Her eyes widen, and she stares at me like she’s shocked I’m leaving, like she thought I’d stick around and watch her tie the knot with my twin. She’s still ready to go through with it, even after last night. That shouldn’t surprise me, but it does.
I wait for her to stop me, but she just nods. I pull out of her wrecked cunt, feeling my cum slide out of her with my penis. After putting myself away, I lift up off her dress and help her sit. I like knowing my cum will be running down her legs under her dress when she walks up the aisle. I wonder what Lennox would say if he saw what I’d done to her. Would he fuck her to punish her more, or be disgusted by the mess of her bloody, torn cunt streaming with my cum?
“Yeah,” she says. “I guess you’re not coming.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Who’s going to be there?”
“Just a few people,” she says. “Your mom, my parents, some of Lennox’s friends…” She trails off, her eyes widening as she realizes what she’s asking.
“Yeah,” I say. “A cop who sent me to jail for assault and a bunch of members of a rival gang. The only reason I’m alive right now is because we’re in Lennox’s car.”
She nods, swallowing and looking down at her hands. Slowly, she begins to twist her ring off. “I don’t think this is going to happen.”
I grab her hand, stopping her. “Go get married, Rae.”
“What?” She lifts her gorgeous hazel eyes to mine, hurt and vulnerability written all over her face.
“Go,” I say. “Valeria will help get you cleaned up. I’ll go get Lennox.”
“You want me to marry him?” she asks, her voice small.
“It’s the last thing in the world I want,” I tell her, leaning in to kiss her. “But it’s what you want. That tree. Those roots.”
“Right,” she says faintly. “I guess you really are a crow.”
“What do you mean?”
“A crow isn’t meant to be tamed. Just look what happened to Poe. She died when I tamed her. I don’t want to do that to you.”
I start the car and pull through the lot, around the cars clustered together, and up to the front entrance. “You’re getting married in an hour. Go get ready.”
She sits another minute, then leans across the seat and kisses my cheek. “I love you, Maddox.”
“Te amo, mi tesoro preciosa.”
She climbs out of the car and walks inside. I sit there for a minute, too stunned to move. She left. She’s going through with it.
Rage swells inside me, replacing the sadness, and I floor the gas, shooting past the curb and away from the church.
If she won’t do it, I will.
I’ll do it for both of us. Because she doesn’t see that she doesn’t need roots. Sheisthe roots. She is the nest, the comfort, the refuge. My refuge in the storm that tosses me from one disaster to another, that tears at my feathers and threatens to cripple my wings.She is my solace.
I am her wings.
I’m not just doing this for me, because I need her. I’m doing it for her too, because she needs me. She needs my wings, my wild, my freedom. That’s what she needs. Not more stability, more roots. She’ll stagnate and die if she lets Lennox tie her down that way. Just like I’ll careen out of control and fly into a storm I can’t get out of one of these days if I don’t have somewhere safe to land. She is my safe place to rest, my nest. I am her escape.
Her crow.
I fly through town, slamming on the brake when I see a phone booth outside the pharmacy. I check my pockets, cursing when I don’t find the change I need. I run inside and peel off a five, exchanging it for quarters before returning to the phone booth. This one isn’t really a booth, just a phone. I turn my back to the lot for whatever privacy I can find. Then I drop the quarters into the slot and listen for the dial tone.
The first person I call is Scarlet.
Then I call Billy and Reggie to find out where they took Lennox.
Ten minutes later, I’m back on the road. Forty minutes to wedding bells.
When I pull up, they’re already chiming. Nine o’clock.