The gun felt heavy, slightly cool against her shaking hand. The world crumbled around her and still, he smiles, even with the gun pointed to his head. She was the one holding the power but she wasn't in control.
Could she even pull the trigger? Tears welled in her eyes as the thoughts circled her head. Did she have a choice? She wouldn't cry.
A rush of adrenaline spread like heat through her veins, pooling in her ears until they started to ring. Dean murmured something through his broken lips that she couldn't understand. She was only aware of her own laboured breathing.
She had experienced the gift of life first handed, could she end one now?
Is this how it felt, to have such power in one's hands? The choice to take a life the ultimate thrill?
Suddenly the gun didn't feel as heavy.
Rio must have sensed the change in her, his smirk faded but his eyes still challenged her.
Her body started to relax, her breath evened, her hand tightened around the gun handle and lightly her finger squeezed the trigger again, again and again.
Rio chuckled as the clicking sound on the empty barrel continued. "Ah, Elizabeth! You got balls... I'll give you that." He said approaching her with fast angry strides, "I thought you didn't have in you. But to be honest... you never, ever, did what was expected of you."
Beth lowered the useless empty gun. That side smile, usually so amused, was now coated in anger.
"Did you really think I would make it that easy, huh?" He asked, stopping just inches from her body, hauling the gun from her hand, his left hand made way to the back of her head, taking a handful of her hair and yanking her head back painfully.
She gasped before she could stop herself. She would not beg for her life again, fuck him! She would hold her head high one last time.
"Think you can play with big boys now, huh?" He said, slamming her back against the wall and jerking her head back further.
His dark gaze then roamed all over her body, the smirk back on his lips. "I gotta say… I really like this new attire of yours." He drawled, slowly running the gun barrel all the way up her button up black shirt, taking his time on the buttons just above her breasts.
"I guess a hoodie wouldn't do for a suburban housewife, huh?" The gun travelled to the lapels of her black blazer, his laugh dry. "Yeah, nah... It don't matter how you dress, don't matter what you scheme with your lady friends… It was over before it started!"
Beth could only swallow as he threw each angry word at her.
"What you see here…" he said, making a point by waving the gun to himself, "Is so much bigger than you can imagine, bitch... you have no clue!" Beth moaned in pain as his hand tugged at her hair with each word.
And then it happened again. Just like months ago when he was about to order his men to kill her, like every other moment she stood up to him.
She laughed. Was it some kind of survival mode? A basic instinct that overcame her?
The tears, she promised herself not to shed just moments ago began to trail down her cheeks, "Fuck you, Rio!" She spat in between hysterical laughs and salty tears.
"Me wanting to be you?" She laughed drily. "Me? The naive suburban housewife, nothing but a charity case… No, I don't want to be you. I want to be more than you. I already am… this suburban bitch got your business down! And you can beat me, break me or kill me but it doesn't change the fact that I owned you!"
Rio's jaw rocked back and forth. In anger, he hurled the gun on the table, where a definitely unconscious Dean rested his head, and Beth couldn't avoid but startle at the sound of metal against wood.
His eyes bore into her, the piqued expression deepened. She held his stare, jutting her chin up in pure defiance.
Rio sighed, all the anger seemingly washing away all of the sudden. His free hand went around her neck, "What am I gonna do with you Elizabeth?" He asked, not really expecting an answer.
Beth swallowed hard while his finger pads stroked the skin behind her ear. A sensitive spot that she had no idea existed until this moment. His gaze fixed on her parted lips and she felt the heat of his breath, hovering just above them.
It wasn't his touch or the sound of his voice that unhitched her. With was the need in his dark eyes... a reflection of her own. And that terrified her way more than the violence she knew he was capable of. Her own need… for this... whatever it was, scared the shit of off her.
"Get out of my house!" She whispered pronouncing each word carefully, just as their lips were about to meet.
A cool mask covered his face almost instantly, the old knowing smirk back as he placed a hand on each side of her head.
"Oh, am I upsetting you, sweetheart?" He asked, lowering his head until he was staring her straight in the eye.
A vein pumping underneath his tattooed throat caught her attention, all of a sudden, an urge to brush her tongue over the palpitating skin slammed the back of her brain. She wasn't thinking straight. He was too damn close, she couldn't think straight.
"I gave you a chance to get out that night. I said we were done! But you had to go tryna fuck me over." He said, suddenly moving away from her he picked up the gun from the table and sat down next to Dean, who seemed to be waking up.
"Sweetheart, I'ma give you some business advice…" Shaking his head as he took a bunch of bullets from his jeans pocket, "And y'see… " He continued, removing the gun magazine and feeding in the bullets with trained fingers, "I'd think you knew this, you know, with all that owning me and what not."
He put the gun back together with swift movements, then his eyes met hers. The coldness in his gaze made her legs buckle — Annie's talk about the sharks and how their eyes turned white before they kill you came to her mind, but his weren't white, they were so black, black and cold as death.. there was nothing there — she slid her back down the wall. This was it, she would be dead in a minute.
Dean moaned as Rio grabbed him by the nape, yanking him straight on the chair, he pressed the gun muzzle to his temple.
Beth closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. She wasn't religious, but at that moment she found herself praying. Dear God, please don't leave her children… my babies, alone.
"You don't fuckin' snitch!" Rio growled banging Dean's face full force on the hardwood table.
Beth couldn't avoid the yelp out of her mouth, her eyes shot wide open, startled by the loud bang followed by the sound of bone cracking. For a second there she thought it was the gun firing, that he'd killed Dean.
Rio lifted Dean's head yanking at his hair, blood gushing from the broken nose. "Don't worry, sweetheart. He's gonna be ready for another one in a couple of weeks. Ain't that right, champ?" He said, smiling sadistically, obviously enjoying every bit of this. Then kicked the chair, making Dean land on the rug with a muffled thud.
She just noticed that she was sobbing again. Rio pulled his hoodie from the back of a chair and put it on in the usual half and half style.
Before she knew he was crouched in front of her and helping her up. While she was a sobbing wreck, he looked calm and collected, like this was nothing out of an ordinary day on his life. It probably wasn't, what did she really know about this man? She'd played with fire, carelessly. Now, she had to handle the burn.
"Elizabeth..." He drawled, claiming her chin and breaking her thoughts, he looked into her eyes. His hard gaze didn't match the sweet way her name sounded from his lips, "I'm gonna lay low for a while, in that time you gonna get your house in order, clean up your mess, get rid of your rotten eggs. No more brunch plottin' with your gals… There ain't more chances, you fuck this up..." He dug his fingers into her chin harder, "We're done, for real. You feel me?"
"Why don't you just kill me?" She asked with all the courage she could muster.
He shrugged his shoulders dismissively, "I thought you said not to point a gun at you again."
They both knew he didn't need a gun to kill her.
He then put the golden gun in her hands. "Keep it. I have this feelin' you might need it."
He started to walk away and Beth aimed the now loaded gun to his back.
"And what makes you think I'm not gonna shoot you now?"
He stopped and looking over his shoulder gave her that sexy half-grin, completely disarming her all the while she still held the gun. "I don't. See you really soon, yeah?"
His disregard left her feeling even more humiliated.
She watched him saunter away carefree from under a blur of anger filled tears, while her hand shook, heavy, from the weight of the golden gun.