Burn's World: A Love Triangle by Eve Rabi - HTML preview

Chapter Thirty-Six

 

Carlene meets me at the door. “Where have you been?” she demands looking unusually stressed. Since Carlene doesn’t do stress, it’s cause for concern. “Trojan was here looking for you.”

Avoiding eye contact with her, I say, “I was … out.”

“Well, he’s pissed,” she says, sounding pissed with me.

As I walk away from her, I make a decision to come clean with Trojan and tell him that it’s over. Whatever it is, whatever it was, it’s over.

I understand I owe him something and I will deliver what I promised. But other than that, after what happened with Brody, it’s not fair on Trojan. Although, I realize I may have some explaining to do.

I find my phone, look at it and balk – twenty-two calls from Trojan. I squeeze my eyes shut. Shit! So wrapped up was I in Brody that I forgot all about Trojan.

“He’s here!” Carlene calls out.

I look out of the window and I see him in the driveway.

Slipping on his necklace, I run to his car, guilt all over my face. “Hey!” I say as I slide into the passenger seat of his car. I kiss his cheek and sit next to him.

“Hey!” he says and drives off with me.

“Where we going?” I ask, in a bright voice, as I buckle up.

“Dinner at Markson’s. That okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Where were you?” he asks, his eyes scanning my face.

“With Angel,” I say. Luckily, lying comes naturally to me.

He veers to the side of the road and switches off the engine. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I’m a little disconcerted by the way he’s looking at me – his eyes are boring into me.

“Then how come Emily says they didn’t see you on Sunday?”

I look at him then avert my eyes, racking my brain for an answer.

“Who … who did you spend the night with, Burn?”

I squirm in silence.

“Tell me … tell me, Burn, it wasn’t him.” His voice is cold, empty, low.

I will myself to spew out another lie, but my mind is AWOL. Slowly, I run my hand over my face.

“Burn …” His eyes narrow. “Is that …?” His eyes bulge as he stares at my neck. “That’s a hickey on your neck!”

Fuck! My hand flies to my neck to cover it. I forgot all about the hickeys all over my body. Brody was trying to tattoo his initials on my body.

He reaches over and slaps me – so hard, I see tiny silver stars. Before I can react, he pulls out a 9 mm and jabs it under my chin, while his other hand fastens around my neck. Terrified, I stare at the gun, mesmerized by it, fighting for breath, fighting to make sense of the situation. He pushes me deep into the passenger’s seat and for a moment, I hold my breath, thinking he’s going to fire.

“We had a fucking deal!” he hisses, his nostrils large, his eyes popping out of his skull. “I owned it! You had no fucking right to give it AWAY!”

He cocks the gun. This is it – I’m going to die today. Angel …oh God!

“Where is he?”

Brody! Oh my God! What have I done?

Then he releases me, gets out of the car and runs around to my side. I grab my bag and try to scramble out of the car, but I have to first catch my breath.

Too late. He yanks open my door, jerks me out of the car and hauls me towards the back of the car. He opens the trunk and shoves me into it. I claw at him with my nails and try to fight him off, but I’m no match for him. My voice box is still recovering from his hands around my neck, so I can’t even scream. He shuts the trunk on me.

Alone is the dark, I lie shaking. Trojan’s going to kill me. What am I gonna do?

I reach for my cell phone in my bag to call 911. It’s not there! Must have fallen out of my bag. The car starts to move. As he speeds away, my terror escalates.

“Erro! Hawk!”

Both appear before me, looking worried.

“He’s gonna kill me t …today,” I say in a wavering voice. “Please, help me.”

“Burn, we can’t,” Hawk says. “It’s nothing to do with the gift. You know that. You know the rules.”

“But … but …”

“Why did you do what you did, Burn?” Erro demands in a scolding voice.

“I … I don’t know, Erro. I love Brody and …”

“What about Trojan, Burn? What about him?”

“I … I like him too … he’s been so good to me and … “

“You hurt him.”

