RUIN: Psychological Enemies-to-Lovers Thriller

“Would you like that, Phoenix?”

“N-no. I would not.”

The song began again.

She looked up and gazed around the walls.

I raised my eyebrows. “What are you looking for?”

“I just. . .I don’t know. I’m wondering where the speakers are.”

“Someone tells you they're going to cut open your neck and fuck it, and you wonder about their sound system?”

She shivered. “It’s better than thinking about them fucking the wound in my neck.”

“That makes sense.” Nodding, I sliced the potato.

“W-why. . .” She looked down.

I bent over and took out the frying pan under the bar. “Why what?”

“Why do you keep playing this song over and over?”

“Because it’s keeping me from killing you.”

“Oh.” She widened her eyes.

“Can you imagine if I played one of West’s songs from the truck?” I chuckled. “There would be blood everywhere. I’d be sliding and slipping in it, trying to devour every inch of you.”

She hugged herself.

I diced garlic next. “Any food allergies?”

“W-what?”

“Are you allergic to any foods?”

“Uh. . .no.” She stared at me like I was a lunatic.

Shrugging, I placed the pan on the stove and turned the burner on. “If you’re going to die, it will be by my hands, not a freak ingredient.”

Pavarotti rose into his romantic musings. His voice soared over the chapel.

Pouring olive oil into the pan, I breathed in the beauty of his words and music. “This song is about the power of love.”

She perked up. “He. . .”

I eyed her.

“This guy.” She cleared her throat. “He loves her too?”

“Nemorino loved Adina before she loved him.” I sautéed the potatoes, tossing the garlic and onions in with other herbs. “He was poor and country by her standards. But Nemorino didn’t give up. He bought a love potion with all the money that he had in his pocket. Once he drank it, the person he loved would fall for him in twenty-four hours.”

I took out a frying pan for the steak and placed it on the stove. I turned that eye on next and poured oil in the pan. I glanced over my shoulder.

She gaped at me on the edge of her seat. “Then. . .what happened?”

“With Nemorino?”

“And Adina.”

“He was not the smartest man. The doctor who sold the love potion was a con artist. Nemorino only bought red wine and got drunk.” I turned over the potatoes. “For some reason, he thought he should buy more of the potion, but he had no money.”

She watched me with an odd expression.

“So, he enlisted in the military, thinking he would eventually get enough money for more potions.” I put the steak in the pan. “This moment in the opera, Nemorino walks up and sees Adina crying.”

Phoenix frowned.

“It’s in this moment, Nemorino realizes that the potion actually worked and that she has fallen in love.”

“Did she really fall in love with him?”

“She did, but not due to the wine he drank.” I went to the cabinet and pulled out plates. “Other things occurred in the opera too.”

“Like what?”

“A lot. Regardless, he knows that now she loves him. Unfortunately, he’ll have to go off to the military.”

“That’s right. He enlisted.”

“But what gives him some joy is that furtive tear on her face, proving that she finally loves him and will truly miss him.”

“Is that how it ends?”

“No.”

She frowned. “Then. . .how does it end?”

“Hopefully, you can see it yourself.”

Sadness brushed over her face. “Will that be an option?”

“You give me the address and it will be.”

“Is that the truth?”

I wasn’t sure. She’d seen our faces. She didn’t know where she was at now, but I still didn’t like that she’d seen the inside of my home. Only family entered here.

The ones that weren’t family and entered my home, never walked back out alive.

Lucky for her, I didn’t want to kill her. I needed the money more than I needed to bury another body behind my house.

She has to give up her friend. That’s the only way.

But unfortunately for her, I did want to see her bleed.

Calm down.

I returned to the steak and flipped it over. “You said your friend saved your life. How?”

“She stopped this guy from trying to rape me.”

Anger hit me. I made sure it didn’t blaze over my face.

The first man I killed had been a rapist. A priest right in the very chapel that we stood in.

I studied the steak. “Is the guy still alive?”

“Yes.” Phoenix sighed. “She also stopped another guy too.”

I glanced back at her. “You were in the same place both times?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“On the streets.”

“Where on the streets?”

She stirred in her seat. “Just around.”

The location must’ve been important. It could probably help us find her friend. I considered the places where we’d tracked her this evening. She had gone through Victory Park for some odd reason. We didn’t even know how. There’s been no road for the way she traveled. She’d sped fast on the sidewalk like she was on a motorcycle the whole time.