“No, it’s not. It’s the fucking truth. She’s bad news. Never liked the bitch.”
She may have not wanted to have her face all bruised and bloodied; I hope she regrets it when she looks at herself in the mirror. But she got the reaction out of me she was looking for. Emerald thinks I want her man. If only I could convince my own damn self that her intuition weren’t entirely correct.
“He can clean her up. She’s his after all.” Jerking my thumb in the direction they took off to. I admit to myself it hurts, worse than I imagined. I turn around taking off running. Escaping from this tiresome day. Cain, Emerald, Manny. All of it.
I wrap my arms around myself, my legs carrying me as fast as they will go in bare feet. Not knowing where I’m going, I slow down to a walk on a small dirt path. I hear Emerald’s wails in the background overlaid by Cain’s loud rumbling. I want it gone, all of it, out of my aching head, which is throbbing from where she hit me.
The bottoms of my feet land on several sharp stones; I feel small trickles of blood where they break through the skin. I don’t care. I keep moving forward, not knowing where the hell I am or how I would even try to get back. My guess is I’ve been walking for ten or fifteen minutes before I hear my name being called from behind me.
“Calla! Wait!”
It’s Manny. Of course, it would be. I won’t deny the fact that it wounds me Cain isn’t the one coming after me. He’s more than likely comforting his woman right now. I continue to walk, hearing Manny approach me.
“Come on, Calla. Stop.”
I don’t know what makes me stop, but I do. I feel myself crumple to the dirt on my knees. I bow my head and I begin to cry. My gaze travels up somewhere into the distant black night. Welled up tears from deep inside travel down my face.
“Why, Manny? What did I ever do to anyone to have to suffer like this? I… I just want to go home. This isn’t for me. The longer I stay here, the more he’s going to hurt me. And her... Jesus, she’s a whack job!”
I let loose a paroxysm of choking and sobbing cries, not even realizing Manny has lifted me up and placed me on his lap until I feel the dampness from my tears on his shirt.
“I should have never come here. If I would have known I’d be coming back to any of this, I would have stayed away forever.”
“Like fucking hell, you would have. And God damn it, Manny, get your fucking filthy hands off of her.”
The reverberation of Cain’s voice draws up my spine. My crying fit turns into laughter at his absurdity.
“You have a lot of nerve, do you know that?”
Observing his beautiful face in the moonlight, I feel contempt towards him, even though he has the most intense blue eyes I have seen and a body that makes me want to oil it down and slip and slide all over it.
“My nerves are gone, sweetheart. Now get up. You’re coming home with me.”
My anger increases in its intensity. I’m not going anywhere with him. No way am I going back to a house that has haunted me for years. Ignoring him completely, my attention shoots to Manny.
“I would much rather stay with you,” I say sweetly.
“Hell, no,” Cain sputters out crazily.
“And why not?” I retort, tilting my head to one side. “If I have to be here, I would much rather stay with someone who treats me like a human, not someone who leaves me in a room like a captive.”
The minute those words fall out of my mouth I know I shouldn’t have said them. I’m not full of malice and humiliation like he is.
“You want me to show you what it’s like to be held captive?”