We stand in silence as we watch Mother Nature cause her havoc.
“What the hell are you angry about, Rosh?” he finally asks.
My eyes fill with tears again and I drop them shamefully to look at the cement in front of me. “I know you went to the safety deposit box today.”
He stays silent and the air hangs thick between us.
“Did you take them all?” I ask over the sound of the heavy rain.
After a long silence, he replies. “No.”
I look up the street through blurred vision. This is it. This really is it for us. He did take them. I knew he did.
“I didn’t steal from you.”
My eyes meet his. “Yes, you did.”
“I need you to trust me.”
His silhouette is blurred. “I can’t,” I whisper. “Trust is earned.”
“Haven’t I earned it?”
“No,” I reply flatly. I put my arm up and hail a passing cab and it comes to a slow halt. I bend down to the window. “Bogota, please?” I ask.
“Sure, hop in.”
I climb in and he pushes in after me. I scoot over in the seat to allow him the room. I wrap my arms around me protectively and stare out the window. I just want to get away from him. I can’t take this. I can’t take fucking deceit anymore. His silence is stifling.
“You going to sell them? Is that it? Did you get the contact that you needed?” I glance over at him. “Maybe you are going to set up your wife and kids at home.”
He sits with his hands linked on his lap and shakes his head dismissively with an eye roll. “I have a wife and kids now?”
I shrug. “Why would I believe anything that you have told me so far?”
He glares at me.
“Lie to me once, lie to me all the time, it’s all the same. I will never believe anything that comes out of your lying mouth now.”
He doesn’t fight back and the car trip is made in silence. Part of me wants him to deny it, to fight for us, to tell me it’s not true, to beg me for forgiveness, but then… I need the truth.
The painful truth.
At least I have that little bit of money in my account. I start to go over my options on getting out of here. The cab comes to a slow halt before he pays the driver and we climb out.
He glares at me, still furious, and it’s like he is waiting for me to say something.
“Come and get your things and get out.” I sneer.
“So, that’s it?” he asks.
I feel the tears behind my eyes and I nod. “That’s it,” I whisper, barely able to push out the words.
He shakes his head, and with renewed anger, opens his wallet and frantically flicks through it. He takes out a business card and tosses it at me. It hits me in the face and falls to the floor.
“When you pick it up, flush it down the toilet.” He growls. “I’m done with living my day as if it’s my last.”
He storms off. I stand and watch him disappear into the darkness down the busy street. I let out a deep, sad breath and my eyes fall to the card on the cement and I bend and pick it up.
Downtown City Jewellers
Engagement Ring Specialist
What? I frown. “What does this have to do with…?”
I close my eyes. Oh God. He took one diamond.
Just one.
“Stace,” I yell as I look up. I take off in the direction he walked in. I look around frantically through the busy street. I can’t see him.
“Stace,” I call through the people. “Stace!”
What have I done? I run to the end of the street as I frantically search for him. I look back to where I came from. I can’t believe I just…
With my heartbeat hammering fast, my face screws up in tears. Oh no, what I have I done?
“Stace,” I cry. I take out my phone and ring him, but it rings out, so I text him.
Talk to me.
What’s going on?
I call him again and no answer, damn it. Why do I always fuck things up? I bounce my legs up and down as I cry. I text again.
Stace, I’m sorry.
I don’t know how to trust people.
Please talk to me.
No answer.
For an hour I walk the streets in tears as I look for him, knowing I have no one to blame but myself.
I try to call him again and this time his phone is switched off.
I really did it this time. I pushed away the first guy who was actually worth keeping.
I sit on a seat in the busy street for half an hour as I try to figure out what to do. Finally, with a heavy heart, I head back to our room. I only hope that when he calms down he will come home, although the sinking feeling in my stomach is telling me he has gone for good.
Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I see the haunted look on my mother’s face as she bled out.
Sometimes, when it’s really still, I hear her cry.
I feel like tonight she’s crying in Heaven for the mess I have made of my life.
Mess is an understatement. This is a total disaster.
I have a heavy, sad feeling on my shoulders. It’s guilt and regret all rolled into one.
I retrace the last month of my life. The memory of my ex-boyfriend and best friend kissing in the nightclub makes my eyes tear up as the betrayal iron brands me once more. The murder I witnessed and how they consequently took me. Stace… I smile when I think of my beautiful Stace. He protected me from his crew when I was at my most vulnerable. Then the nightmare when I stupidly thought I could take out Vikinos. It all seemed so clear at the time, like nothing could go wrong, but it did.
