We Come Out At Night 4

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Gates
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When the morning came, I opened my eyes and glanced over at the clock. It was 9:00am sharp and I was still pretty exhausted. All I really wanted to do as I lay there on my back was go back to sleep. As I closed my eyes again, I quickly snapped them open and remembered how Kristina fell asleep on my couch last night.

“Shit!” I muttered under my breath as I got out of bed and bolted out of my room to head straight for the living room. When I got there, I let out a sigh of relief after seeing her sound a sleep snuggled under the blanket I had covered her with last night.

After the wave of relief washed over me, I went into the kitchen to start the coffee pot. Christ was going to be here at 9:30am to discuss the plan I came up with to get back at Shadows. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to have the last laugh. When the coffee started to drip, I walked back to my room so I could take a shower and get dressed.

Twenty minutes later when I emerged from my room, Kristina was still sleeping and Christ was sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in front of him. After grabbing a cup of coffee for myself, I sat beside him at the counter.

“I’m starving. I’m going to call down to the kitchen, you want anything?”

“No, thanks. I ate before I got here.” I nodded and picked up my phone. I ordered French toast with bacon and sausage and some oatmeal with fruit for Kristina incase she was hungry when she got up. “So, what’s the plan?” Christ asked.

“I need you to find me like five or six redheads. I’d like them all to be the same height and build as Kristina. When you find them, have each one be in a specific place that Kristina would go including right here in the casino. Then, I want Shadows to start getting anonymous phone calls about Kristina being spotted. I want to drive him completely nuts.”

Christ just shook his head and started laughing. It was kind of funny. It would be even funnier to watch Shadows approach all of these girls thinking that they are Kristina and then watch the look on his face when he realizes that they are not her. I want to see how long this can go on before he realizes, Kristina is right under his nose. The only problem with this plan was that I didn’t have Kristina committed to staying yet.

“I will deny ever being part of this.” Christ said as he got up and put his coffee cup in the sink. “I gotta go, I’m taking Chelsea to the amusement park.”

“You really dig her, huh?”

He nodded and stood there with his hands in his pockets. “She digs me too; which baffles me a little bit, but I’m gonna roll with it and see where it goes.”

“Good for you. Call me when you get the girls in place.”

Room service brought up my breakfast and I sat there and ate while Kristina continued to sleep. She must have been dead tired because she really was a morning person. I was just about finished eating when I heard Kristina sneeze. I popped my head out of the kitchen and saw her sit up on the couch.

After fixing her a cup of coffee, I set it on the tray with the oatmeal and fruit that I had ordered for her and carried it inside. I set the tray down on the coffee table and kneeled down in front of her. When I handed her the coffee, she took the mug and wrapped her hands around it.

“It’s freezing in here.” She said just before bringing the coffee cup to her lips. It was far from freezing, it was rather warm actually.

“The air conditioner isn’t even on. You shouldn’t be cold at all.” I reached up and put my hand on her forehead. “You feel a little warm. You probably caught a nice little cold last night.”

I got up from the floor in front of her and sat down on the couch opposite where she was sitting. “Where have you been the last few days?”

She shrugged her shoulders and after setting her coffee cup down, she rested her head back on the pillow. “No where in particular I guess.”

“Well, where have you been staying?”

“My car; which after last night is junk.”

I leaned forward almost as if not to understand her. “You’ve been sleeping in your car?”

“Yes.”

“Damn it! Why didn’t you come talk to me?” I didn’t mean to yell, but it frustrated me that she was sleeping in her car this whole time. I got up and moved closer so that I was now sitting on the edge of the couch in front of where she was laying her head. “Kristina, you had me going crazy looking for you.”

“Why did you even bother? So you can bring me back here and use me as some pawn in your next game?” She looked hurt almost on the verge of tears.

“I swear to you, I had nothing to do with what happened at the wedding. I had no idea that Shadows even had a plan.”

“Then why didn’t you help me? Or try to defend me?”

