SOUL TIES (The Sánchez Brothers Series, Book 1)

CHAPTER 12 : DEBBIE

"Okay?"

I looked up from my clasped hands on my thighs. "Huh?"

Her bored expression morphed into an unimpressed scowl. "Don't even fucking try to act dumb with me. I'm not fucking playing with you." I swallowed the protests at the base of my throat and settled for a compliant nod. "So why have you been avoiding me all damn week? Cos I'd been tempted to chuck a knife at the back of your head several times."

I cleared my throat. "Maybe I'm just tired of seeing your face."

"I'm really not joking with you, Dee."

Damn, what was I going to tell her? "Life is just so hard, Nelly. Like so fucking hard." That was the most plausible explanation I had but Nelly didn't seem too impressed with it.

She leaned back in the sofa and stared me dead in the eyes. "If I wanted a parable, I'd open the Bible and read the gospels of Christ. I wouldn't come to you for that, so don't fucking tell me a parable." I let out a deep breath and she scoffed. "You're just dragging this shit out and I don't fucking know why."

I actually was dragging it out. Why was I doing that though? Was it fear of rejection? Guilt? "So I had a client on Monday morning. Miss Samantha." Nelly blinked once, she obviously wasn't expecting that. "She's a new client, actually a transferred client. So she has depression and I was asking her about her drug abuse history. Lady told a couple tales and I kinda zoned out when she was talking about her relationship with her baby daddy."

"So her story made you reflect on your own relationship with Diego?" My head bobbed slowly and her brows went up in slight puzzlement. "What has that got to do with you avoiding me?"

"Every fucking thing, Lee." I snapped at her. "I'm a fucking bad person, Nelly and I'm aware of it. The lady started talking about how terrible the man was to her and I realized I was just as bad as the man was. Maybe even worse. At least, Samantha is still alive."

Nelly stared at me for a while, it felt like I was an insect and she was a scientist observing me under a microscope. "What you're trying to say is that you think you're responsible for Diego's death?"

"I don't think I am, I know I am"

"Oh really?" Her lips formed a straight line. "So how did you do it? You slipped a pill in his drink to poison him? You bludgeoned him to death with a club? Stabbed him severally in the chest with the kitchen knife?"

Despite myself, my lips twitched at the edges in repressed humor. I didn't know which was funnier, her sarcastic words or the fact that she said it without any emotions. "I'm not fucking joking, Nelly."

"I'm not fucking laughing either." She pressed further on the underlying issue at hand. "So tell me how you know you killed him."

I hurried after him into the living room. "Where the fuck are you going to?"

He took his car keys and kept walking towards the door. "I don't know, anywhere that doesn't have you in it would do just fine."

"Fine! I don't want you here either. I hope that you get hit by a fucking truck on the way."

His scoff infuriated me even more. "Goodluck with that one."

I pulled his arm and he pulled it out of my grip. "Get the fuck out of here, Diego. I hope you end up dead cos I don't fucking need you. I and Mikayla, we both don't need you."

He knew I was trying to make him respond by roping Kayla in but he decided to not take the bait. He ignored me and swung the door open, leaving me alone in the living room to keep talking. I was so restless that night, walking to and fro in the house while raining curses on him. After about an hour, I eventually got tired and finally went to bed. The shrill sound of my phone interrupted the sex dream I was having and while still flustered by the experience, I answered the phone.