Send a Prayer Up Above

Chapter 17

"Are you sure she's not gonna fuck this one up too?" The tall blonde woman called Phasma asked from Kylo, as if I wasn't in the car with them. Sure, I was sitting on the backseat, but I was still in it.

"She won't." Kylo countered flatly, hands gripping the steering wheel. Downtown Manhattan sped around us as we made our way Uptown, toward the Four Seasons on East 57th Street. I levelled my dress, palms clammy. I was glad for the holster hugging my tie snugly, it gave me added sureness. If it came down to it, I could and would defend myself.

Phasma stole a glance of me over her shoulder, then shrugged. "She cleans up alright."

I couldn't see Kylo's face but as I watched his black hair I thought I heard a slight smirk in his voice. "Surprisingly."

After a while the ritzy Four Seasons appeared, and I thought Kylo's knuckles looked whiter. We pulled up to the valet, got out of the car and the young valet worker bowed a little too deeply to Kylo. Did he know who he was? The flash of fear on his face made me guess he did. We began walking up the steps when Kylo told Phasma to go ahead to the hotel bar and snatched me by my arm. He yanked me to him like a ragdoll and spoke to Phasma, without breaking his eye contact to me.

"I'll have a few words with Rey about repercussions, should she try anything she's not supposed to."

Phasma chuckled behind Kylo. "Aye, boss."

Kylo detained my face crudely between his fingers and we waited until Phasma's footsteps had receded all the way inside the hotel, and out of view. He let go of me then.

"Are you alright?" Kylo asked, shoulders easing.

"As much as one can be in circumstances like this." I spat. The wrath had made a comeback. It wasn't still as much as I had earlier, but resentment lingered. I believed him, I believed he tried to get me out of this, but the fact of the matter was, the reason I was here at all was because of him. It was either this or a bullet between your eyes. Yes, yes, well. In any case, I was vexed again.

His jaw tightened. I thought he looked a little guilty, a slight frown appearing between his brows.

"Straight up and avoid the breast bone." He recapped.

"They'll drop like a stone." I finished.

Kylo couldn't help the son of a grin, he tried to hide it by brushing his nose. "Good."

After a while of pregnant silence, I took a step to go inside but he halted me again by my arm. This time, however, when it was just the two of us, he did it gently. Leaving me an option. I chose to stay.

"It won't come to that." He said, his tone for the stern, eyes vigorous. "I'll see to it."

I tapped my ear peace behind my hair. "I know."

And then, I took a step again and he let me go. I wanted to get this over with, no use in trying to delay the inevitable. Kylo stayed, watching after me. I went through the doors and walked inside the over-the-top lobby, bathing in buttery light and overstuffed furniture swarming every available surface there was. I made my way toward the bar, assertively, as a different person. This was someone who knew what they were doing, who knew men would caress the earth beneath her twelve-inch heels. Someone who knew she twisted men's heads wherever she went to, someone who knew she was the most striking person in any room she strode into. It was a kind of power, perhaps even the most precarious kind. It could hide all kinds of dreadful things beneath the appealing exterior, and no one would notice for they were too distracted.

And tonight; I will be that woman. I would let it show in my walk, in the grace of my neck, in the rigidness of my back and in the slender tilt of my chin. Might as well make this a game. And I would lie if I'd say the dress didn't make me feel like the finest version of me, and the holster cozy against my thigh gave me a deadly secret which I would parade as a flicker in my eye.