I ran my hands through my hair, frustrated at both questions, not at her. “I did try and help you, but the lights went out. As for defending you, I had a huge falling out with Shadows and haven’t spoken to him since the morning after the wedding. That’s a fact, you can ask him.” After resting my hands on my lap, I looked down at her only to find her looking back up at me. “As for the night at the black jack table, yes, I did have a hand in that. It killed me to have to do that to you. To call you Ruby and make you stand there with Marco, but had I asked you to do it willingly, you would have said no. Because of you, we were able to save Izzy.”

“Heaven forbid anything happen to your precious Izzy.” The tone of her voice was full of sarcasm and she rolled her eyes at the end of her statement.

“Kristina.” I let out a sigh after saying her name and diverted my eyes away from her. I had to think of how I was going to be able to put this delicately and not hurt her anymore. “In the time that you and I were together, did you ever see me have sex with Izzy?” I posed the question to her and she looked up at me unsure of what to say. “I don’t think you did, because I never slept with Izzy after you and I got together. I never cheated on you. Sure, I may be a little overly affectionate with Izzy, but you were the one I was in love with, not her and I never would have jeopardized that with another woman.”

”But Shadows said you share.”

“Shadows is an asshole. Yeah, before you, I did sleep with Izzy on many occasions and honestly, I could have slept with her the whole time you and I were together, but I didn’t. I’m not going to address it again, Kristina. It was you for me all along, it always will be.” Now it was I who was hurt. I was getting a little tired of being doubted.

“Then why did you push me away?” A single tear slid down her cheek.

I wiped the tear with my thumb and when it was gone, I continued to trace circles on her cheek with my thumb. “Instead of talking to me and telling me how you felt about Izzy and me, you went back to acting like Ruby because you thought that was what I wanted. You were the one who cheated on me. Yet, here I am going crazy trying to find you and make sure you are ok.”

I really didn’t want to fight with her. I wanted her to forget about what happened and move on with me. “Can we talk about this later, Brian? I don’t feel so good.” She sat up and put her arms around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder. It felt so good to have her in my arms again. “I’m sorry.” She cried.

“You’re burning up, sweetheart.” I rubbed her back softly as she rested against me. I knew that fucking storm was bad news. “Come on, lets get you to bed and I’ll get you some aspirin.” When I lifted her up, I carried her to my bedroom and set her down gently on the bed.

I went straight to the bathroom and from the medicine cabinet; I pulled out a little yellow bottle and took out two pills. I filled a cup with water and went back to the bedroom.
“Take these.” I handed her the pills and the water and sat down on the edge of the bed while she took them. “Now, you lay down and get some rest. I’m going to go to the gym for a little while. We can finish our talk later.”

“Ok.” She nodded and lay back under the covers resting her head on the pillow. As I walked out of the room, I knew that we were still not on the same page, but we were talking and that was a start. There was still a lot left unsaid and I know that when it is said there are going to be tears and hurt feelings on both sides. Our biggest mistake was not communicating with each other in the first place.

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The Rev
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Zacky and Marisol came by today along with Shadows and Izzy for lunch. For the most part the conversation revolved around London. She was asleep in my bedroom, come to think of it; I hadn’t let her leave since the day we got married.

“Don’t you think you should at least wake her up to eat?” Vengeance asked. He seemed to be the only one who had a conscience when it came to London.

“Since when do you give a fuck about London’s well being?” I shot back.

He had Marisol’s hand in his and she watched him intently as he gave his reply. “Imagine yourself in her position. If someone you loved were in danger, wouldn’t you do whatever it took to save them no matter what the cost? She did what she did because her mother was dying and Marco promised to pay for the operation that could save her. It’s not her fault that Marco is her father. She is a victim of circumstance. Marco could care less about her and in the end, her mother died any way. So, the way I see it, she paid dearly for her actions.”

So, because he found love with the one daughter that Marco actually wanted, he thinks he can be the voice of reason?

“So, am I supposed to just forget about it and let her go?”

“No.” Shadows interjected. “She’s not going anywhere, she’s Marco’s daughter and she is more useful to us than she is to him.”

I nodded in agreement. Everyone seemed to forget that she was also my wife.

“Maybe, you could just be a little nicer to her.” Izzy spoke up softly.

“Izzy, not now.” Shadows smiled, but everyone saw the warning that hid behind that smile.

“Sorry.” She said and lowered her eyes to the table.

