AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“With the dead man’s cum-rag? No, thank you.”
“Ew. Goddammit!” Maximo drops the sheet and curses. “That’s just nasty.”
I pull off my jacket and wipe the blood off my hands and face, tossing the two-thousand-dollar Armani suit jacket in the dead man’s piss. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Mira,” he responds simply, leaning back against the wall and finally lighting his cigarette. “I, uh…I overheard a conversation between her and Leandra this morning.”
“In other words, you were eavesdropping?”
“Exactly.”
“Good man.”
His expression hardens, and my spine tingles with warning.
“What’s going on?”
Maximo glances around the room. “Maybe we should have this conversation somewhere else.”
“Maximo,” I warn. “Spit it out, man.”
“She remembers.”
I freeze on the spot, my mind completely blank. “She remembers…what?”
When his eyes finally meet mine, reality seeps in.
A beat passes, and I press my hand against the wall, rubbing my eyes with my fingers. “Marco.”
“Yeah.”
“And you overheard her tell Leandra this? That she remembers…killing Marco?”
Maximo simply nods, then takes a long drag of his cigarette, the amber bud glowing angrily before it fades again. “She got her memory back the night…” His voice cracks. “The night of the hunting.”
“Jesus Christ,” I exhale, pulling my hand through my hair and grabbing a fistful at the back of my neck. “I can’t fucking believe this is happening. And why…why wouldn’t she tell me?” I glance at him. “What else did you hear?”
Maximo shakes his head lightly. “You’re gonna have to speak to her.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Maximo. What else did she say?”
He drops the cigarette to the ground, stomping his heel into it before straightening. “That she’s tired of us treating her like we’re scared she’ll break. And that’s why she didn’t tell you that she remembers everything. She thinks it will only make it worse.”
“Oh, my God,” I mutter, leaning my head back against the wall, staring up at a giant crack through the yellowed ceiling. “She should have told me.”
“We need to get our shit together,” Maximo counters.
“What do you mean?”
“She’s right, Nicoli. I’m avoiding her as much as possible because when I see her, all I think about is how it’s my fault. That if I never took her to that motherfucking hotel, never left her side while she sorted through fucking flowers, it would never have happened. And you—” he points at me “—you’re different with her.”
“I’m not—”
“Yes, you are. You talk to her like you think your voice will shatter her skull. And when you’re around her, you’re like a little fucking puppy wagging your tail at her all day long because God forbid you piss her off.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Maximo scoffs. “What’s wrong with that? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with that. You used to be the motherfucking dragon who breathed fire around her, protecting her like she’s your queen. And now…now you’re shielding her like she’s that little girl in the yellow coat who is too small, too weak to defend herself.”
