Black Promises (Blackwoods College)

“No, it’s not like that. This is about… someone from my past.”

“Your past.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I’m losing patience. Give me a reason to care.”

She paced back and forth, then dumped her drink and placed the cup on the hood of an old pickup. “I don’t know how to say it without sounding like a psycho.”

“Start trying.”

She rubbed her face with both hands. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she whispered to herself, then met my eyes. “A long time ago, something bad happened to me. I told people about it, but I was a little kid and nobody believed me. Then my brother said the same thing happened to him, and from then on, I swore that I’d get revenge.”

I tilted my head, watching her carefully. She was nervous, agitated, but she wasn’t lying. This didn’t sound like the space cadet freak Cora I knew.

For the past few years, I’d ignored her and my cousin as much as I could. Cora had always interested me, but she was such a little dorky dweeb. She was pretty, with a good figure, pouty lips, but everyone said she was ice cold and not interested in guys, and it was easier to tell myself she was gay than to bother spending time fantasizing about my cousin’s best friend.

But standing in front of me in a tight sweater and jeans, her cheeks still pink with embarrassment, working up the courage to tell me—something, I wasn’t sure what—I had to admit I found her more attractive than I ever would’ve imagined possible.

“You want revenge,” I echoed softly.

She met my gaze with the most resolute stare I’d ever seen before.

I’d never forget that look. It was a look that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Those eyes, that glare, she was determined to do this even if it was hard, even if it would end up breaking her, and that was a level of commitment I’d never seen from her before.

“I want to pay you $8,000 to murder a chiropractor named Dannis Silver.”

I took a step back and my eyebrows shot up.

She kept on staring at me.

Murder.

I let her words sink in.

I knew what people thought of me. Jarrod the monster. I was a beast, an animal. I fought my way through life, one bloody brawl after another. I was nothing more than muscles, fists, and broken bones. Everyone assumed I was an unhinged lunatic meathead, and I didn’t do much to disabuse them of that notion.

Because they weren’t wrong. I was a psycho. My constant simmering rage could only be sated with violence, and so I turned to pain every chance I got.

I hated myself for it. I hated what I’d become and knew it was all my own fault.

But I was what I was.

This moment, this was important. I looked back toward the house with its lights and its music. Young people stood out front, living their happy, carefree lives, thinking about nothing more than smoking, drinking, and fucking. Small worries, small cares.

Small lives.

But here in the shadows of the cars near the street, Cora watched me with hawklike intensity. She feared for her own life and safety—she’d just asked me to do something truly heinous. There was no going back for her.

I had a choice. The lights, the party, the easygoing existence. I could find those bros, get into a fight, keep on drifting through my days.

Or I could stay here with Cora in the blackness.

I looked at her again and felt a pulse strike through my guts.

“What did he do?”

I felt the words slip out, and in that moment, Cora knew.

I might do it. I could do it, if I wanted.

I knew I could.

“He molested me when I was eight years old.” She said it without emotion, but I could taste the rage beneath her words.

I sucked in a breath. “You said he’s a chiropractor? Did you tell anyone?”

“My parents. They didn’t believe me. We all sat down with Dr. Silver, and he gave them some bullshit about his practice and how maybe I misunderstood what he was doing. But I didn’t misunderstand, because a couple years later, my brother came to me and admitted that the sick fuck did the same thing to him.”

She shivered with rage and unbridled shame. I guessed I was the first person she’d told about this in a very long time, and I felt a sudden upswell of wrath and desire. I wanted to pull her into my arms and hug her tight and protect her—and I wanted to kill the fuck that had done this to her.

But I had to go slow.

This was the path I’d been barreling toward my whole life, and little freak Cora was about to shove me so deep into the pit of my own excess that I was afraid I might never crawl out again.