, and I sag.Please don’t go. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
“You promise?” I stare up at him. His strong frame is highlighted by the moonlight pouring in through the windows.
“Yes. You promise, I promise.” He drops a kiss on my freckled nose.
I nod. I trust him. With everything I am. With everything I have.
Tage slithers out of the room the same way he came in, like a cat. Like a thief, making off with my heart.
Once he’s out of sight, I spring out of bed and grab a pink sheet of paper and a pen off my desk. I scribble a few words down, then fold the paper into an airplane. I rush to the window and call out in a hushed tone, “Tage!” I send the pink paper airplane soaring in his direction, and he catches it right before it crashes into the ground. Then he’s gone. Swallowed by the darkness.
I climb into bed, playing the events of the night over and over like I always do. It helps me hold on, helps me stay sane.
“Soon, Juliet.”I hear Tage’s words echo around me.Soon.
* * *
The soundof a gunshot startles me awake. Another prompts me to scurry out of bed and crawl to the window. I peek out of the glass from the floor to find Gunner pointing a gun at Tage. Tage is crawling on all fours across the courtyard, clearly injured. I want to scream, but fear is choking my vocal chords. I watch helplessly as Gunner stalks Tage under the faint moonlight. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I can see the gun glint as he moves. My eyes sting from prickly tears, and my heart is beating so fast my chest feels like it’s cracking.
Please no, please no,please nois all I can think. It’s a drumline beating through my head.
The world becomes blurry as the onslaught of tears cloud my vision.
Please God, take anything or anyone except Tage.
Another gunshot rings out and my nails break against the windowsill. My world shatters. I hear screaming, but it’s so far and removed it takes me a second to realize it’s me. It’smyvoice, my pain, my anguish, projecting from my own throat.
Then there’s chaos. Bright lights, loud swooshing sounds, and a man’s voice raining down through a loudspeaker.
I wipe my eyes, trying to find my bearings. So much so fast. A helicopter hovers over the courtyard with the letters “FBI” accented in gold. People with guns flood the courtyard, and Gunner’s crew seem to scatter like rats. I’m terrified, frozen in place, watching the one and only person I care about die on the cold ground.
