Chapter 1 Where It All Began

Amy's pov

His calloused palm brushed my cheek, wiping away another tear as he spread my legs like butter.

"Take a deep breath bunny, it's going to be a long night." I collapsed my head back on the pillow and wondered how I had one of the deadliest men in the country between my legs.

Then my mind as if to answer that question pulled my memory back to over a month ago where it all started.

••••••••

"I swear on my grandma's ashes Amy, this time-"

I cut my boyfriend off with a deep frustrated sigh as I wiped the counter with one hand and held my phone with the other.

"No, Jeremy..." I lowered my voice even though no one could hear me over the loud speakers,"Things are finally going right for us, by next month we'll move into a real apartment in a nice part of town there's no need to risk it."

Finally, I wouldn't have to thread the streets that were lined with gangsters and hoodlums.

"I just need that five grand, baby. Forget that tiny apartment, we'll have a house of our own!"

I stopped whipping, fingers curling around the rag.

Jeremy had always been a dreamer, that's part of the reason I fell in love with him.

But things change when you are no longer a starry eyed college student and you find out dreams don't pay student debt.

Ever since we graduated, Jeremy has turned down every job offer he gets; "I'm just waiting for the right one to give you the life you deserve." He said as he rotted away on my couch.

"Jeremy, the inheritance money from my grandma might be our only ticket out of the trenches. I'm not going to let you waste it on your gambling especially when you never win."

He went quiet.

"Fine, forget it! Ignore your loser boyfriend who's good for nothing," he said dramatically, ending the call.

I put my phone away as a customer approached, but I was uneasy.

My last shift ended and I went to give my boss my final farewell.

"Are you sure about this Baker?" He inquired doubtfully, "if you want a raise, we can..."

"No, it's fine." I replied politely, there was no way I'd be able to commute from my new residence down here. It would just be easier to get a new job.

I stepped out of the club feeling lighter than a feather.

Just a month ago, I was drowning in arrears of rent and sharing ramen with Jeremy. Now we were about to move to a real apartment where the roof didn't leak and the walls weren't paperthin.

Nothing, and I mean nothing could ruin this.

"Baby faster! faster!!"

I froze outside our bedroom door, our apartment was just about the size of a shoe box and I could hear everything.

My boyfriend's moans mingled with strangers, their rugged breathing and our rickety bed crying out.

I took a rib lift of air and went over to the living room, dropping on the couch trying to remain calm as my heart raced.

Ten minutes of the entire apartment shaking to the rhythm of their lovemaking and my boyfriend walks into our living room with a stranger. He pretends not to see me and gives her a big wet kiss as a parting gift.

"Seriously?" I stood up and crossed my arms, "Didn't we both agree to close our relationship?"

He grunted something and walked over to the coffee table to grab the remote, "Will you ease up? We said we'd start after we moved. Why are you overreacting?"

"Overreacting?" I spat back at him.

"Yes, you're acting crazy as if our relationship has not been open for years now."

My heart sank as his words forced me to recall the night he sat me down with an ultimatum.

"I want to open our relationship." He went into a deep rehearsed speech about how that was going to spice up our sex life. He'd been my first for everything but he was a notorious playboy when I met him.

At first I disagreed, but he pressured me until I finally gave in.

Funny enough he was so jealous that if I laughed in the direction of another guy he would immediately lose his marbles but he paraded different girls into our apartment, the apartment that I paid for.

But now that we were getting a fresh start I decided to finally stand my ground.

He had surprisingly agreed with arguing, I didn't know he planned to just keep sleeping around anyways.

"But we discussed..."

"And I decided to ignore you, just like how you ignored me when I asked you for the money."

My brow furrowed, I reached for his shoulder tilting my hand upwards.

"Jeremy, is that what this is about?"

He didn't respond but his lips drew out into a tight line and I was about ready to slam my head into a wall.

"Jeremy, don't you want to leave this neighborhood? Finally sleep somewhere that you're not scared of being robbed or mugged?"

He pulled away from my touch, gigging into his hair and screaming.

"Whatever, I finally see it. You don't love me, you just stay with me because it's comfortable.."

He walked over to a wall and started descending one punch after another, "I'm useless...worthless..."

"No, Jeremy!" I grabbed his arm, checked his knuckles and they were already bleeding.

It felt like his punches had been aimed directly at my heart and not the wall.

"F-fine.." I said in a strangled voice, "I'll give you access to the account, but it'll be just one game-"

He swooped me off the floor peppering my face with kisses.

"I love you, Amy..." he said, laying me on the same bed where he had just been intimate with another woman, her perfume still lingering in the air.

But I didn't want to complain, didn't want to break the spell of the moment.

Everything is going to work out, we'll move and in a few more weeks we'll be looking at ring sizes. In some years we'll have little ones running around (we'd even picked out their names) that's right, nothing can go wrong.