the beautiful and damned - h.s.

thirty-five

"Drugs?" she scoffed.

I shrugged, "I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear but...he did the dirty work, sold drugs, trafficked them...other things you probably don't wanna know about..."

She was in utter disbelief...I knew this was hard to hear for her, especially since it was someone she was with for years.

"But..." she stopped and took a few deep breaths, "What kind of things?" she asked.

I shook my head, "You don't wanna know,"

"Harry, just fucking tell me because I'm sick and tired of people lying to me!" she said. I could tell she was trying her hardest not to break down.

"As I said, he was already high up in terms of ranks but the Disciples...the gang he was a part of is powerful. Not just in terms of New York but all over the U.S...drug trafficking, weapon trafficking...sex trafficking even. I don't know but fighting wasn't his only job...that was probably his easiest job because underground fighting is usually a cover-up to the public to hide it from bigger things." I paused.

Joyce had her elbows on the table, facing her head down as I spilled this information out to her, "How— how didn't I know?" she questioned, more to herself than to me.

"He was good at hiding it from you. He clearly didn't want you to know. Alex mentioned he practically told anyone about what he did, probably to make people scared of him honestly.."

She looked up at me, "Alex knew?"

Fuck.

He was going to fire me and then kill me.

"He did. He tried to tell you but I guess you were already in too deep with Elliot—"

"He never fucking tried to tell me that! If he told me that he was in a gang then I wouldn't have stayed with him for so long," she said.

I pulled my lips into a thin line, "It's not that easy Joyce...don't you see how he hasn't left you alone since you broke up with him. He still thinks he has a hold on you and I guarantee he would've done anything to get you back. He liked controlling you...he liked the feeling of power he had and he would do anything to keep that,"

She was silent for a few minutes, not saying a word just staring out into space. She promptly looked up at me, "And how the hell did you know all of this?" she asked.

Here comes the part where she inevitably hates me now.

"What I tell you can't be repeated to anyone else," I told her, emphasizing my words.

She rolled her eyes, "I won't tell anyone,"

"I'm serious, if you tell anyone else, I could be in big trouble," I said, a sense of urgency to my words. "Okay, okay, I won't. I promise," she took a deep breath.

"I moved to New York because I was running away," I said.

She looked at me confused, "Running away?"

I nodded, "I knew Elliot was in a gang because I saw the tattoo he had....his gang tattoo, everyone has one. The skull tattoo on his neck...there's a roman numeral for the number two hidden in it, which was again how I knew he was higher up in the ranks. It goes by number for them and two is extremely powerful, almost close to being a leader even...although I'm not sure how that happened since he was apparently parading this information around a campus full of idiot uni students. But uh— the reason he ran scared that night outside the building was because he saw my tattoo..." I rolled up my sleeve slightly and pointed at the ink on my arm.