RUINED ALREADY [18+]

|Twenty-Nine|

♦Penelope♦

I didn't believe in coincidences. I believed everything was written out in the universe and destiny wasn't all together in the hands of men. Everything that happened was already set in motion.

Sitting across from me in the driver's seat was no coincidence. He'd intended to come for me tonight whether I'd walked into my own death or his trap. It was decided. No God or higher power could have none anything to help me.

Unfortunately, I walked into Vaughn first.  I could still feel the warmth of his blood in my skin. Deep inside a spark of victory ignited within me. I closed my eyes and heard Vaughn's gasps of breath as he'd laid in the dirty alleyway in his own blood. I'd seen the long gaping slash from his ribcage all the way down to the base of his belly.

He'd come to hurt me and now he was gone floating in the deep water of the sewer behind the alleyway.  I felt no guilt because he deserved it. He had been a vile human being who had had it coming.

I glanced frantically around the area. We'd long since left LA and were now miles in miles away. If my destiny was to die tonight no one who find my body. And why would it matter anyway? Everyone who mattered had died.

"You said you were taking me somewhere to someone of importance to me. Who is it?"

The stranger with the abnormal body ink turned to look at me through deep set indigo eyes. The shade of  blue was a mystery to me and I still couldn't wrap my head around the crazy tattoos. When I'd first seen him on Halloween in the parking lot he'd strike me as something from a very bad movie, now...not so much. I didn't know what to make of him. He'd just killed a man for  me and asked me to get  inside the car with no more explanation than "someone important sent me to fetch you".

I sat there thinking about all the possibilities that this could be a ploy to kidnap me into servitude. Juan could still be alive somewhere and I had just willingly walked into his trap.

"I wasn't sent here to entertain you, Penelope. He left a message, you were just too blind to decipher it."

"What message? Who? What's your name?"
"Maybe if you'd stopped attempting to fuck Emilio del Guardo for a second you'd realize," he said distastefully.
"What?" Heat crept up into my skin. "How do you know about that!"

I remembered his chilling joker-like smile. The man sitting there now was much more frightening than that.
Had he been spying on us? Peeping in through windows while Emilio...?

Oh, God.
I felt sick.
He said nothing and my suspicion rose. My fingers lingered on the lock of the door.

"Don't you even think about it."

His voice was dark and lethal, sinister threat. His indigo blue eyes that were deep set in a swirl of the blackest ink I'd ever sent grew even darker and gleamed with evil.

I saw more tattoos than skin. In the dark every ink in his skin seen to come alive. Why would someone spend hours on end to married their skin so viciously? Unless he was hiding behind scars like I was. Like Emilio, too.

His free hand reached down at his side and I knew what he was teaching for. The illusion he'd given me about being safe was just that, a lie.

I pulled the lock and at that point I didn't know what demons possessed me but I threw myself out of the driving car.

The breath was knock out of me when my back hit the cold asphalt.  U hadn't anticipated that impact.  White spots danced over my vision and my body cried silently from the pain that radiated through me.

I heard the car tires screeched and the smell of burning rubber made my stomach churn. The sound of footsteps got louder as he advanced on me.

He stood hovering over me and my lips parted on a silent scream as his hand slapped over my face, muffling my whimpers.

Without any warning he slammed my head against the concert. The last thing I felt before the darkness took me was the pain ringing through my skull.

♠Emilio♠

I glanced at the time in the clock. Twelve. And Penelope hadn't come home. Was she avoiding me? Had I been too harsh that night? Fuck. I dragged my hands through my hair as frustration ate at me.

What did Matteo say women crave? Oh yes, romance. To a man like me that was as alien as seeing a UFO in broad daylight. I didn't know how to be romantic. The boxes of chocolate and rises seer as far as I went.

Being rough was etched into my nature. Gentleness came with too many baggage.  That was what Penelope needed and I could hardly give her that. Would I allow her to leave? Fuck no. If I were happy and she wasn't, I'd make her happy. I was selfish like that.

I pi Jed up the bottle of Bourbon I'd found in the back of her cup broad with the name Nikolai written in bold letters. I really hoped that Nikolai was her dad brother and not dome man she invited here before we met. I still didn't forget that Brad from next door who had stuck his tongue down her throat. I would teach him a lesson soon because I hadn't forgotten but I wanted him to think that.

I searched through her bedroom nightstand and pulled out a photo album. Opening it I found a young Penelope staring into the camera with a sweet smile. This was before she was taken when she still had her innocence in tact and never considered the world could have been so cruel.

My fingertips traced the round curve of her cheeks, the sweet curves of her body. She wore white, excluding the qualities of an Angel, untouched and untainted, her heart pure.

I skipped to the next page and found her sitting on bench between the legs of an older man who sat above her. I recognized him to be her father.

I was about to search for current photos when the sound of a barking dog alerted me. I flung the album aside and left the room.
I trailed the sounds of the barking to the garden and my mood went darker at the sight of Brad behind a overgrown lavender plant.
"What the fuck are you doing here?"
He didn't even look at me. His eyes were revetted to something on the ground.
"I think there's something buried here," he said.
I followed his eyes to the disturbed earth.  The grass around the square-shaped area was untouched but something about the shape of it sent unease skittering through me.

"I think something is inside there," Brad voiced.

A thought crossed my mind and I knew my assumption wasn't off.
"I think I already know who's down there."
Brad looked at me as if I was the devil in disguise. 
"Did you do-"
His sentence was left hanging at the sounds of sirens.

I glared at Brad. "Get out of here, Brent."
"I'm not leaving," he growled, defiance blazing in his eyes. "This us Penelope's home."

"Suit yourself but when you're truly and thoroughly fucked don't day I didn't warn you." At his look of absolute disgust I smirked deviantly and added, "And I don't mean in the ass."