Rhapsody (Butcher and Violinist 1)

She slowly shook her head. “Why. . .”

“Take your time. I know this is a lot.”

She let out a long breath. “Why is there footage of my apartment in the first place?”

“Because your Aunt Celina had security cameras put into your apartment.”

“For how long?”

“That I don’t know. I assume they’ve been in there as long as you have.”

She closed her eyes. “She. . .Aunt Celina found the apartment.”

“Then, she probably put them in before you moved in.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “But as much as I want to just make this about her. I have to tell you what I’ve done.”

She opened her eyes and swallowed. “Okay.”

“You had Belladonna. My violin. On this night, I saw you playing on stage. And your playing. . .” I tried to find the words to show her why I’d become obsessed. I attempted to think of a metaphor or something to help her get how dark I’d been and how much light she’d bathed on me through the strokes of her bow. “Eden. . .I saw you and…”

I tapped the remote control against my thigh. “I was lost before you. I was suicidal. Not in the sense of getting a rope and tying it around my neck, but I was ready to die. I was consistently putting myself in harm’s way. And there was nothing that made me happy. I searched this planet. I fucked everything. I drank. I snorted. I did it all and nothing moved me. So I thought about my old life.”

I caught my breath, unsure if she was even following me still. Did I sound like a madman? Was I making a valid case for myself?

I faced her. “I thought back to my violin, Belladonna. I knew I couldn’t play her, but I thought that if I just had her in my hands. . .maybe the magic would come back. Perhaps, I could smile and laugh for one more second.”

“So, you broke into my apartment to steal Belladonna?”

“I did.” I pressed play on the remote. “But as you know I never took the violin from you. Everything changed that night.”

I pointed to the camera footage in the right corner.

On the television, I crept down Eden’s hallway, resembling that same dark vampire in the night was searching for blood. No matter how many times I watched this, I still could not forgive myself.

How bad was I then? How dark? No wonder Rafael joined this crazy journey with me. He was probably happy to see me excited about something besides death.

Eden watched me on the television.

On the screen, I walked up to the violin, touched the case, and gazed at the object like a deranged man. My face twisted in disgust when I didn’t feel the magic that I’d hoped to experience. And then I turned to Eden. Desperation replaced the disgust. After a while, I walked away, gazed back a final time at Eden, and then left.

I stopped the footage. “This video is from your aunt’s security team. I ended up getting people on her security.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted you, and she didn’t want me to have you.” I placed the remote control on the table. “I saw you and couldn’t think of anything else. I became obsessed. And you have to know that right now. I became addicted. I went to war.”

“O-over me?”

“Over you.”

She turned back to the tv. “With. . .my aunt?”

“Yes.”

Shaking her head, she rose. “I don’t know what’s going on, Jean-Pierre, but none of this is making any sense. My aunt Celina has a brothel, but she’s—”

“A powerful and very dangerous fucking woman.”

“My aunt?”

“Has the ears of powerful men.”

Eden sighed. “That, I believe.”

“And she uses those ears to keep you protected. From the moment her security team saw me break into your apartment, they did what they should have. They placed a protective barrier around you. They treated me like a stalker.” I shrugged. “I won’t dispute that my actions didn’t present me in a non-stalker light.”

Eden took several steps. Her gaze followed the floor. “I remember bumping into Russians all the time. It started three years ago.”

“Those were your Russian guards.”

“And then I started seeing a lot of French guys.”

“And those were my men around you.”

She looked up. “So, Aunt Celina was guarding me from you with Russian men. And you had your men around me. . .for what?”

“To get some way to talk to you, and to keep other men away.” If I was going to admit the truth, I would have to tell it all. “If I couldn’t have you, no one else would either. This is who I am, Eden. I’ve told you before—”

“You don’t share.”

“I don’t.”

She gave me a weak smile. “No threesomes allowed.”

“None.”

She sighed. “None of this is making any sense. How did I not know that all of this was going on around me?”