Then he said, “Let me deal with it.”
On one hand, I liked this idea. I’d seen Ren in action against Luke. On the badass scale, Luke blew the lid off, totally redefining the scale. And Ren not only held his own against Luke, he matched him. It was a fair fight that didn’t go long enough to declare a clear winner. Seeing this, I knew Ren could undoubtedly f**k Ricky Balducci up big time. Because if he could go mano a mano against Luke, he could kick anyone’s ass.
And if he did, I wanted to watch.
On the other hand, I’d been a bitch to Sadie, a girl who was Hector’s, which meant she was a Rock Chick (though she didn’t know it yet), which meant she was going to be family. And I’d done it the day of the night she got raped.
I needed to make amends.
“Zano, I—”
“Let me deal with it, Ally.”
“What are you gonna do?” I asked, and his anger hit the car, stifling me, just as his eyes flashed with a light that even I found scary.
Right.
There you go.
Ren was going to deal with it.
“Don’t hesitate to make a mess,” I invited, giving in, and I actually felt him relax as the heavy air shifted out of my Mustang.
“Dry cleaning blood out of suits costs a f**kin’ whack,” he replied.
Yikes!
I was absolutely not going to go there.
“Take care of yourself, honey,” he said quietly, ending our conversation, ending our time together, reminding me he’d ended us and that I was the reason there was no us.
In other words, major ouch.
I powered through the hurt and nodded. “You too, Ren.”
He continued to hold my eyes, and long moments passed. Those moments feeling like he was waiting for me to say something, do something.
I did neither.
Then he turned, opened the door and angled out.
I watched him saunter to the pool hall and kept watching, even after he disappeared through the door.
I did this with a knot in my stomach, something stuck in my throat.
Then I pulled my shit together. Something I’d had to do a lot since Ren entered my life, and more after he exited it.
I decided I’d find another way to make amends to Sadie, though I didn’t know how I’d do that.
I just knew I would.
I turned the ignition, put my car into gear and drove away.
* * * * *
One month, one and a half weeks later…
I was at Sadie’s art opening at her gallery, but a more apt way to put it was that I was in hell.