Chapter Twenty One
Raya St Claire

I make my way through the dancing bodies, going back to the bar where Geoffrey was still serving drinks alongside his new bartender, Sam.

I frown when I don't see the newcomer seated on one of the stools, but then I remembered that he went outside to take a call. I wave at Geoffrey to say goodbye to him and Sam, but they don't seem to notice me. They were too busy helping a woman who was not too happy with her drink.

I open the door to leave the club, and when the doors close behind me, I notice the newcomer's black hair and leather jacket almost immediately, and he had his cellphone glued to his ear.

"I didn't say get close to the-"

"I know." He replies into the phone, shifting from one foot to the other, as if he was uncomfortable. I also noticed that his knuckles were white as he held onto the phone with a grip.

"Get it done." Someone on the other end of the line says. "You don't want to disappoint me, now do you?"

"No." The newcomer shakes his head, taking the phone away from his ear before he propped his phone with force into his pocket again. He turns around and freezes on the spot when he noticed me standing behind him. "Why are you sneaking up on me like that?" He chuckles nervously.

"Who were you talking to?" I ask, knitting my eyebrows together in confusion. I thought he said that it was the insurance company that kept pestering him, but it didn't sound like them at all. "It didn't sound like the insurance company."

The newcomer sighs, swiping a hand across his face. "I have a new contract." He says, a little hesitantly. "That's whose been calling me this entire time. They're persistent and want me to drop everything to accept the contract, but I told them numerous times that I can't accept it."

"A new contract?" I ask. "I thought you were done with that."

He chuckles, his composure returning to normal. "I'm a contract killer, princess. I will never be done with that. I will also never be able to put that side of me away ever again. It's in my blood."

"Who is it?" I ask. "The contract, I mean."

The newcomer shrugs. "I don't know. And I am not planning to know, either. I'm done with that." He scratches the skin below his chin. "But enough of that," he continues, "where's our next stop?"

"I don't know." I lift my shoulders in a shrug. "But I'm done with the drinking and the loud music coming from the club. I have a damn headache. I want to go somewhere a little quieter."

"Is that code for you secretly want to sleep with me?"

I glare at him. "No. It means I want to go somewhere quieter."

The newcomer chuckles. "Well, lead the way, princess." He says, beckoning for me to pass him.

• • •

"When you said 'go somewhere a little quieter', I didn't think you actually meant someplace where everything looks abandoned." The newcomer tells me, looking at the dead neon sign of the abandoned amusement park in front of me.

The sign clearly stated that the property was restricted, but that didn't stop me from climbing over the chain-linked fence, not bothering to see if he followed me. Once I managed to climb over the fence, dropping off to the other side, I look over at Ezra still standing behind it.

The once colourful looping rollercoasters were now completely still, their lights completely dark and eerie. The pony rides for kids were broken down and the few that were still connected to the poles were completely bashed in and the paint started to chip off. A few non-working water cannons lay on the tables, the remnants of balloons still stuck to the boards.

All the cheap toys and stuffed animals you could've won were gone. There was nothing but old, broken toys lying on the ground as well as garbage and plastic whooshing around in the wind.

It really was a ghost town, but at least it was quiet.

The only thing that still looked alive was the basketball-through-the-hoop toss. The basketball was still inflated, ready to be used.

"Are you scared, newcomer?" I ask him still standing behind the chain-linked fence. "Are you scared that you're going to be caught?"

"I'm not afraid of anything." He says, grabbing onto the chain-linked fence before he climbed over it too, falling in front of me on his boots, the dust whooshing underneath his feet as he fell.

"But this is looking for trouble." He continues, wiping his hands. "Anyone can see us entering a damn abandoned amusement part. The cops can arrest us for trespassing if anyone calls on us."

I smell the air like a dog, smiling at him when he rolls his eyes at me. "Do I smell fear, newcomer? That definitely smells like fear."

Before I could process what was happening, he grabs my hand and pulls me into the abandoned amusement park's gates. We had to jump over the metal beams just to get through.

The air still smelled like popcorn and oiled machinery, but it soon started to smell like garbage and rust when the breeze slipped through the rides.

"I've never been to an amusement park before." Ezra says and I look at him in my peripheral vision. He was looking around the park, looking at the dead rides and broken down toys lying on the ground. "But smelling the air around me makes me change my mind about going to one in the future."

