Authors: LeTeisha Newton
“Elijio,”
she whispered, but he didn’t answer. Several minutes later they pulled up to a
darkened warehouse and he helped her from the car. He tucked her hand in the
crook of his elbow and escorted her into the building, the click of her heels
echoing into the rafters. A bird took flight as they passed and she shivered,
instinctively inching toward Elijio, her safety net. When they entered into the
only lit section of the building, Nate stood there.
Her
brother looked so much like their father that it ached to look at him. At
six-foot-three, with short, curly brown hair, and laughing hazel eyes, her
brother had been deemed a catch for any woman. He was dressed in a smart three
piece charcoal suit standing next to a slightly pudgy man with a round face who
wore a white suit. This man had his hair slicked back from his face with some
sort of product and had four men, two to each side of him and Nate, standing
there. The bulges under their jackets gave Bella pause, but Elijio didn’t stop
walking until he was just feet away.
“I
assume you had a good reason for interrupting my meal, Pace,” Elijio said.
“I
did. She is more beautiful than her brother told me. She will make Stuart very
happy.” Pace answered, laughing.
“What?”
Bella asked.
“Let
me do this, Bella,” Elijio said. “You and I both know what Stuart will want
from her. What makes you think I will let that happen?” Elijio asked Pace.
“Her
brother here has made a deal on her behalf, one that I will make sure is
beneficial to all of us.”
“Look,
sis. I came in on a big win, just like I told you, and have been asked to an
exclusive game. I can triple my winnings. It’s enough to make sure we both are
set up for life, but I need a little more buy-in money. All you have to do is
work for this Stuart guy for six months, and that’s it. You walk away after
that, I have my win, and we split it down the center, fifty-fifty.”
“Nate
what have you done? There is no guarantee that you are going to win,” Bella
argued.
“Sis,
I’m on a winning streak. I’ve won
over forty mil
in
the last three nights. This score will be the last. That’s all I need. Just
work with me and you’ll never have to do it again.”
“Stuart
is a black market trader of flesh in the red light district, Nate. His girls
may fetch up to millions for their pleasure, but they rarely get to see any of
that money during the time they ‘work’ for Stuart, did you know that?” Elijio
asked and Bella felt sick.
“Stuart
said she won’t have to do any of that. She’ll be like the hostess for his
girls, keeping their income in order and the books. I told her she’s real smart
with things like that. He’s willing to pay the rest of my entry fee for her,”
Nate explained
“And
I will pay you back
the twenty mil you lost paying for the
old debt,
and you can walk away. Everyone has a happy ending. I’ll even
sweeten the pot and throw in an extra few million, how does that sound?” Pace
asked
“If
you are willing to do that then Stuart is putting in a lot of capital for this
‘deal’ which means that we all know that he won’t be hiring Bella for some damn
book work. Don’t lie to me, Pace.”
Bella
swayed, really looking at her brother in a different light for the first time.
He didn’t care about her. He didn’t love her. She was a score, his way to the
next big thing. He was willing to sell her just for the chance to win big. Why
hadn’t she seen it? Why had she come here tonight?
“Take
me home,” Bella whispered to Elijio.
“What,
baby?” Elijio asked.
“Take
me home. I don’t want the deal. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“Bella—”
“I’m
sorry, but leaving isn’t an option.” Pace signaled to his men and they pulled
the guns that Bella had known they’d been hiding under their jackets. Her body
went numb, fear curling through her.
Elijio
, though,
never looked away from her face.
“Do
you want me to take you home? Are you done with all of this?” he asked her.
“Yes,
please.”
“You
bitch! I’m your family. You’re going to pick some dick over me?
You worthless piece of shit.
All I ask is for you to open
your legs for millions and you give it to this chump for fucking free. You
could have been a rich woman all on your own,” Nate raged.
Elijio
roared, stopping everyone.
“You
dare. You little, insignificant bastard, you dare to talk to her that way? I’ll
kill you with my own hands. She’s done nothing but save you, every time, for
years, and this is how you repay her? And Pace, you would challenge me? Do you
want this? You know how it will end?”
“Elijio,
you understand business. I’ve already taken the money. Her brother said it
would be a sure thing.”
“Then
kill him for the trouble.”
“I
can’t do that to Stuart.”
“Then
you can die too.”
Everything
happened so fast around her that Bella could barely process it. One minute she
was beside Elijio, and the next he’d partially shifted and shoved her behind
pallets. She watched between the slats as he went after the men with guns. He
didn’t stop as the bullets punctured his flesh. He tore into them, roaring.
This was the beast, her beast, and he was saving her life.
She
didn’t look away from what he did, not wanting to tarnish his sacrifice for
her. She watched as the men fell beneath his claws, and Pace wet himself when
Elijio turned to him. He couldn’t do more than take a breath before Elijio
gouged his throat and spun on Nate. In seconds all was quiet other than Nate’s
sobs as he begged for his life. Elijio took a deep breath, head falling back
and eyes closing.
“Bella,”
he husked and she stepped from behind the pallets. Now she could see the holes
in his body, the splattered blood as he swayed in front of her. With a cry she
ran to his side.
“What
do you want me to do with him?” Elijio asked.
“Let
him go, he won’t bother me again.”
“If
you ever come back, I’ll kill you. I’ll deal with her anger later, but you will
be dead. Get out of here while you still have the chance.” Nate scrambled to
his feet and ran even as Elijio fell to his knees.
“Elijio,
no,” she cried.
“Shh,
it’s okay. I’m fine. I would have rather lived this life and had the chance to
love you, than to live any longer and have never known you. I should have told
you before, I’m sorry.”
“Please
don’t leave me, stay.
Stay with me.
I love you too,”
she cried, tears falling but he was gone, his eyes sliding closed and one last,
great breath, easing out of him. She screamed, pulling him into her lap as best
she could and rocking.
“Don’t
go, please don’t go. I love you so much. I can’t live without you. Please,
Elijio!” she dug around in his pocket until she found his cellphone.
“Sir,”
Richard answered.
“Richard,
come find us. He’s hurt. He’s slipping away. I can’t hold him,” she said.
“I’m
coming. Put the GPS option on the phone and I’ll come to you,” Richard answered
and hung up.
“Please,
Elijio. Don’t leave me,” she keened, holding on, her hands slick with his
blood. His body convulsed, shifted and twisted until he lifted out of her arms.
She watched, terrified, as he flickered in and out between the beast and the
man so fast her eyes could barely process until he glowed, a bright golden
color, so bright she couldn’t see. When the light faded he was standing before
her, looking at his body in awe.
“The
curse, you broke the curse,” he whispered.
“What?”
“The
witch said the only way I could ever live as a man again was if I found love,
true love, and love her in return. You couldn’t know about how to break the
curse though. I didn’t believe it was possible. You love me?”
“More
than you ever know,” she cried, and ran into his arms. He held her tight,
enveloping her in his scent. Nothing had ever felt as good as this moment right
here.
“He’s
gone,” Elijio said quietly.
“The beast.
I don’t feel
him any more inside of me. He’s gone.”
“You
are still the man you were meant to be. He’s there, just not physically.”
“Can
you love me, without the beast?”
“No,
the question is if I could love you with him.”
“Why?”
“Because
if I could the other question is a given.”
“Bella,
I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. I promise.”
“Of
that, I have no doubt.”
The
End
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