Chapter 45

~ Bella ~

"The person you are calling is not available. Please leave a message after the tone."

"Hey, it’s Franklin. You know what to do. Leave a message."

The beep sounded, sharp and mocking. I squeezed my phone until my knuckles turned white.

"Franklin, it’s me. For the thousandth time. I’m tired of hearing this goddamn machine repeat itself. I need to see you. I need to talk to you. Please, Franklin...call me back. I’m begging you."

I hung up and began to pace the length of the room.

"You need to stop pacing, Bella. You’re giving me a headache," Rufus muttered.

He pulled a battered lighter from the pocket of his leather jacket and sparked a cigarette.

We were in his apartment—if you could even call it that. It was a cramped, suffocating loft where the wallpaper peeled like sunburnt skin and the air smelled of stale beer and desperation.

"You should be panicking too, Rufus," I snapped, turning on him. "If we lose our grip on Franklin, we can say goodbye to our golden ticket. No more easy money. No more escape plan."

I tried calling again.

Nothing. With a scream of pure rage, I flung my phone across the room. it hit the stained wall and clattered onto the floor.

"Jesus, Bella! Do you have any idea how much that phone costs?" Rufus puffed out a cloud of grey smoke, unfazed by my outburst.

"I don’t fucking care! I just need him to answer!" I felt like a caged animal. "Is it that much to ask for him to pick up the goddamn phone?"

"Come here, baby,"

Rufus said, motioning to the lumpy mattress that served as a couch.

"What is it, Rufus?" I hissed.

"Just come here."

I exhaled a jagged breath and sat beside him. He pulled a fresh cigarette from the pack, lit it, and handed it to me. I took a long, deep drag, feeling the nicotine hit my bloodstream and dull the edges of my panic.

"There she is," Rufus murmured, stroking my hair. "That’s my girl."

"I can’t lose him, Rufus. Not yet. Not before we get what we need."

"I know. But you have to be smart. Calm down."

"Calm down?" I stood up again, the energy buzzing under my skin.

"I can’t just sit here. Franklin needs... convincing. He needs to remember why he belongs to me. If I have to blackmail him, I will. In the meantime, I need you to go back to stalking that bitch Octavia."

Rufus paused, his cigarette halfway to his lips. "I thought you told me to back off? You said if I got caught, the trail would lead straight to you."

"I don’t care anymore," I spat. "I want her looking over her shoulder. I want her losing her mind. Keep at it until she snaps."

"You sure about that, baby?"

"I’ve never been surer." I leaned down and kissed him—a hard, desperate kiss that tasted of tobacco and greed.

Later, lying across the lumpy mattress as the room settled into a hazy quiet, Rufus took a swig from a half-empty bottle of cheap whiskey.

"If I keep following your little colleague and the cops pick me up, don’t worry," he said, his voice gravelly. "I won’t say a word about you. I’ll take the fall."

"You’d really do that for me?" I asked, taking another drag of my cigarette.

"Always."

I smiled, feeling the power return to my limbs. I grabbed my phone from the floor—luckily the screen was only cracked—and dialed Franklin’s number for the fourteenth time.

This time, on the fourth ring, the line clicked open.

"What do you want, Bella? Why can’t you leave me the fuck alone?" His voice was a low, dangerous hiss.

"Baby," I whispered, pitching my voice to sound small and broken. "It’s been a week. You won’t answer me, and it’s driving me crazy. I just want to talk to you."

"I told you I’d call when I was ready. I need space."

"But I don’t think you’re ever going to be ready," I whimpered, forcing a sob into my throat. "It feels like you don’t want me anymore. Is that it? Are you choosing that cheap whore over me?"

"I never said that, Bella."

"Then what is it? Are you busy figuring out your feelings for that whore? Because I’m a woman, Franklin. I know when my man is looking elsewhere."

"I don’t have feelings for Octavia! I love you. I just need space to breathe!"

"Bullshit," I barked, then softened it immediately. "You’re lying to me. I can feel it."

"I’m too tired to argue with you," he sighed. "If you don’t believe me, that’s on you."

"Wait! Don’t hang up!" I hurried to close the trap. "Can you... can you help me with something? Please?"

"What now?"

"I need money, Franklin. I’m in a bad spot. I have no one else to turn to."

"Is that why you’ve been blowing up my phone? For a wire transfer?"

"No! It’s because I trust you. Please, don’t ignore me."

There was a long, heavy silence on the other end.

"Fine," he finally muttered. "How much?"

I looked at Rufus and smirked. He winked back.

"Twelve million dollars," I said.

Franklin didn’t even ask what it was for. To him, it was just a price to pay for silence.

"I’ll have it wired this afternoon. I’m busy. Goodbye, Bella."

The line went dead.

"Did you hear that?" I turned to Rufus, my eyes gleaming. "Twelve million. By this afternoon."

"The man really is an ATM," Rufus chuckled, taking the cigarette from my lips.

"That’s why we need him," I said, taking a swig of the whiskey.

"We stay until we have enough to disappear from this city forever. But before I go..." I felt a cold, dark resolve settle in my chest. "I’m going to crush them both. Franklin and Octavia. I’ll leave them with nothing."

I leaned back into Rufus’s arms, the smoke curling around us like a shroud, our devious plans the only thing keeping the shadows of the loft at bay.