Rule 41 - Koi

Islammed the door open so hard it hit the wall and made a loud thump. Marisol was on the phone. She jumped and hurried to end the call. She stood and glared at me.

"What the hell do you want, Koi?"

"My clothes. How none of us realized how stupid that was baffles me."

A slow, evil grin spread upon her lips. "I don"t know what you"re talking about."

I was shaking with rage. She had me by my balls. His blood covered mine and everyone else's clothes. One wrong move and she"d be giving the police the evidence to pin his death on us.

"You didn"t add your clothes to the mix."

"I didn"t need to. I told you I"d burn them, and I fully intend on doing that. I just haven"t had the time. As you can see, we all have jobs to attend to. Are you doing yours?" She tilted her head to the side.

"We have three days. Do you even have a clue as to who it was that wrote that note?"

Her eyes took on an annoyed look and motioned to the door. "Shut the door."

I did so and came to sit in the chair in front of her desk. She took her seat and leaned back.

"No, we don"t know who wrote the note. We haven"t had time. Everyone was pretty exhausted after we parted ways. I went straight to bed and then got up and came here. While the park was able to reopen, we still have a lot of cleaning up on the back end of things to do."

"You mean lots of people to pay," I corrected her. I knew how this place worked. My missing eyeball and the money in my bank account were proof of their dirty dealings. She winked at me.

"You know the drill. Anyway, I have a meeting tonight with my brothers to go through the note and try to pinpoint handwriting or any other clues. We"re going back to the spot to see what we can find. We have three days. It"ll be fine."

"What makes you so confident?" I crossed my arms.

"Because it"s got to be someone I spoke to about my sister. Isn"t it obvious?" She stood, walking around her desk. She stopped in front of me and hopped up onto the table. She stuck her shoe in my lap, and I shoved it off, only for her to do it again, digging the heel into my balls. I grimaced, and she relaxed, laughing.

"I had a mini meltdown when Fabian found her. I"d been hoping she was dead in a ditch somewhere, but surprise surprise, the little wobbly bitch survived. I had to do something."

What was this? Was she trying to get me to understand her motives? Fat fucking chance. Domino didn"t deserve anything Marisol wanted to dole out as punishment for...

"Why do you hate her so much? This goes beyond jealousy."

"Ha! I"m not fucking jealous of that white-looking bitch. I"m pissed off that I have to split my inheritance with a bastard. It"s bad enough that it was already being split in three, and now we gotta share even more? My dad should have made his mistress abort."

I shook my head and stood. Her foot hit her desk with a thump.

"Money? You want her dead because of money? Don"t you guys have enough for your kids and grandkids to die rich?" Fabian and Mattias constantly bragged about having more money than they knew what to do with. It was absurd to me that Marisol needed more. "Why is it so bad to have to share with Domino?"

"Domino ruined my life. I don"t need to explain my motives to you. Although I"m sure either your boyfriend or your girlfriend will tell you eventually. I let my secret slip to Swayze when I shouldn"t have. We"re working on finding out the killer, okay? When you and Swayze didn"t act on the deal we"d made, I panicked and talked to a few people. More than a few people..." She looked down and frowned.

"And you weren"t afraid of them telling the police?"

She hopped off the table and strode to me. Her hips swung more than usual. She brushed her hair behind her ear and tugged her shirt down, trying to get me to look at her tits. She pressed them against me, forcing me to the wall. "I picked people I knew wouldn"t dare confess. Everyone has dirty laundry they don"t want people to know about."

The night of the first bonfire when she"d brought people to announce Swayze and I were fired came to mind. Ruth, Chitra, all of them had something Marisol was able to use against them.

Marisol"s hand slid down, cupping my flaccid dick. "Yes, I can be very convincing."

I shoved her away.

"Maybe to some. Not to me. Not to Swayze."

"Not anymore," she corrected, returning to her desk. "My sister may have you two convinced she"s an angel now, but just wait. Soon you"ll see who she really is. She doesn"t care about anyone but herself and her needs. The moment she doesn"t need you, you"ll be tossed aside."

I didn"t believe her words for even a second. She didn"t know the Domino I did. She had this idea in her head of some big bad monster, but it was all projection. Marisol and her brothers were the monsters, not Domino. Not my Blessing.

"I just came here for my clothes." I sighed. There was no point in arguing with her anymore. She didn"t care about any of this. To her, this was just a game.

"I told you I was going to burn them and I will. I"m not giving them back. I have three days to find the killer, and I"ll burn them then. I just have to rule out which one of you it is."

I stood, taking her in. She didn"t know who had killed Ruth or Blane and she was scared. She stared down at the stack of papers on her desk, deep in thought.

"What happens if they strike again? Aren"t you worried it"s gonna be you next?"

Her head jerked up and her eyes turned cold. "Aren"t you? It could be any of us. If I were you, I"d play it safe."

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head and laughed dryly.

"This whole thing feels like some shitty horror movie, doesn"t it? If we"re trying to survive, we have to follow the rules. Don"t go out after dark. Don"t be overconfident. Don"t be a person of color. At least you"ve got that last one going for you. I"m fucked all the way around."

I didn"t laugh with her. None of this was funny.

"I"m going to do everything in my power to keep Domino safe. I"d suggest you find someone too." I went to the door.

"I did. That was Blane to me! Look how that turned out. Maybe that"s what the asshole is doing. Taking out all of the side characters until only the main ones are left. Isn"t that what they do in the movies? Blane had no one who gave a shit about him. Even me. I mean, we"d hooked up a few times, but not enough to make it official. He was an easy pick. Ruth too. Everyone saw you and Swayze toss her away like garbage last year. The killer knew no one would care about her. If that"s the case, who do you think is next? Mitchell, Chitra? Or maybe you?"

The way she said that made my bones chill. I turned my head toward her. Had this all been some elaborate ruse? Was it her all along? She played all of this off far too well.

"You can stare at me all you want, I"m not confessing to anything today or tomorrow or any other day. I didn"t murder anyone."

"What about Elliott Spencer, or did you forget about that?"

Her face paled. It was the same reaction from before when I"d told her.

"I didn"t kill him!" She stood up abruptly. "Actually, no. I need to know. Come on." She grabbed her keys off her desk and came around the desk.

"Where are we going?" I asked as she shoved my hand from the door, opened it, and stormed out. I followed behind.

"You"re taking me to go see Elliott."