I nod. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean …”

“Try to kick out the light,” Hawk says.

I try to but I can’t do it.

“Look for a tire iron, Burn,” Hawk says.

With shaking hands, I poke around in the dark and come across it. I clutch onto the tire iron and wait.

Trojan slams on the brakes, which causes me to hit my head against the side of the boot.

He opens the trunk. “Get out!”

I lie curled up, pretending to be unconscious.

He reaches down for me.

I whirl around and slam the tire iron into his face. He staggers back, dazed. I scramble out of the boot and hit the gun out of his hand with the tire iron. The gun clatters a few feet away from him. I think about going for the gun, but he beats me to it. While he dives for the gun, I run as fast as I can. We’re in a parking lot, fuck knows where. Although there’s a lot of cars, there’s not a single person around.

“Burn!” I hear him scream. Even though he’s hurt, he’s not far behind me and …he has the gun. He’s fit probably because of all the hours in the gym and he’s gaining on me. Fuck!

Desperate to outrun him, I think about all that Brody had taught me about running and I try my best to remember. It works – pretty soon, I’ve got some distance between us.

But his footsteps get louder and I even hear his heavy breathing. When I get around a corner, I drop behind an SUV, out of sight.

His footsteps stop. “Where the fuck are you?” He yells. “You think you can get away from me? I will fucking kill you for doing that to me? I will kill him for touching my gal. Nobody betrays me. NOBODY, BURN, NOBODY! Not even someone I love, Burn. Nobody!”

Someone I love?

When he’s not talking, I hear his labored breathing – fuck! I’ve never been so afraid in my life. Please let somebody come. Please let somebody have heard the shouting and call the cops.

When I spot the exit, I drop to my stomach and crawl towards it.

“I loved you, Burn. I treated you right. We had a fucking deal. I owned it, Burn! I was there for you, every step of the way. I waited six months. Six fucking months. That’s not me, but I did it.”

I stop and peep under the cars. His black boots are moving in the same spot.

“I never put pressure on you. I respected you, did everything to please you, I lost my thuggish looks, I lost my thuggish friends, I went fucking legit for you. Huh? Changed my entire life to be the man you wanted. What did I ask of you, Burn? Nothing. Except that you don’t renege on our deal. And you did. You broke your promise. You disrespected ME!”

I groan at his words. I had no idea that he loved me. He never said that he did.

“Why was I not enough, Burn? Why? Was I a joke? Were you laughing at me when you fucked him? Come on out, NOW BURN! BURRRRRN!”

The moment I get close to the entrance, I hop to my feet and sprint out of the parkade into a crowd of people. I don’t stop running till I reach a cab. I jump into it and rattle off Laura’s address to the driver.

Unfortunately, the driver has to pass the parkade to get to Laura’s.

Shit! I drop out of sight.

As we pass the parkade, I sit up and peep out of the window. I see him sitting on the ground against a wall, knees drawn to his chest, his head bowed. Looks like a little boy right now.

“Get down, Burn!” Erro says. “He’s still got the gun.”

“But …but …he looks so hurt.”

“Later. Now, just stay out of sight for now!”

****

Still shaking, I get out of the cab and knock on Laura’s door.

“Hey, Burn!” she says. “’Sup?”

My response is to burst into tears.

Quickly, she ushers me upstairs into her room, where between sobs, I tell her everything. “He doesn’t know where you live,” I say. “That’s why I came here.”

I cry more, not only because of my close shave with death, but because of all the things Trojan told me during his rant, because I hurt him so much.

She goes around locking all the doors and windows, then returns. “Look,” she says, “just stay here for a few days. He’ll probably calm down and then maybe you can talk. Right now, don’t be so hard on yourself. You didn’t mean to hurt him, Burn.”

I nod, grateful for her understanding.

I call Carlene. “Trojan was here again,” she says.

“Oh. What did he say?”

“Nothing, just looking for you. Where are you?”

