Plain Sight

chapter forty-six

Juliette

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It only takes me a second to react, and to see the person shooting at me. It's a woman.

It does take me a few seconds to realize where I know her from, but I do figure it out.

Lucia Salazar.

Toms's ex, the one Vivian told me about after we ran into her at that place months ago. I never got a good vibe from her, and now here she is, working for my father. Helping him torture Tom.

"Juliette, it's a pleasure to see you again. It's been too long!" She laughs and lowers her gun.

Who does she think she is? Some person in power just because her daddy is in the mafia? Please. The only thing she knows is the money that comes from it. She doesn't even know the sacrifice and pain that comes with it.

"You know, all those months ago when you thought you could win Tom over again, it's still so amusing." I laugh. I mean genuinely, it is amusing. The way she purposely laughed hard and made any attempt to touch him.

"Amusing, you say?" She says. "Who's the one with a gun right now?" She plays with the gun in her hand.

It's taking everything in my right now not to laugh, and just to shoot her.

"Listen—" I begin. "Please, just let me get to him. This has nothing to do with you, only my father. You can leave, and I won't tell anybody you were here." I say to her, lying obviously.

I slowly take a few steps forward, pleading with my eyes, yet still feeling the gun in my waistband, waiting for the perfect moment to take it out and shoot her.

I'm running out of time.

"And why should I help you?" She questions.

I stop walking and I look at the ground, then back up to her, "Because we're both in the same boat. I know how it feels to be forced into this environment, by our own fathers." I plead.

"You're right. We're in the same boat, wanna know why?" She narrowed her eyes at me. "Because I was you." She finishes.

I can only look at her, what the fuck is she talking about.

"I was you, Juliette. I know how it feels to be loved by Tom. And I know the thrill that comes with it, the angst." Her eyes water and she smiles, but it's a sad, psychotic smile. "I'm sorry and you may not want to hear this, but this isn't even half of what Tom deserves. He is a monster."

My blood boils. "You were me? Let me think, was it Tom who literally had to force you away from him because he wanted nothing to do with you? And was it you who cried to your daddy about it?" I question, taking out my gun now and gently tapping the barrel of the gun against my mouth, deep in thought.

Her eyes go wide at the sight of my gun.

I take a step closer to her, "You and I," I motion my gun between the two of us. "Have nothing in common. But I know you. You don't want this life. You don't even want to be associated with your father and his business. You only care about the money, and the power you feel when you think people respect you. But the truth is, they fear your father. Not you. There is no respect there."

Her father did business with my father, and with Tom, Bill, georg and Gustav. Ruben Salazar.

Her facade drops now, how easy. Her gun lowers, I think she might even throw a tantrum like a child.

"You don't know anything about me!" She says, because she knows I'm right.

"You're right," I begin to move towards her slowly. I'm running out of time here. "I don't know you. But I do know that you can be good. You can leave now, and leave all of this behind you."