Page 98 of Monstrous Urges
“Drop the ‘boss’ shit and talk to me as my friend.”
He glances at me, his jaw tight. “Freely?”
“Yes.”
His eyes narrow. “I think it’s fucking insanity that she’s here, Drazen,” he growls. “I think after what she fucking did, the fact that you’ve got her living in your home like a guest is insulting. I think there are a million different ways you could be flaying her alive instead of fucking her?—”
“That’s enough.”
“Your family’s and my father’s blood is on her hands!” he hisses viciously. “And you’re using her like your own personal whore?—”
Milos’ eyes bulge and his face goes purple as my hand snaps out to tighten around his throat.
“I said that’s enough,” I hiss darkly.
Instantly, my hand drops from his windpipe. Milos clears his throat and looks away.
“Apologies, I overstepped,” he grunts.
I exhale. “I… I shouldn’t have put hands on you.”
“You’re the boss,” my friend says dryly, smirking as he rubs his voice box.
I gesture with my chin at his cigarette. He nods, passing it to me. “Just like old times, huh?”
“Just need a sniper rifle and some of that shitty UN peacekeeper coffee.”
He grimaces. “Swear to fuck, that stuff was literally shit.”
“Eh,” I shrug. “That’s why we cut it with vodka, if I remember right.”
“I’m surprised we remember anything at all from those days,” he sighs, shaking his head. “Surprised we lived through those days.”
“But we did,” I murmur, taking a puff of the cigarette before handing it back. I clap my friend on the shoulder. “We did, and look at us now.”
Milos nods solemnly, looking out over the dark waves. “Permission to speak…well, freely, but not as freely as just now?”
I nod.
“You really believe the amnesia thing?”
I look away. “I do, actually.”
“Without you fucking choking me again, can we agree that what happened before?—”
“Happened fifteen years ago,” I grunt. “Before her memory deleted itself.”
“Do you think that excuses it?”
It’s a good question, and something I’ve been contemplating ever since I found her again.
I still don’t have an answer.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the amnesia or not. But she’s changed. She’s…different than the girl I remember from the wedding.”
“You really believe that people can change like that?” Milos grunts. “Become something different?”
I nod as my eyes drift back to the rolling black waves.