Page 15 of Rock the Boat
Tilting my head back, I rolled my shoulders and breathed deeply. It gave me a rush to give this asshole a taste of his own medicine. He’d beaten up guys, drugged people whenever he wanted, sold drugs, and overall was someone who needed to go to hell. If it were up to me, I’d buy him a one-way ticket.
“Did you know that this man drugged his own sister with the help of the groom just because she pissed him off? Thankfully, that was all they did to her.”
“You don’t know anything,” Clod snarled, still holding his stomach.
“That is where you are wrong. I know a lot about you and a few others in this room. I also know that you and little miss goody two shoes Helena have been fucking each other for at least the past year. My guess is it has been longer.”
“So?” Clod said at the same time Helena shouted, “I’ve only ever been with Matthew!”
I threw back my head and laughed. “You can’t even get your stories straight. But don’t worry, they have an understanding. Isn’t that right, Helena?”
“What do you want? Want me to admit that Matthew used you? Want me to dump him so you can have another go at him? What?”
I approached her slowly, moving the two feet that separated us and leaning closer. “I want everything. You took my life, so I’m going to take yours. By the time I’m done with you, you will wish you were dead, and then, I’m going to leave you to rot.”
She spat at me, the glob landing on my cheek. “Go to hell.”
Carefully, I made sure I wiped away her filth and grinned. “Where do you think I’ve been the last two years?”
“You have no proof.” She lifted her chin and glared at me.
“I have enough to nail your ass to whatever wall I want, disassemble your life, and make sure you are never the same again. I don’t make idle threats. I’ve already had your trial and found you guilty. This is just the punishment phase.”
She tried not to show any outward reaction to me, but her fists tightened a little more, and her eyes widened a fraction. Helena was afraid of what I was about to do.
I noticed the door opening and said, “Please bring our guest of honor in. We don’t want him to miss the party.” Two men dragged a still naked Matthew to the front of the room and dropped him unceremoniously, his face hitting the dance floor with a thud. Had I used too much of the drug? I didn’t really care if I had or hadn’t, but it would have been nice to get a little bit of a reaction from him right now. His closest friends and family were a captive audience and staring at him as he wore nothing except the cinch on his balls and a pair of handcuffs trapping his arms behind his back. It made such a lovely picture that I took one on my tablet for posterity’s sake.
“He’ll be fine. I just gave him a little of what he and Clod pass around,” I said, waving my hand in the air to brush the concern away when I heard Helena gasp. “Something you want to share with the class, Helena?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I had to give it to her. Instead of giving in, she was doubling down. I wasn’t completely ready to reveal my hand, so I switched gears. “Let’s see, we have the knife-wielder, a drug dealer, a would-be mastermind…who are we missing? How about Uncle Leon, Frank Hunter, and Steven Ward? Come on down!” I saw the first man stand up. My very own cousin. We had never been close, and when we were kids, I’d set his hair on fire.
I had too many questions and not enough answers. How could family do this to family? How did this happen? Had I been picked randomly, or had Steven set me up to fall? I still wasn’t sure. Steven didn’t know I was attending Harvard as far as I knew, but then again, I thought he had been on the other side of the country at Stanford.
“If you couldn’t tell, Steven and I are related. He is my second cousin and a complete asshole. I think he is still bitter that I ruined his hair when we were both ten. In my defense, I told him not to get too close to the Bunsen burner with all the product he had in his hair.” I think they would have laughed at my joke if the tension wasn’t climbing by the second, and I thrived on it.
“What are you doing, bitch?” Steven ran up to me, drew his hand back, and stopped when a gun was pressed against his head.
“Did you forget about my friends? And yes, I am a bitch. You did this to me. All of you did this to me. I was quiet, unassuming, living my life and working toward my degree. Did you send Matthew after me? Did you know he was going to try and kill me? Or was it a random happy little accident for you? Think carefully. Your answers to those questions could determine your fate,” I said, venom in my voice and making my blood boil.
He clenched his jaw and ground his teeth together as he glared at me. If he thought that would intimidate me, that I would back down, he was grossly mistaken. I had nothing to lose, and I would make these people pay for their crimes.
Steven turned away first, glancing at the others who were forcefully brought up to join us. But I was also paying attention to my surroundings and the people I held captive closest to me. I saw the small step backward, the shifting of his weight, and I pressed my blade into his side. “You don’t want to do whatever you are thinking of doing, cousin. I may have been small and helpless before, but I don’t need these men to take you down. I can do it myself. You helped kill the me I once was, and this is who I became when I rose out of those ashes.”
Opening his hands, he shook them out and sat on the ground. “You don’t have anything on anyone here. If you did, you would have taken it to the cops already.” He didn’t speak too loudly, however. He would behave for now.
“Maybe I wanted that honor for myself. Like I told Helena, this is merely the punishment phase.” He was nervous, as were the others I had called up, convincing me they could all see the writing on the wall.
“Everyone, calm down. She just wants to make a show of it all. She was probably jealous and heartbroken when Matthew broke up with her. It made her go crazy. Those scars are probably self-inflicted,” Uncle Leon announced. He was the bride’s uncle and the one man I couldn’t figure out until a few days ago. His name came up here and there, and I found a picture of that night, and he appeared in it, but I couldn’t understand the connection. Initially, I thought he could have been the person they called in a panic, unsure of what to do, but that assumption was blown out of the water. I was building my case against them, and soon, they would all be at my mercy.
I tapped my tablet screen, and a picture of that night on the rocks appeared. These assholes had taken a picture with my limp body as they were dumping me. They all posed, smiled, and took pleasure in my pain. Leon was absent from the picture, but I added a second, and suddenly, he appeared. He had switched places with Steven.
Whispers and murmurings raced through the small crowd, and I said nothing, allowing these two photos to sink in for everyone.
“They aren’t real. It’s been photoshopped,” Frank shouted. He was front and center in both, grinning in one and making a goofy face in the other.
“Funny you said that since I got them from your phone tonight. Mementos from a night you tried to snuff out a life. It almost worked. Maybe if you had been quieter and hadn’t drawn attention to yourselves. Are any of you curious how I survived?” I questioned.
