KILLER. 🩸

ONCE

"I just lost a million dollars." I uttered in disbelief because although it was a charade I still felt sick to my stomach.

The roulette master spoke into a wire hanging from his ear and then I watched as two security guys manhandled Aries and brought him over to the table.

"Mr Leventis, it would seem the debt your date has built up in your name needs paying."

"Woah, Woah, Woah. Hey." Aries slurred, lamely pushing the security guys away. "How about," he fell into the table knocking the stacks of chips everywhere but he continued like he didn't even notice. "How about we go for a private game of poker?" He burped a little, "If I win, I sponge my debt. If you win, I don't know, name your stakes?"

"How are you going to play poker, you can't even see straight." Grimes laughed awkwardly.

The Russian roulette master viewed Aries like he was contemplating the decision and cynically he smiled, like he had already won.

"Dearest Scarlet." He offered to shake my hand and I complied, grimacing as he once again French kissed my knuckles with his slimy tongue. "It's been a pleasure to have your company this evening, my only hope is that we become more intimately acquainted." He turned his head towards Aries, "I want your date."

I snatched my hand back and quickly folded them against my breasts.

"Excuse me!" I demanded.

"Done." Aries answered, no hesitation.

"Excuse me?" I implored at him.

"Let's go, follow us Scarlet." Grimes gave my shoulder a small shove when they started moving and my heels remained dug into the floral patterned carpet.

We were taken into a back room, transported back to 1940 when pipe rooms existed and the desire to cleanse smoke-filled air was secondary to those who polluted it.

Five guys sat around a hexagon shaped table, all inhaling gold-ended cigars. The foggy haze burnt my eyes and destroyed my throat but I seemed to be the only one affected.

"Hola amigos." Aries announced cheerfully, they glared up at him in silence, almost annoyed by his presence.

"Don't worry, he's good for it." The roulette master explained, each of them taking a seat around the table.

"And her?" One of them questioned, shooting a glance at me, who stood far back against the wall.

"He owns her and she's what I'm bargaining, a night with her to do whatever the hell I please."

They all assessed me from head-to-toe with interest and delight. Making no secret that they were stripping away my gown and imagining what was beneath. Aries was among them, also ogling my body. He inhaled a deep breath of pride.

"I'll raise you, her for my house and the rights to my business but I don't just want her for a night, I want to keep her. Every trace of her identity removed from the face of this earth." Another guy added stuff to the ever growing bargaining pile in the middle.

"Okay I got some goods, what about a whole container of cocaine and several smuggled bastards from India, plus I'll throw in 10K for good measure."

"What's she like, she good in bed?"

Aries let out a drunken laugh and then pointed his finger at one of the punters. "I don't give spoilers, place your bet and find out."

Suddenly, this had gotten dangerous and fast for me. Any obligational ties to protect me were severed the second Aries got too drunk to function. Now he was bargaining me off to these perverts for money he didn't want nor need.

Maybe that's why he brought me along in the first place. Forced me into making an impression with a million dollars and a mission to lose. Now, I was being auctioned off in a game of luck because I was easier to throw away than to keep.

Panicking, I tried the door handle but of course, it was locked.

"Feisty one. Okay, all in." Another guy spoke and not before too long the game had began.

I watched Aries' face, analysed him in such an excruciating way. Reading a face is your natural intuition seeing the real person. But with Aries, I couldn't see below the mask.

His moves were reckless and sloppy, sometimes swishing those hands about far too exaggeratedly and showing everyone his cards in the process. The other guys viewed him as a laughing stock, openly teasing him but his brain was far too intoxicated to tell.

"Oh would you look at that," one of the men spoke cockily and placed his cards down face side up. "A royal flush."

Complaints erupted out and the winner eyed my whole body with thirst. "Looks like you're coming home with me tonight princess. I'll treat you real good. Or real bad. How do you like it baby girl?" He wiggled his brows at me in a sexual way and I stiffened, wrapping my arms around my torso.

"She likes it when the players don't cheat." Aries spoke coldly. He pulled out a gun and aimed the neck towards one of the guys, a finger diligently resting against the trigger.

"What the fuck!" A few of them muttered in complete surprise before settling their hands against their own weapons.

Aries didn't hold back.

In an instant, he got flooded by this chilling personality. His eyes became as empty as the smoking barrel of his gun. One by one placing a neat bullet hole through each man's brain.

Their lifeless stare forever haunting in the split second before their life slipped away. Bodies falling to an uncooperative heap on the floor.

I didn't have the energy to scream.
I didn't even have the energy to cry loudly.

I stood frozen to my core, watching through a vision blurred by tears. Aries, a monster yielding the weapon of a silenced gun until every breathable creature was put down, except me.

He turned to me, out of breath and with a complexion painted in blood splatters. I was pinned lifelessly against the wall, trembling.

For a moment, he didn't move or say anything.

Our gazes remained locked.

But then, he snapped out of it and started searching the bodies. He collected barcode chips from each one and when he got to the Roulette master he started freaking out.

Rolling the body from left to right, tearing off the clothes and checking not only in all of the pockets but in the jacket linings too.

"It's not here, where the fuck is it?" He grumbled to himself. "It was on his wrist, I saw it! Where the fuck did it go?"

I slipped my fingers into my bra and pulled out the chip I knew he sought after.

"Are you looking for this?"