The Price of Love

◆ 11 ◆

With shaking fingers, I quickly gathered the pictures off the bathroom floor before anyone could walk in and ask what I was doing. It took several tries to shove them back into the envelope because I was trembling so much. I couldn't make an escape now, not when there was so much more to this story than anyone was telling me. 

It was no random hit. Caius Kennedy chose me for a reason and I was determined to find out what that was.

Clutching the envelope so hard that it collapsed onto itself, I shoved the door open. A deep anger was building in the pit of my stomach until I felt it tingling in my fingertips. Hate was a lingering feeling, a slow crescendo peaking at the very breaking point when something happened. What exactly that something was, I did not know. All I knew was that Caius Kennedy was sitting at the table with a passive expression, cold as can be, and I was fuming mad. 

Mad enough that his threats were forgotten, that his promise of killing my mother fell on deaf ears. No, he would have to kill me first. There would be an answer, or there would be a public execution.

"Hey, Daphne," Lee called as I stormed past. "Hey, wait up-"

His footsteps followed me, as did everyone's eyes, including Caius Kennedy's, who looked up at me innocently as I approached the table. The coldness quickly iced over, turning to a silent warning as he noticed the expression on my face. 

I slammed the envelope down onto the table in front of him, shaking. It was a loud noise, smacking against the silence of the diner. Heads snapped up in our direction, curious eyes wandered. The waitresses behind the counter stopped chewing their gum and stared.

"Years," I said softly. "Years, Caius."

He didn't react for a moment, but it was damn clear that he knew exactly what I was talking about. Caius sat still, looking at the envelope crushed under my palm with a deadpan expression. No confusion, but no alarm. His lack of expression only served to make me only more enraged. When a few seconds of silence passed, I turned to Tommy with an accusatory glare.

I was being irrational. I know. Tommy could have just as well not known about this- after all, Caius wasn't an open book about his plans. But how could he not? How could they not have known that? Caius wasn't working alone. They were nothing more than his cronies, and I was damn sure Tommy knew more about my abduction than he was telling me. And the guilty look on his face was enough confirmation for my assumptions.

Caius gave me a small smile. "Would you like to take this discussion outside, Daphne?"

"Would you like to put a bullet in my fucking skull, Caius?"

The smile disappeared from his face, as did the courage from my heart. 

Caius stood up, slipping the envelope from beneath my hand. The patrons were openly staring at us now, but they couldn't hear a damn thing. He made sure of that. Caius bent down, bringing my face to his to breathe the words that danced across my hair, like a little kiss but the farthest thing from love. "You have five seconds to walk out with me or I will make sure you never see the light of day again, baby."

He shoved past me and went towards the door. 

I waited.

For half a second. 

My subconscious was too determined to live and commanded my feet to follow after Caius, even though the resistance was fighting to get out. I wanted to do the opposite of everything he said, but my mind wouldn't let me. The little flutter of satisfaction I would get out of rebelling was not worth my life, dignity be damned.