“Does anyone care how I feel?” Marisol asked, but it came out as more of a statement than a question.

“Of course we do.” Zacky squeezed her hand lightly.

“If anyone knows what it’s like to have no choices in life, it’s me. I didn’t ask to be born to Marco and I didn’t ask to be raised in to this life. I had no choice and until Bella came along, I didn’t have anyone, but myself. London is my sister, whether I like it or not, but one thing I do know for sure is that you don’t say no to Marco Montes and if you do, you wont live to tell about it. I’m not asking any of you to pity her, but I am asking you to pity me and let me have a chance to get to know the sister I never knew I had. She’s the only real family that I have.”

Izzy looked at Shadows and then over at me. We both knew she wanted to say something, but she kept her mouth shut. Shadows didn’t like it when she spoke up in matters that concerned his business.

“Zacky, can we go now?”

“Sure.” He took Marisol by hand and together they walked out.

“We should be going too.” Shadows said to Izzy and she got up to hug me before the two of them left.

I sat in my chair for a while thinking about everything that was said today at lunch. I guess for anyone on the outside looking in, one could say that what London did was somewhat honorable.

For all of us on the inside though, with the exception of Vengeance, she was the enemy. She had broken the trust of every one of us and that was a hard thing to fix. I would do anything for any one of them and they all knew it. I’m sure they would all do the same for me.

After pushing my chair back from the table, I stood up and walked into the bathroom. I found what I needed under the bathroom sink and walked down the hall to the bedroom where London slept. I had spent so many nights at the bar trying to get her into my bed and now she was here, only it wasn’t of her own free will. By now, she had stopped fighting me. She took everything I did and said to her and responded only with silent sobs and tears instead of fighting back.

I opened the first aid kit and pulled out a packet with an alcohol pad inside it. Lightly, I touched the alcohol pad to the corner of her lower lip, just over the cut that had formed from where I bit her. I don’t know why I was showing her mercy right now, I still wasn’t sure if she deserved it or not.

Her eyes opened and she winced in pain when I put the pad to her lip. She laid there silently as I swabbed her lip and when I had finished I walked away and went into the bathroom to throw the alcohol pad away. I returned with a warm cloth and some water in a small bowl. I dipped the cloth in the water bowl and gently touched her cheek with it. I tried to be as gentle as I could as I dabbed the cloth over her face to remove any traces of dried blood and sweat. She started to cry as I moved the cloth from her face to her neck and then to her collarbone. “shhh” I whispered. She was so scared she swallowed hard and tried her best not to cry. I ran the cloth over her arms and when I was finished, I put the bowl and the cloth back in the bathroom and returned to the bed.

“Are you hungry?” She nodded, but didn’t say anything. My guess was because she didn’t want her voice to crack if she did answer. “Ok, I’ll be right back.”
I left her there alone and went to call room service. I figured soup was the best bet. I didn’t want her to throw up and as nervous as she was, she would probably puke any solid food.

When room service brought up the soup, I set it on a tray along with some ginger ale and went back to the room. On the end table by the bed is where I set the tray before sitting down on the bed. She flinched when I slipped my hand under her neck to help her. “Can you sit up for me?” I said in a tone that was neither soft, but non threatening.

With my help she was able to get up to a seated position and I propped all of the pillows behind her back. I set the tray down on her lap and she wrapped her hands around the mug of soup, but they were shaking so much she could hardly lift the mug. “Here.” I lifted the mug for her and brought it to her lips. “It’s hot, so sip slowly.”
She sipped the soup and when I took the cup away from her lips, I moved a strand of hair from her face.

“Do you want more?” She nodded and I brought the cup back up to her lips once again. She was only able to manage half the soup before declining the rest. “Take these, they’ll help with the pain.” I gave her two pills and when she put them in her mouth, I brought the glass of ginger ale to her lips.

“Get some rest.” I said lifting the tray from her lap. “I’ll come back and check on you later and maybe if you feel up to it, you can take a nice hot bath.”

“ok” She whispered and rested her head down on the pillows. I walked back to my kitchen with the tray and set the mug in the sink. I’m not a bad man. Maybe if I keep telling myself that, I might actually start to believe it.