Deal With the Devil

2: Keep Your Secrets (Revised)

It's silent as the driver drives on, the partition up and the car only lit by passing streetlights and the glare of the moon. Taking us somewhere unfamiliar to me; everything will be unfamiliar soon... the silence just gives me time to mull that over and realize what I'd just done.

I just got into a car with a stranger and his men who I hadn't seen until sliding into the limo. They sit quietly, eyes straight forward and faces emotionless like good soldiers. It unsettles me—I've never been good at staying in one place for too long, but these men make it seem like second nature to be so emotionless and unbothered—robots who only act or move when asked to.

Swallowing thickly past the frenzied ball of nerves in my throat, I let my eyes trail from the dense forest and the passing by greenery that moves so fast it's all just a blur, and take in the man next to me instead. A jagged scar runs along the edge of his jaw, starting at his ear and ending just on the other side of his chin—almost as if someone had tried cutting his throat. My eyes naturally trail up the scar and to his nose, which is slightly crooked from being broken one too many times, and then to his eyes which I know are a dark blue with hazel around the iris because of the run-in on the sidewalk, but they look almost black in the darkness of the limo. It isn't until I realize I can only be looking into his eyes if he's looking at me that I realize what I'm doing.

Heat crawls up my neck and tinges at my cheeks, so I turn my head back towards the window and clear my throat while blinking rapidly to clear my head.

Instead of saying anything about it, the man (who I haven't asked the name of yet, far too nervous to step out of line) surprises me with his question. "Is the temperature good?"

Thrown for a loop, I furrow my brows and narrow my eyes in confusion as I turn my head to face him again. After a few moments of staring, the man sighs and reaches forward, knocking on the partition. It rolls down slowly, and he mumbles something to the driver as he leans closer to the small opening, and before I can even really take in what's happening right now, the heater is on full blast, instantly warming my hands and face. I wiggle my toes in my shoes as I feel heat there too, quietly thankful for the warmth.

"You looked cold. You're not really in the proper attire for a cold night like this one." He frowns just barely, but his eyes stay emotionless as they take me in.

Giving one last confused blink, I hum and look down with a short nod. "Yea. I, um, left my coat at home before work. I called... Cole," I swallow, eyes watering as I stare at the weather protection mats, "I called Cole to bring it, but he must have been... It doesn't even matter. Thanks, though. It feels nice." And it truly does. I'd been tensed up, making myself stay still even through the shivers racing down my back and jittering of my insides. The cold wasn't the only reason for the shivering—I'd wanted to stay as still as possible, to cause as little trouble as possible. My nerves are so fucked though that my fingertips feel numb from the anxiety and cold.

I don't let myself fully relax into the heat, but I allow the heat to do its job of defrosting me and let my shoulders sag into the back of the seat.

He's completely business-like as if saying he knows a lot about me and then proceeding to say something to prove that isn't out of the ordinary. I'm right back on that edge, not necessarily even because of the man next to me or the huge men surrounding him, and not even due to the fact I was going to an undisclosed location to pay off Cole's debts. No, the bunching of my shoulder blades and the flutter of fear in my stomach is because of the memories I'd forced down long ago, repressed to this day, fluttering around at the edges of my mind and making me catch bits and pieces of a past I don't care to remember.

I shut my eyes tightly to force them away, so tight that colors burst behind my lids, and they start to hurt. My eyes blink open and I shake my head quickly, licking my dry lips. "I don't know why they'd be redacted."