I chuckle. "You haven't smelled anything yet, newcomer." I tell him, kicking a broken plastic toy on the ground, sending it flying forward. "When the place is open and there are a lot of people around, the entire place will smell like body odour and vomit from people who ate something before they went on a rollercoaster."

Ezra gags, his face scrunching up in disgust. "Now I really never want to go to one in the future." He says and I laugh.

I spot a wooden bridge and I pull him towards it.

The metal pole holding the bridge upward was rusted, but at least it still worked when I stepped onto it. The bridge was wobbly underneath my feet and I found myself enjoying it more than I should, even though it sounded like it was about to break with me still on top of it.

"This place makes me crave cotton candy." I tell him, looking around the quiet amusement park. "And popcorn." I add, spotting a popcorn machine.

"Well, if you decided on going to an actual, open amusement park, we could've eaten popcorn and cotton candy right about now." He says, holding onto the bridge's railing as he watched me swinging back and forth.

"Well..." I drawl, making my way off of the bridge. "I have something else in mind. Something even better than an amusement park, popcorn and cotton candy altogether." I smile, taking his hand in mine and pulling him towards a photo booth that might not even work anymore.

"A photo booth?" He asks, laughing. "Princess, you are aware that it has been abandoned for a very long time. It might not even work anymore."

I pull the curtain away from the booth and enter first. I was surprised that I didn't see or feel any cobwebs or insects anywhere. I did, however, notice that the camera's glass was broken and lying on the floor of the photo booth.

I turn to look at the Ezra with a sly smile on my lips. "Who said anything about taking photos, newcomer?"

He smirks too, getting into the booth beside me before he pulls the curtain closed after him. "You, princess, never fail to amaze me."

I allow him to pull me onto his lap and I hold onto his shoulders for support. He holds me by the waist, pulling me even closer to him when I started to slide down his legs from the seat of the booth being too small.

"What brought you here, newcomer?" I ask him.

"You." He replies. "You brought me here."

I roll my eyes at him, swatting his shoulder. "I meant the NC. What made you want to join the gang when you already built a reputation for yourself being an infamous contract killer?"

"Princess, you did not pull me into a musty-smelling photo booth just to ask me about my life choices." He chuckles and he tightens his grip on my waist just a little bit.

"I was kidding, newcomer." I laugh, raising my hand so I could touch a small freckle on his neck. "Although I really want an answer to that question."

He shakes his head, letting go of my waist so he could trail a finger up my thigh. The feeling of his hand on my thigh made me forget what I wanted to ask him and all I could do was focus on his hand. "Enough questions, princess." He says, his voice soft but needy. "I've wanted to kiss you again since GC. And I couldn't stop thinking about your delicate lips on mine or how your legs were wrapped around my waist in your room..."

"You have?" I ask, moving closer to him.

He nods slowly, his eyes drifting down to my lips for a brief second before they found my eyes again. "I've wanted to kiss you since the second we met, princess."

Not wanting him to suffer any longer, I lean in and press my lips against his. He grabs hold of my hips again, holding me in place, but a few seconds into the kiss, his hands trail down just enough so he could lift my shirt up. His hands find my hips again, but this time his warm touch engulfs me, his touch sends shivers cascading down my spine. I felt his calloused fingertips against the sensitive skin of my hips, and when he squeezed my hips, my breathing grew faster and more audible against his lips.

He pulls away slightly, leaving me panting in front of him. "You're incredibly beautiful, princess."

"You're just saying that because I got the upper hand here." I tell him with a smirk.

"You might be on top, princess, but we both know that I can make you squirm even when you're the one on top."

"Are you challenging me, newcomer?"

He shakes his head. "No," he says, "I'm just letting you know who has the real upper hand here, that's all, princess."

"Is that so?" I ask, leaning in to kiss him but instead of deepening the kiss like he wanted to, I bite his bottom lip between my teeth and pull on it.

He moans underneath me.

I smile but I don't pull away. I needed to kiss him more than I wanted to prove a point.

His hands leave my hips to trail behind my back. His fingertips graze across my bare back, sending shivers down my entire spine. I deepen the kiss now, letting go of his bottom lip and I pull him closer, letting my fingers run through his black hair.

His fingertips mixed with the coldness of the air that came through the curtain made me shiver in delight. Everything around us disappears and the only thing I was focusing on was him; his lips against mine, his fingertips tracing over my bare back... Him.

Every bad thing that has happened to me disappeared in that moment. Every single thing.