Sex Junkie(13)

Morgan looked at her hands. “Untie me.”

“No.”

“Then what makes you any different than Kilo?”

“You know the answer to that,” Grant retorted, backing away. “I love you and would never hurt you.”

“Kilo may have loved me, too.”

“Like hell he did!” Blake interjected. “Love isn’t a serum, Morgan. It isn’t the juice for a junkie, and you damn well realize I’m telling you the straight of things.”

“At one time, Kilo loved me.” Morgan was holding on by a thread. Grant couldn’t call Kilo. If Grant minded his own business, maybe someday she and Kilo could reconcile long enough to make a few deals when absolutely necessary.

“You’re afraid of losing Kilo altogether. If you don’t have him, where will you go when the cravings intensify? Hmm? When you need just a small fix to tide you over, what will you do?” Grant taunted her.

Oh God, she was slipping again and Grant apparently recognized her inevitable fall. The angst of desiring her drug all over again sent her reeling. “I want to leave. Now!”

“You ain’t going anywhere, doll,” Blake told her.

“I want to talk to Kilo!” she screamed, jerking against the ties confining her.

“Really? A few minutes ago, you were convinced he’d kill you. So which is it, hmm?” Grant demanded. “Are you afraid of Kilo, or is that a bunch of baloney? Are you trying to milk us for money so you can hurry on back to Kilo and make nice with him again?” A beat later, he said, “From what you’ve told us, even if you go back with the money you owe him, he won’t let you stay. Then what will you do, huh?”

“I’m not discussing Kilo with you again. While the two of you were sharing women and living high on the farm, I was out there on the city streets. Kilo took me in, so he obviously wasn’t as bad as I may have portrayed him. I always had a roof over my head. Without Kilo, I would’ve been living out of dumpsters.”

“Wouldn’t that have made your parents proud if they were alive to see you today?” Grant asked.

Morgan bowed her head. “They obviously aren’t here to judge me.”

“You wouldn’t care if they were,” Grant said. “Let me ask you something, Morgan. While you were flat on your back, getting the hell pounded out of you by that man’s fists or his cock, what were you thinking, hmm?

“Were you considering how thankful you were to have a roof over your head? Were you thinking about how good it felt to have him buried inside you? Or were you thinking like the junkie you were—wondering how long it would take for him to get off so you could pump that shit into your veins and forget everything—his name, your own, and even us?”

Her eyes watered and she shook her head. “Stop.”

“No. I’m just getting warmed up, and I’ll never stop holding you accountable for the choices you made. You didn’t love Kilo. He didn’t love you. The two of you used one another. Now, he’s thrown you out like garbage—your words, not mine—and he expects you to pay him for the drugs he more or less fronted you.”

“Yes, but heroin and meth are expensive. You don’t understand. I cost him a lot.”

“Good grief, Morgan! Wake the hell up!” Grant yelled. “You don’t have the capacity to understand this right now, but Kilo didn’t do you any favors, honey. You say you cost him? What the fuck do you think he did for you, huh? The way I see it? You don’t owe him a damn penny!”

“Grant is right,” Blake said. “He stripped you of your self-esteem, robbed you of your well-being, and then stuck you with a bill for the poison he watched you put in your veins. Doesn’t sound like love to me, Morgan.”

“You don’t understand,” Morgan said softly.

“Oh yes I do. One minute you love Kilo, the next minute you fear him. If we weren’t with you now, you’d run back to Memphis and offer to suck his cock in front of the whole damn city if he’d get you high. Don’t tell me I don’t understand. I see the whole picture. Believe me. Want me to tell you how this story will end if I don’t scare Kilo away?”

“That’s enough, Grant,” Blake said.

“Uh-huh,” Grant muttered. “I won’t let you do this, Morgan. You will see Kilo for what he is. He’s no good. He’s a drug dealer which means he is a murderer toting around the deadliest of weapons. He takes lives. He destroys them and then profits from that devastation. Now, Kilo and I will have a little chat. I’ll explain what will happen to him if he doesn’t let you go once and for all, and then that will be the end of Kilo.”