Elastic Heart by Mary Catherine Gebhard Read Free Book Online Page A

muzzle was buried in his chest but I wasn’t naive enough to think I held the power in the situation. “You should shoot anyone who threatens you. Including me.”
    My eyes widened. I stared into his hazel eyes, looking for a clue to the game he was playing. Nothing. He was locked tight. All humor from before had vanished. His jaw was clenched, the five o’clock shadow looking less sexy and more menacing. I swallowed.
    “What are you doing?” I asked, voice small. Law stepped back and I sucked in all the oxygen I hadn’t known I was missing.
    “I don’t work for Morris.”
    I scoffed. Yeah right. Law grabbed my chin and pulled my gaze to his. “I do not work for Morris.”
    I tried to yank my chin back but he held it firmly between his fingers. Giving up momentarily, I asked him the questions that had been plaguing me since our first encounter. “Then why were you with him? And why are you following me?”
    “I work for GEM, a company that handles politicians like Morris. As for you…” Law dropped my chin, his gaze going cloudy. A few minutes passed and I wondered if he was ever going to give me his excuse. Just as I was about to call him on his bullshit, Law spoke. “I already told you why I came after you.”
    “Because of my face?” I laughed bitterly. “Because you’ve seen my ‘look’ before? Really? I’m supposed to believe that?”
    “Believe what you want, Nami,” Law replied, voice hard like granite. I turned away so I didn’t have to battle with his intense stare.
    “I will. And I choose to believe you’re a liar.” I returned my gaze to his, clashing my glare with his for a good two minutes until he said, “I’ll prove you wrong.” I blinked, caught off guard.
    Law didn’t give me a chance to respond. He walked out of my apartment, leaving the door open as he went. I followed his trail, watching him leave in simultaneous resentment and awe. I only closed the door when I was sure he wasn’t coming back.
     
    Curled in a ball, I sat on the floor of my living room for hours after Law left. I had my red fleece blanket wrapped around me and Raskol slept inside, oblivious to the bitter reason for the warm cocoon. I was wrecked and warped after Law, not sure what to believe or feel. I wanted to believe Law was good, not because he looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine, but because I was so utterly and desperately lonely.
    I had no allies.
    No friends.
    No family.
    I wasn’t living in a cartoon so Raskol couldn’t talk back to me. It didn’t take a degree to diagnose me with depression. I was beyond depressed. I was dragged down and disconsolate. I was over the cliff and lost to the rocks.
    Fuck Law for making me think I could be anything else.
    My laptop sat in the only corner with a working jack, the blue power light blinking lazily. I needed to research Law’s claims. The sooner I did that, the quicker I could forget Law and his gorgeous, lying face. First and foremost: the company he worked for. With Raskol safely asleep in my arms, I carried my laptop to the couch and started to dig.
    I searched for GEM on the internet and at first nothing came up. I was expecting GEM to have a website, the same way all companies have websites, but they didn’t, so I searched instead for GEM and politics, and that’s when an entire slew of articles hit me.
    Apparently GEM owned a bunch of shady super PACS that they use to donate to and fund campaigns. GEM was just one of the names the umbrella corporation went by. It was unsettling, to say the least, when I recognized some of the other names as products I bought for hair care, food, and just general appliances.
    GEM owned everything from car companies to candy companies, and had been responsible for every sundry and terrible thing from oil spills to slavery in Africa.
    Head spinning, I closed my laptop. Law was telling the truth, at least. If he worked for GEM, he wasn’t working for Morris. He was probably just doing GEM’s dirty