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Too Little Too Late
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The Deal With The Devil Drifting Through Chaos
Giovanni"You're wearing out my patience."I step into the bedroom, note how the closet door is open, two shoe boxes having fallen over stopping it from shutting.She matches each of my steps in the opposite direction, keeping distance between us. She's flushed and out of breath and looks guilty as sin."Brian just lost his job.""I snuck out the back. It wasn't his fault."I walk toward the closet and she backs away to the foot of the bed. I open the door, look down at the toppled boxes."Actions have consequences. As does incompetence." I shove at a box. "What were you doing?""I needed something," she starts, her voice different, forced.I turn to look at her. "What did you need?" She looks guilty as sin.Her eyes search mine momentarily before she shifts her gaze to a point beyond my shoulder."A book.""You keep your books in the closet?"She wrings her hands.I step to her.She backs up again. "While I was here, I thought I'd get my yoga clothes.""Did I give you the impression
The Deal With The Devil All Of My Cages Are Mental
SiennaI don't know if I'm glad or upset that he's already gone when I get outside.I took longer than the three minutes he allotted me. Hell, it took me twice that to get up off the floor, to stop crying. And still, every few minutes, I suck in a breath and my entire body shudders.Axel—I guess Giovanni's making sure there aren't any more fuck-ups—glances at me indifferently in the rear-view mirror.Did he hear, I wonder?Does he know what just happened?Heat burns my face. I'm humiliated and hurt, and everything is falling apart.And Giovanni's too close. Too close to finding out everything. And being here, as much as I'm safest from Sean, if Giovanni finds out, I don't know what I'll do.When we get to the casino, I'm relieved that Axel just walks me to the elevator and barely looks at me as we ride up in awkward silence. Only once we're inside the penthouse does he speak."You'll stay here until Giovanni's back. The elevator will be locked. If you need something, you dial the lobb
The Deal With The Devil In Your Arms
SiennaIt's so quiet here, it's almost strange. If I stop to listen, it's a sound itself, that silence. And it somehow calms me. Makes things almost manageable when I concentrate on it and that's what I do. I sleep. I listen. I sleep.And the next day when I wake up, I leave another message for Deirdre telling her I don't feel well and it's not a lie. I tell her I won't be in for the next few days and just to close the shop and leave a note in the window.By the time I have a shower the next night, he's still not back.I lock the bathroom door and strip off my clothes then turn my back to the mirror and look at myself. Look at the damage.My butt and upper thighs are bruised, the welts of the belt distinct and tender to the touch. I don't know how many strokes he gave me. I stopped counting after ten.I switch on the shower and I don't know if I'm weak from hunger or just sadness. It's hard to even move, to get myself under the flow of water. All I want to do is sleep. I just want to
The Deal With The Devil Standing On Business
GiovanniI tracked down the asshole from the other night. I had to fly across the country to fucking Dover, New Hampshire, but I found him.I look down at Sienna. She's a mess. Her hair is a giant tangle around her head, she's wearing the same dress she had on the day I left. When I put my hand against her belly, it's concave. Empty.She hasn't eaten more than a few bites from a few trays. The maid said she wouldn't let her into the bedroom. I could tell when I brought her in here. The bed was unmade, the comforter a heap at the center of it. The glass walls blacked out.And here she lies, sleeping. Peaceful when I look at her face with her eyes closed, slightly sunken now. Her thick lashes flutter and she mumbles something, then settles back into sleep.Her color is paler than usual, but it makes her lips look almost redder for it. Snow White in her glass coffin. Cursed. Sleeping until true love's kiss wakes her. Or is that the other one? Sleeping Beauty? I don't fucking know.I lay
The Deal With The Devil Under His Protection
Giovanni "When I turned seventeen, I left. That's all," she says, completely avoiding my question. "I was old enough to take care of myself, and I did. I came to Las Vegas and I met Mrs. Adams who owned Wrinkles in Time and worked for her until she died. She left me the shop and I'm continuing her work. And her kids wish they could evict me and make real money on the building, but they weren't able to contest the will. That's about it in a nutshell.""And you donate about fifty percent of your profits to the homeless shelter a few blocks away. That's the reason you have the low rent agreement Mrs. Adams' greedy kids aren't thrilled about.""How did you know?""I heard the woman at the shop the other day and was curious, so I looked into it.""Looked into it? Why didn't you just ask me?""You're not so forthcoming, Sienna."She looks around again, then cocks her head to the side. "You don't have any photographs of family either, by the way," she says.I remember when she found the one
The Deal With The Devil Pieces Of The Past
GiovanniThe next three days pass peacefully enough with Sienna accepting a ride to work and back. I've become obsessed with finding the password on the flash drive. Of locating anyone who had anything to do with those videos, including Sean Williams, who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.If she's realized the drive is missing, she hasn't said anything.She's settling in a little better. Maybe it was our conversation from the night before. I don't know, but she seems at least a little more at ease. She's still secretive, but knowing what I know, it makes sense she would be.I'm looking at her on the monitor in my office when the man who's been checking on her house brings me the stack of her mail. She's up at the pool on the rooftop.I intend to just hand it to her. Most of it is junk anyway. But as I absently flip through, something catches my eye.It's the envelope addressed to Little Bitch Whore.My eyes narrow.It's not stamped so it was hand-delivered.I lean b
The Deal With The Devil Guardian Angel
SiennaI'm dozing when Giovanni's shadow falls over me."You're burnt," he says.He's like a giant, blocking out the whole of the sun."You need to put on sunscreen. Where's your sunscreen?" He crouches down to look through the straw bag I brought to the pool with me."Relax," I say, sitting up, straddling the seat. "It's here. And I did put it on." I find the tube of sunscreen under my towel and look down at my chest and he's right, I did burn. But it's not bad.He sits on the edge of the chaise and takes the tube, squeezes some on his hand and starts to rub it into my chest. He's been like this since he got back. Attentive. Sometimes overly so.And always watching me."Giovanni, stop. It's fine. It's not bad and I'm going inside anyway." I stay his hand, but he seems anxious. And I realize how totally out of place he looks up here in his suit while people are splashing around in the pool. Pop music is playing probably louder than he likes."I hate this fucking music," he says as if
The Deal With The Devil The Arduous Trip Homeward
SiennaWe're packed, flight booked and at the airport in record time.All he's said about his father is that he was buried yesterday. After that, he took a call which I assume was a secretary telling him she'd confirmed our flights and told me I had twenty minutes.Twenty minutes to shower and pack and leave for Scotland.And somehow, here I am, wet hair in a clip on top of my head, wearing jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and the only sweater I have.Giovanni went into my tote to get my passport earlier, which makes me wonder how he knew it was in there at all, but I don't ask him. He's too distracted. Shocked maybe by the news.He's wearing jeans and a thin, charcoal, V-neck sweater with a sport coat. It's probably the most casual I've seen him."Flight leaves in fifteen minutes. They're holding it for you," Axel says as soon as we pull up along the curb at the airport.Giovanni is out and walking to my side with a leather duffel slung over his shoulder. There's a long line at the coun
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