“I’m at my friend Maria’s,” I lie. There is no Maria.

I hang up and call Emily. “Hey, Burn, Trojan was here looking for you. You just missed him.”

“What …what did he say, Emily?”

“Oh, he just wanted to know Angel’s birth date.”

I gasp. He’s got my cell phone and he’s trying to break the password!

“Did she give it to him?” Please let her say no.

“Yep, she did. He promised to buy her a great gift on that … Burn, is everything okay?”

“No, Emily, everything is not okay. But I am.” I hang up, promising to keep in touch.

Laura gets calls from Tina and Sultana – Trojan was at both their houses looking for me. Laura does not tell them that I’m with them but warns them not to answer any of his questions.

He’s going to contact Brody! In my state of shock, I can’t even remember Brody’s number to check up on him – to somehow warn him. I call Nick and get Brody’s number. Then I call Brody.

“Did you get it?” Brody asks.

“Get what, Brody?”

“My address?”

“Add …?”

“You wanted it. My answer was a joke, you know.”

My heart sinks to my sore ankles. “Brody…oh God, Brody, I lost my phone. What was your answer?” I hold my breath.

“The White House. A joke!”

“Oh.”

“You lost your phone, baby? Shit!”

I sigh with relief. “Brody, I think some a-hole who knows me is messing with me, so just ignore all his or her pranks, okay?”

I quickly end the call and race to Laura’s laptop. At neck-breaking speed, I log onto my Hotmail account and Facebook, Twitter, YouTube accounts – every account that I can remember and change my passwords before Trojan gets to it. Next, I call my phone service provider and block my sim card so that he can’t use my number.

“You have to tell my mom. We’ll just say you need a break from your aunt and stuff, and that if anyone calls she’s to tell him that you’re not here, okay?”

I nod and she hurries off to tell her mom.

Finally, exhausted from all that occurred today, I lie with Laura on her bed and talk in hushed tones. We both are very nervous and jump each time we hear a sound.

When the light goes out, images of him sitting against the wall, looking crushed flits through my mind.

He said that he loved me. But I guessed that already, right? Yet I did what I did with Brody, without a thought about him. How could I have done that to him?

My internal conflict rages.

You cheated on him.

No, I didn’t – we didn’t have a formal relationship.

But you treated him like a boyfriend and he did all the things for you a boyfriend would do?

But he knew the score – he entered at his own risk. He set the pace, telling me that he wanted what Brody has. What about the woman’s cough I heard in the background?

But, you have to admit – you knew how he felt about you and you never took his feelings into consideration? That was leading him on.

I didn’t mean to. I’m just eighteen and …dumb. I guess I messed up big time. But, he had no right putting his hands on me, putting a gun to my head.

Fair enough. What would you have done to him if the roles were reversed?

I would have shot him if I had a gun.

What would you do if Brody cheated on you after you both were seeing each other for a while?

I’d castrate him.

I sit up in bed and stare into the dark. Then I help myself to one of Laura’s cigarettes, walk onto her balcony, which luckily is enclosed, and pace as I smoke.

Why am I so affected by his feelings? He shouldn’t mean that much to me. I went to him to break up with him in the first place.

And Brody? Suddenly, I don’t give a shit about Brody – I’m more bothered with the fact that I hurt Trojan. He didn’t deserve it.

How could I have done that to him?

Sure Brody was my Prince Charming, but Trojan – he was the man who took care of me, rescued me, took care of Angel, threw me a birthday bash. Twice. Showered me with gifts…

Trojan was the guy who really cared. Again, my mind drifts back to the image of him sitting on the floor at the parkade, looking at the ground, looking like he lost something precious.

I stub out the cigarette, squeeze my eyes shut and hold my head with both hands.

I broke the heart of a man who cared about me. A man who loved me.

I slide to the floor and curl up into a ball.

What have I done?

What have I done?

What have I done?

 

END OF

BURN’S WORLD

A Love Triangle

(Part 1)

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