Chapter 23
“Are you ready to go, sweetheart?” Pierce asked, coming out of the closet dressed in jeans and a sweater.
“I’m ready to fuck shit up,” Arianna mumbled under her breath.
“What did you say?” Pierce asked, not sure if he heard her correctly.
“said I’m ready when you are.”
Pierce’s eyebrows furrowed as he helped Arianna off the bed. He was more than sure she didn’t say that, but he didn’t press the matter. Instead, he took her hand, led her to the garage, and assisted her into his Mercedes.
“Did you want to listen to some music?” Pierce offered.
“Whatever you listen to will be fine with me,” Arianna answered, typing her parents‘ address into his GPS. Pierce noticed that Arianna’s leg bounced with anxiety, and he quickly placed his hand on it in an effort to soothe her.
“Halloween is in two weeks.”
“It is. Are you staying in and passing out candy?”
“I plan to hand out candy for a few hours and then attend the Elite SA’s 1st Annual Halloween Party.”
Arianna loudly groaned and started to bang her head against the passenger window.
“What’s the matter?”
“The party completely slipped my mind, and I’m more than sure I’m required to attend.”
“What’s so bad about that?”
“Everyone will be super drunk, and just because y’all are White and have money doesn’t mean y’all don’t get ghetto.”
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“That’s the fun part,” Pierce teased. “Plus, I hear there will be a couple’s costume contest, and there’s supposed to be an awesome prize for first place.”
“That’s great. I’m sure you and Patrick will win.”
“Arianna Rose…you knew that was my roundabout way of asking you to go with me,” Pierce spat.
“I don’t know, Pierce…”
“Was there ever a clause in your employment contract that you couldn’t date a member?” he challenged.
“Actually, no, there wasn’t, but still.”
“Will you keep me your dirty little secret forever, Ari?”
“You make it sound so bad when you say it like that, and I feel you’re being a little manipulative right now.”
“Is it working?”
“A little. I’ll think about it. I’ll give you an answer by the end of next week. Just so you know, I’m not dressing like a schoolgirl or Cat Woman. The schoolgirl thing is a fetish that I don’t want to get down with, and I can guarantee you there will be ten sets of Batman and Cat Woman.”
“Fine. I’ll come up with a few ideas, and I’ll get back to you. I want to talk to you about something on a more serious note,” Pierce said, turning down the volume. “I want to let you know that I don’t plan on wasting your time.”
Chapter 23
“What do you mean by that?” Arianna knew what Pierce was trying to say, but she still wanted to hear it
“I don’t see you as a fling.”
“How do you see me, Pierce?”
Pierce swallowed nervously, wondering why he brought up the subject. The GPS chimed, alerting him that he was only a few hundred yards away from their destination.
“We’ll have to save this talk for later.”
“Agreed. Don’t park right outside the house. Matter fact, park all the way at the end of the street.”
“Are you sure?” Pierce curiously asked, wondering what Arianna was up to.
“Yeah. Trust me.”
“Alright. Call me if you need anything.”
Arianna placed a quick peck on Pierce’s lips and jogged towards her childhood home. She sneered at the sight of her car in the driveway. It had been washed, waxed, and gleamed brightly in the sunlight. She didn’t see her parents‘ car in the driveway and rang the doorbell several times to ensure they weren’t home. Arianna went to the garage and punched in the code, praying her parents didn’t change the code after she moved out.
“Fucking dumbasses,” Arianna huffed once the garage door started to lift. She quickly rifled through the garage and collected everything she needed. Arianna paid for this shit, and if they thought she would sit back and let them sell and profit off of her, they had another thing coming.
Arianna made short work of slicing each of the tires. She had found her old softball bat and shattered every single window, including the side mirrors. She found old paint cans and bleach and doused the car. She threw the bleach on the black cloth seats and poured the paint all over the top of the car.
Pierce was concerned and decided to check on Arianna.
“Holy fucking shit!” he yelled out. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Arianna was going to town on the car with a softball bat. She had doused the car in white
scrap
it for parts. and tan paint, and from the damage she did, he was sure her parents would only be able to
“Arianna, what the fuck are you doing?!” Pierce yelled when he saw her grab a gas
He jumped out of the car and wrestled the can out of her hand. “Give it back!” Arianna seethed.
“Hell no! Are you trying to go to prison for arson?! That is not a felony you want to follow you for the rest of your life! Shut that fucking garage and getcho little ass in the car!”
Pierce gathered the paint cans, bleach, softball bat, and the gasoline can and threw them all in the back of his trunk. He took a cloth, wiped down the buttons on the garage opener, ran back to the car, and raced out of the neighborhood.
Pierce didn’t speak to Arianna until he was halfway to his house. “Two things.”
“Shoot.”
“First, remind me to never mess with your car. Second, you’re definitely going to have to marry me now. You have me out here covering up your crimes. What’s next? A murder?”
Arianna nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. “At least if I murdered someone, they couldn’t use you to testify against me in court.”
“Arianna, this isn’t a laughing matter. You can catch a charge for this.”
“None of my parents‘ neighbors have cameras. They could claim that all of the material used to damage the car was theirs and out of their garage, but they really don’t have proof of that, now do they? Especially since alt of the evidence was removed from the crime scene. My prints were wiped from the garage opener, and I wiped mine from the doorbell. Everything is circumstantial. I don’t think they really want to tell the cops they stole the car their daughter paid off in the middle of the night. I’m about to call and report the car stolen. Plus, the cops will label it domestic, seeing how they had been.
Chapter 23
letting me use the car for all of these years. It’s like if you let someone move into your house or they have mail sent to your house, they have established residency, so you can’t kick them out on the streets without going through a legal eviction. We good, baby.”
“I’m deeply worried that you know all of this. You’ve been putting on this good girl act, and now I’m trapped.”
“It could be worse. You could still be married to Stella. Now, what you’re gonna do is call Patrick over so that we can have an alibi.”
B
