Page 67 of Burn For Me

“You don’t want to look at my face. I’m simply sparing you.”

“Do I look like I get disturbed easily?” He sucked in another drag, and I couldn’t stop myself as I took a deep breath in, the fresh scent mixing with the hellfire that was bubbling in my gut and making me feel warm and cozy all over.

Reaching up, I paused for a moment and then decided to say ‘fuck it’ as I pulled the hood back and showed Chase the scared side of my face.

“Well fuck, what asshole did that to ya?”

“How do you know I didn’t do it to myself?”

Chase made a snorting sound.

“ ‘Cause you don’t look like the kind of idiot that would purposely burn their face.”

“Fair.” I grabbed the beer bottle I’d pushed away and took a sip.

“My father, he liked to hear me scream,” I said, staring up at the screen.

“Huh. That’s hardcore.” An oddly comfortable silence fell between us. “So, what you’re sayin’ is that you have mommy and daddy issues,” he added, and I looked over at him as he snickered and hit my arm before laughing along with him.

“Asshole.”

“Speaking of parents of the year, I grew up in a motorcycle club. Things like drugs, random sex with random women, and murder were second nature all before I knew what a fucking hard-on was. Had its perks, though. I got my cock sucked off a lot, once I knew what it meant when it stood straight, by whatever sweetbutt would let me shove it in their mouth.”

I nodded toward the leather vest he was wearing.

“I like that.” I pointed to the logo of the scythe on his vest.

He pet the front of the patch.

“This cut is a blessing and a curse.”

“I doubt you know the meaning of a curse, man, no offense.”

“Alright, let’s give it a go. I almost committed suicide, but my niece saved my fucking life. She doesn’t know she did, but I was gonna leap off a cliff that night. I owe her my life, and instead, I almost let her get killed.”

I turned the stool to look at him.

“My father beat the shit out of me daily. I protected my younger brother, but when I killed our parents, he turned me in, and I was tossed into an asylum with a fucking psychotic doctor that enjoyed doing experiments on me for the last nine years of my life.”

Chase blinked at me.

“Yeah, okay, you win that round.” Chase took a shot, and we started the strange game again. “Your turn to start first.”

“I thought that I was in love, and that she died in a fire I set, only find out she’s still alive but has a boyfriend, and has decided that me avenging her by killing off the men that raped her was ‘too much’ for her to handle. Oh, and the only reason she actually liked me was because I was a scary but locked-up monster. She didn’t actually want me, so she tossed me out on my ass.”

Chase looked down at the bar, his fingers drawing random shapes.

“My wife and kid were blown up in a car bomb, and my brother killed them,” he finally said.

My eyes grew wide. Reaching out, I gripped his shoulder in a silent gesture of support. Picking up one of the small glasses, I refilled it from the mostly empty bottle and took the shot before speaking.

“That’s cold, man. My brother was a dick for turning his back on me, but that is next-level family fucked up.”

“Yeah.” Chase rubbed at a spot over his heart, and I knew that he still carried their deaths around with him.

“At least with a bomb, they wouldn’t have known what happened. Not much consolation, but it would’ve been quick, like a blink. I’m alive, and then I’m dead. Fast.”

Chase’s bloodshot eyes found mine.