Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I wave a hand and Maverick steps forward, handing me a gun. The man’s eyes bulge, and I keep a casual expression as I aim it toward his head. He stammers something, and then yells out, “You’ll not find him. He made sure of it. Kill as many of us as you want, you won’t get close.”
“Oh,” I say casually, almost bored sounding. “I plan to kill as many of you as I want, purely to make myself feel better. It makes me feel good riddin’ the world of scum like you.”
He swears at me in a different language, and his eyes flare with anger.
“Got any Whack on you before I go?” I murmur. “Hear it’s good stuff.”
His eyes flash and he starts squirming in his chair. He doesn’t want me to look on his body. My smile gets big, massive even. “Somethin’ you don’t want me to find on you?”
His eyes bulge and he starts swearing even more frantically in a different language. I don’t usually check bodies outside of looking for a wallet, or a phone, but this man has sparked my curiosity. So I keep the gun aimed on him and say to Koda and Maverick. “Search him. Every part of him.”
“I ain’t touchin’ his ass, bro,” Maverick mutters. “No fuckin’ way.”
“You’ll touch whatever the fuck I tell you to touch if it means we get information.”
Maverick glares at me, and I grin at him. “You’re my brother, but fuck I want to knock you the fuck out sometimes.”
“Have at it, bro. Later, though. Start searching.”
Koda strips the man down without hesitation, using a knife to cut his clothes off around the ropes that bind him. They empty out the clothes, finding a phone, a wallet, a few cards and some drugs. Then they really get searching, pressing on his stomach feeling for anything hard, and then Koda, without hesitation, shoves his hand down the back of the man, making him squirm and curse.
He comes up with another phone.
“Tucked between his ass cheeks, disgusting fucker,” Koda mutters, tossing the phone at Mason who catches it, and then drops it quickly, cursing at him.
“Pick the fuckin’ thing up, it’s hidden for a reason. Stop bein’ fuckin’ babies. You handle blood all the damned time.”
“Blood ain’t close to a man’s asshole,” Koda grunts, going over to the sink and washing his hands three times. He tosses Mason a plastic bag, and Mason picks up the phone and the other things and then washes his hands too.
“Well,” I say to the man, “that’s all I need from you. Thanks for your cooperation.”
He opens his mouth to scream at me again, but I pull the trigger. The bullet goes straight through his forehead and doesn’t come out the other side. His head slumps forward and I turn to Maverick, but he’s not looking at me, his eyes are at the door. I turn and look over my shoulder, and what I see makes my blood run cold.
Amalie is standing at the shed door, staring at me, her face white, her mouth slightly agape.
She saw me kill him in cold blood.
She saw it all.
She stares at me like she’s just seen a ghost.
She turns and she runs out, stumbling a few times.
“Fuck,” I bark, tossing Maverick the gun. “Fuck! Why didn’t one of you fuckers tell me she was there?”
“She opened the door as you pulled the trigger, boss,” Mason says. “Couldn’t have stopped that one if you tried.”
“God fuckin’ dammit. You three sort this shit out. Get rid of that body. See if you can find anythin’ on those phones. I’ll be back soon.”
I charge out of the shed and toward the front gates, but she’s already gone, her car disappearing into the street.
What in the hell did she come down to the shed for? None of my men would have ever told her to come down there, and as far as I knew, she had left.
She just saw me at my worst, covered in blood and putting a bullet in another man’s head. As if me fucking hurting her wasn’t bad enough, now she’s seen that.
I’m going to fucking lose her.
I can feel it right down to my core.
And I won’t fucking allow it.
I have to fix this.
Somehow.
~*~*~*~
AMALIE
“Oh, honey.”
Scarlett’s face is soft as she stares at me, her expression saying everything. She feels bad for me, but she doesn’t really know what to do about it.
She’s accepted Maverick. No matter what.
These things, they don’t scare her.
They scare me.
I wonder if she saw Maverick hold a gun to someone’s head and pull the trigger, if she’d be disturbed by it? Would it bother her like it bothered me, or would she simply accept that it’s part of who he is and move on?
I close my eyes, trying to get the image to leave my mind but fail. I can’t unsee it, no matter how hard I try. The picture of Malakai holding that gun, staring into the face of the nameless man, and pulling the trigger, is forever etched into my mind. The way the man’s head just sort of slumped, all the life being dragged from his eyes. Just like that. In one small second, he no longer had life.