I shot the wrong man. I thought I could get revenge for Mom’s death but… I don’t know how I…
I screw up my face as the pain becomes too real to cope with.
I try my hardest to be brave, but I just never seem to get it right. I clutch the white card tight in my hand as I sit on the floor near the window in the dark, desperately hoping my love returns to me. I read the card for the millionth time.
Downtown City Jewelers
Engagement Ring Specialist
I smile as I get a vision of him on bended knee, proposing. What a fairy tale it would be. How badly I wish that dream had come true.
It wasn’t our reality and I knew that all along.
Maybe I don’t deserve happiness.
People with families like mine don’t get happy endings.
I stare out at the city below. Where are you now, Stace?
I watch the people bustle along on the street below. This place never seems to go to sleep. It’s after 1am.
Where is he?
I frown as my eyes fix on two men on the street. They aren’t acting like everyone else. They keep stopping, looking at the people around them. I sit closer to the window and really concentrate
Is that…?
I sit back. Stop it, your imagining things now. My eyes stay glued to the two men and as they come under a street light, my worst nightmare becomes my reality.
It’s Stucco and one of the men from the ship.
I scurry back from the window as my heart begins to hammer. They found us. Oh my God.
I go back and stand behind the curtain and watch them. They seem to be looking around and talking and then pointing and discussing something. They obviously don’t know which hotel we are staying at, and in slow motion, I watch them turn the corner and walk towards town… where Stace is.
Oh no.
I run to my phone and dial his number frantically.
Pick up. Pick up. Please pick up.
No answer.
Shit.
I throw the phone onto the bed in frustration and it bounces onto the floor.
What do I do? I begin to pace back and forth. It’s only a matter of time until they find us. Stace will be sitting in a bar somewhere and they will find him. He will be unprepared and have no defense.
Fuck. Why didn’t I just ask him if he took the diamonds? “Why do I have to be such a fucking idiot?” I cry out loud.
For twenty minutes I pace as I try to figure out what to do. I need to find him. I have no choice but to find him. I run to the wardrobe and put on my wig, a dress, and some fake glasses. I grab my phone, our passports, and find the gun and put it all in my handbag. I walk out of our room and into the elevator. I push the button with my heart hammering hard in my chest. I scroll through my phone to try and find a map satellite. I have no idea where I am going. I look through the apps and I find one.
Find My Phone.
Huh? What’s this? Stace must have put it on my phone unless it came with it. I click through and it seems to be some kind of tracking device. Hang on, I wonder if he put it on his phone, too? I quickly type in Stace’s number and watch the screen. Low and behold, like magic, a little red dot lights up the screen.
Yes!
He’s not far away, just four blocks from here. The doors of the elevator open and I bounce out with renewed optimism.
I know where he is.
* * *
The street is busy and bustling and I make my way out, knowing the little red dot is here somewhere, I just have to find it. I think it’s just up here on the right. I keep my head down and walk as fast as I can, aware that at any moment I may be spotted.
The red dot seems to be underneath me, and I frown as I do a full circle on the spot.
Where the hell is he? I walk into the bar on the left hand side of the street and search with no success. I stare at the phone and frown it says he is literally above me. I look around, and over by the wall I find a staircase and tentatively walk up. I smile broadly when I get to the top.
A bar. I walk through and the first person I see is Stace, sitting alone at a bench seat at the back with a beer as his companion.
I approach the table. “Mind if I join you?” I ask.
His eyes rise up to meet mine and he shrugs without answering.
I slide in next to him. “They’ve found us.”
He frowns as his eyes flicker to me. “How do you know?”
“I saw Stucco and one of the others in the street below our hotel looking for us.”
He exhales deeply and sips his beer.
I wait for him to say something but he doesn’t.
“I think we should go,” I whisper.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” he replies flatly.
My heart drops. “Stace,” I whisper as I put my hand on his thigh.
He flicks it off. “Don’t touch me. I’m so fucking angry with you, I can’t see straight.”
“I know. I’m angry with myself.”
We stay silent for a while and he orders another drink.
“We really should go,” I whisper. “We don’t have time to be sitting in bars.”
He shakes his head. “Right now I got bigger problems than fucking Stucco.” He growls.
A smirk crosses my face. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” he snaps.
“I should have asked you if you took them.”
“You should have.”
“I just…” I pause as I try to articulate my thoughts. “I’m not very good at trusting people.”
“You said you loved me.”
“I do,” I whisper.
“That’s not love, Rosh.” He pauses. “Not the kind I give, anyway.”
“I don’t have your love yet, Stace, we both know that.”