Page 23 of Blade

Seventeen years old….

Sage was in Luis’s luxury, beachfront villa in Miami. Despite how beautiful the home was, it was a prison, and I knew it. Hell, anyone who knew who owned it knew. The day she was handed over to Luis, I found a small houseboy who smuggled a note in and gave it to her.

I wrote:

I’m going to be as close by as I can. The boy will bring a message to me if you need anything. I’ll do my best and help as much as I can.

For four days we passed notes through Ricardo the young houseboy.

Each day her notes got shorter and more detached.

Finally, I told her to come to the balcony. I was there to deliver the money I’d collected from the product I’d sold. I figured out that if I parked my motorcycle on the side of the house, when I came out, I could walk over a bit and see the end of Sage’s balcony.

After making my drop with Jorge, I went outside. I took my time getting my gear on and Jorge went back inside. He had no reason to believe I wasn’t leaving immediately. The guard at the gate would let me out when I approached.

Once I was sure he was gone, I hurried to where she would be visible.Sage. Come outside on the balcony.

At first, I didn’t think she was going to do as I instructed. Then I heard the door, and she stepped outside. The breeze from the ocean blew the silk robe she held clutched in the front. It wrapped softly around her legs, then fluttered out, exposing her thigh for a heartbeat.

In that brief moment, I thought I saw bruises in dark contrast to the creamy skin of her leg. But as quickly as I saw it, the fabric curled back around to hug her.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she furiously whispered as her long, dark honey-colored hair blew across her face.

I needed to see if you were okay,I replied into her head. I’d never questioned how or why I could do that. The first time I’d done it to my mom she had looked like she’d seen a damn ghost.

Expression flat and emotionless, she looked away. “I’m fine, Fin. You should go. You don’t need to message me anymore. I’m no longer your concern.”

What? You will always be my concern,I insisted, shocked that she would think I could just abandon her.

“Don’t,” she pleaded. As she turned to go back inside, she glanced my way and I saw dark purple discoloring all around her eye.

Sage!I called to her louder, but she’d already gone inside and closed the door. She was done talking to me. My heart was pounding, and my stomach was rebelling against the Cuban sandwich I’d had for lunch. There was no way I’d imagined the wicked bruise on her face.

I’m gonna fix this, I projected to her. Somehow, some way… I had to fix it.

Knowing she wasn’t going to come back out and reply, I angrily got on my street-legal dirt bike and left. Chaos raged under the surface of my skin. I’d never been able to figure out exactly what it was, but it had started after I’d killed that guy over two years ago.

There was constantly that chaos. It only calmed when I drew blood. Then it reveled. Like it let out a massive sigh of relief and satiation.

I wondered if I was crazy. Maybe I was schizophrenic or something. I may not have known what it was, but I knew it wasn’t normal. It scared me a little, but I’d learned to harness it as best as I could and when to set it free.

The salt air hit my face as my hair whipped around. I had to find a way to get her out of there. If only I could just kill Luis. He was too well protected though. I’d never make it out alive and then Sage would be sold or worse. I felt like this was all my fault.

If I’d never gotten involved with her, Luis never would’ve known about her. I could’ve protected her better by staying far away from her.

Remembering the things that had happened to her over the years with her shit mom, I knew better. Because deep down, Iwas fully aware that wasn’t true, but it was hard not to bear the burden at that moment.

Since I’d been working for Luis since I was younger than twelve, I was fairly trusted.Fairly. Luis didn’t trust anyone completely. Though I was also still friends with Manny who stayed at the villa when he was on this side of town. That might be another reason he tolerated me. Naw… it was only because I was useful and did his dirty work for him.

“What’s up with you?” Manny asked me, his dark eyes barely visible from behind the sunglasses he wore. We were lounging by the pool the next day. My real reason for being there wasn’t to catch up with Manny though. I was hoping Sage would come outside so I could talk to her.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I tried to appear calm and relaxed when I was anything but.

“You’ve been on edge since you got here.”

“Huh?” I asked as if I was confused. I sat up and dropped my legs on either side of the lounger. My skin started to prickle.

“Don’t play stupid, man, I’ve known you since we were little kids. You’ve practically been burning a hole through the glass on the balcony up there.” He chuckled.