The mind is vindictive.
I glanced around the empty hallway, taking deep breaths as hot tears streamed my face. I heard Riggs and Bones walk out of Blackie’s room and I quickly spun around, wiping at my cheeks with the back of my hands and hurried down the hallway.
I needed to get out of here. I had already made a fool out of myself, charging into his room like his woman, earning suspicious eyes from the club….my father included. Everyone excerpt Blackie.
Get over it, you’re nothing but Jack’s daughter.
He doesn’t want you.
He looks at you and still sees you as Little Lacey Parrish.
You’re just a job.
You’re nothing.
“Shut up,” I hissed, through clenched teeth as I collided with another body. I lifted my head and stared at my father’s girlfriend.
“Looking for these?” Reina asked, holding up my keys.
“How?”
“You dropped them on your way to see Blackie,” she stated, reaching into her purse she pulled out a handful of tissues and handed them to me.
I forgot that I bumped into her. This morning we buried my uncle, my father’s brother Danny, whom Jimmy Gold killed months ago. The feds had just released his body after closing their investigation and my father had Bones’ set up a small burial at Green-Wood cemetery. After the service, when everyone was getting ready to leave, Pipe announced the hospital had called and Blackie had finally woken up. I went home with my mother, lied to her about meeting up with my friend Daniela and drove my ass straight here. I was in such a hurry I nearly knocked Reina on her ass.
“Dry your eyes,” she insisted.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I tried to cover.
“Oh honey, it’s exactly what it looks like,” she laced her arm through mine as Wolf’s voice sounded from down the hallway.
“Let’s get out of here,” she whispered, leading me to the bank of elevators. Once we were inside she pointed to the ceiling covered in silver paneling that acted like a mirror. I went to work wiping the mascara that painted my face.
The doors opened and we stepped off, making our way through the lobby and outside.
“How is he doing?”
I shrugged my shoulders, shoving my hands in my back pockets as we walked side by side with no direction. I glanced at her from the corner of my eye and she looked back at me.
“Leather and Lace,” Reina said.
My feet stopped in their tracks.
“What do you know about that?” I asked, hastily.
She shook her head, reaching out she placed her fingers beneath my chin and turned my face to hers so our eyes locked.
“Just one thing,” she whispered. “Those three words kept that man…,” she glanced over her shoulder at the hospital. “…alive.”
Butterflies.
Her words gave me butterflies and my dull heart, lured to sleep by mind, beat again.
Lies.
You know the truth.
“I doubt that very much,” I whispered.
“Then how do I know about Leather and Lace?” She questioned, taking a deep breath before she ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. “I have no idea what goes on between the two of you and…I shouldn’t even be saying this,” she struggled, biting down on her lip. “Fuck it,” she conceded. “I know you and I don’t know each other long, or even well enough for you to trust me but hear me out okay?”
I nodded.
“When I first met your dad I was a woman who had given up on living a full life. I had been through hell and back and didn’t know my place in the world or if I even had one. I had scars both visible and not and I let those scars dictate my future. I thought I wasn’t worthy of sharing my life with someone and that I was destined to be alone. Then your dad came into my life and my past, the scars, it all sort of faded away. He took away my scars just by being the man willing to accept them as his own.”
“Reina, I’m real happy for you and my dad but this— “
“I’m the person who lived that nightmare with Blackie. We thought we would die, Lacey, and when you’re facing death there is one gift you’re given and that is gift of truth. You can say anything you want out loud because no one else will know. You can admit the things you keep hidden, the words that have the power to heal the scars you’re afraid to show the world because there aren’t any consequences to your truth, it dies right along with the rest of you. Blackie told me to hang on for your dad. He reminded me of the one person I had in this world. He reminded me I had love waiting for me and I believe with everything in me that’s what kept me sane and kept me fighting,” she admitted as her eyes watered.
“I asked Blackie what he was hanging on for and he told me Leather and Lace,” she whispered hoarsely. “You’re Lace aren’t you?”
I glanced down at the sidewalk.
I waited for my maker to appear and tell me Reina was lying but the taunting never came. My heart pounded in my ears, calling out loudly, demanding I listen. I slowly lifted my head as the tears rolled down my cheeks.