Page 13 of Angelic Vengeance

What. The fuck.

For the first time in my life, I was speechless. I wanted to dig my sharp acrylics into his jugular and rip it out of his fucking neck. I wanted to call him out his name until he kicked me out of the moving vehicle.

But if I reacted, it meant I cared –which I didn’t. There was a thin line between love and hate, and I wasn’t interested in entering either with him, so I forced myself to remain apathetic to the situation.

The longer I stared at him, the more I understood he was baiting me. But why? And for what?

I looked away before he could see my unnatural body reactions. Toneless words left my lips in a bored effort, “Cállate.”

A dark chuckle filled the car.

The rest of the ride was in silence. I chewed my bottom lip while watching his hand on the wheel. He had tattoos on his fingers which I could tell went all the way up his arms tohis chest – maybe his back too – and slightly up on one side of his neck.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I definitely was coming down with something.

When he pulled up in front of my apartment building, I realized I never told him where I lived. “How–”

“I heard you give the address to the taxi driver.”

Oh.

“Well, thanks for the ride, asshole,” I said, undoing my seatbelt.

“No problem,hermosa.” He unlocked the door and I got out. I was about to shut the door when he spoke again, “Que sueñes con los angelitos.”

I froze at the traditional way he chose to saysweet dreams. Frowning, I scanned his face for a moment. What was he on?

“You too,” I mumbled before shutting the door. Something was off.

The phrase replayed in my head as I walked through the rain and entered my building. It used to be a favorite saying of mine when I was younger, but I didn’t say it anymore. The pure meaning had become tainted over time.

After pressing the elevator button, I looked back outside, through the glass walls of the reception. Zachary’s car was still parked out front, the headlights shining through the night.

Once I was in my apartment, I ran to the window. He was gone.

As I washed my body in the shower, dried myself with a towel, applied lotion, and got in bed – naked and alone – his smooth voice played on repeat.

May you dream of little angels.

CHAPTER 5

16 years old

The Bronx,New York City

IT WAS LATE. TOO LATE even for me.

I picked up my pace, passing rundown buildings in the housing projects. The streets were empty, abandoned even by the local gangsters. There were no stray dogs or drunk homeless people passed out on any corner. Everything was deserted.

Once I turned sixteen a few months ago, I left the foster system and never looked back. Although Mrs. Ruiz, my ex-social worker, didn’t approve, she didn’t force me back. I was basically an adult now and she couldn’t control me anymore, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t the closest thing I had to a parental figure.

Natalia and I grew inseparable over the years, but she was eighteen now and off to college. She had told me to come with her to NYU, but I couldn’t; I needed to let her experience life on her own for a while. While she was going to lectures and charity events, I was still attending our local high school and working three jobs – one being night shifts at a gym downtown. Despite everything, we always called and I often took the subway to see her in Manhattan.

The scraping sound of metal against the pavement made my stomach drop, and ice dripped down my back. It was a man who must have accidentally kicked a soda can. He was walking behind me, quite far away, but something felt wrong.Really wrong.

I walked faster, but when I noticed a second man walk out of another alley, I started running faster than I ever had before.

Fuck.