by Hart, Eve R.
“Ky grabbed him. Thought it couldn’t hurt to take him alive too,” Iron said then I heard his boots shifting away from me like he was leaving me alone to handle this one.
Something came over me then.
Something I’d never felt before.
Something dark.
And honestly, a little terrifying.
“You,” I growled so raw I wasn’t sure it was even me.
My fist flew like an automatic response. Bones crunched as I met the flesh of his face and though there was a little slack on his chains, he didn’t go very far.
“Fuck,” Andrew roared out. “You broke my nose.”
“That’s not going to be the only thing I break.”
“The hell, man?” He blinked at me as though he was trying to place my face. Blood poured out of his now broken nose, down his chin and started to drip onto his shirt. “Do I know you?”
“No,” I said a little too calmly. “But you’re going to wish you never met me.”
I didn’t think that by nature I was a violent person. I tended to shy away from these things. But now I wanted nothing more than to have his blood on my hands.
I didn’t release my inner beast, not right away. I let him slowly feel the pain, taking calculated punches with enough pauses in between to where this sick fuck started to think I was done with him.
But this wasn’t enough. I needed to do more.
As I thought about reaching for my knife, I wondered if I would go too far and snap.
“Why?” he gasped out.
“Did you see what he did to her?” I asked.
“N-no.” He had the decency to look away from me. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”
“What plan?! The one where you walk into the bad guy’s house and say ‘hey, I need your help’ and expect everything to work out like you wanted?”
“Well, yeah.”
Crack.
My fist caught him square in the jaw causing his head to jerk to the side and little drops of blood to go flying through the air.
“Okay. Okay. I didn’t have a choice,” he screamed like he was pleading for his life. Like that was even an option. “He caught me outside of his house. He said he was going to kill me and he meant it.”
Oh, I had no doubt.
“It was my life or theirs. You would have made the same choice.”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “No, I never would have. They were innocent, not you. You have some sick, crazy obsession and that was all you could see.”
“How is she?” he asked and the sound of concern in his voice made me want to vomit.
“You don’t get to ask that.”
That was when I pulled out my knife, no longer concerned if I might go too far. I didn’t flash it around for show. I didn’t torture and terrorize him with the things I could do with it. I didn’t even hold it up to his skin so he would shake with fear of what I was going to do.
No.
I moved my arm so quickly I was sure that he didn’t even know what was going on until he felt the burn from the slash on his chest.
“Take a break, brother,” Sketch said as he came up behind me and slapped me on the back.
“No,” I growled.
“Wasn’t a request.”
He reached down and slid the knife from my hand.
I wasn’t happy about it but I had no other choice.
Knowing I couldn’t stand there and do nothing, I walked out of the container.
“So, I hear you’re the reason why Claire got dragged into all of this.”
Sketch’s tone was neither joking or playful.
“Leave him alive,” I said.
Without waiting for a response, I walked on even though it was the last thing I wanted to do right then.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Cable
“Is he still alive?” I asked B-ry as I walked over to him standing a few feet away from all the chaos.
“Barely,” he replied as he gave me the side eye. “Yours?”
“Not sure with Sketch in there with him. But I let him know I wasn’t done yet.”
“Something more going on there?” he asked and I didn’t take my eyes off the starlit sky to look at him.
“Can’t really say right now. Seein’ that shit was hard. Not the kind of anger I can just stuff right back down.”
“Now you get it,” he said and my eyes shot over to look at him.
I didn’t really know what the fuck he meant by that and I could tell he wasn’t about to explain.
“No one is heading home until they see Keften take his last breath. Not that I blame them,” Iron said, sneaking up on us from behind. I didn’t have to ask to know that he was talking about everyone that had traveled in to take Keften down. “I called Petra.”
He let out a heavy sigh and hung his head.
“Good,” B-ry said with a small huffed out laugh under his breath. “I don’t want that woman on our bad side.”
“Not sure how I feel about women being involved in all of this,” I said honestly. “But I think she deserves to have her moment. Think we owe it to her.”
“Yeah,” Iron said with a small not. “I agree.”
“Well, no way in hell is Laurel going to get her moment, whether I think she deserves one or not.” B-ry had that possessive edge to his tone.
“She’s been through enough,” I said and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You can take care of the rest for her. I don’t really think she’d blame you too much for that.”
“Thanks, brother. I really needed to hear that.”
It seemed that Iron only called Petra after all of us there had taken our shot. Well, except for me.
I don’t know why I couldn’t go in there. Why I didn’t want to face the man. I wasn’t scared, I knew that much. Maybe I just wanted to leave as much as I could for the woman that lost one of her girls. Or maybe I was afraid of letting this thing grow inside of me. Or it could have been that I was saving it all for the man next door.
Iron had Lake meet Petra at the gate and show her the way back.
As soon as both vehicles approached, we all went on guard. It was just what you did. Did I think Petra and her men were a threat? No. But did I want to be ready in case I was wrong? Fuck yeah.
“I’m not letting you alone in there with him,” Iron said as he stopped her in her tracks with a soft hand on her arm.
“Fine, you and him,” she told Iron as she nodded at him and pointed at me.
Okay. Cool.
At this point, I was starting to feel the swelling in my hands. I’d torn one of my knuckles open and had a feeling I wouldn’t be using my keyboard any time soon.
Not that I was complaining.
Just wasn’t something I was used to.
If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have taken it any easier on the sick fuck.
“He’s a bloody mess,” Petra said and I couldn’t tell if she was making a statement or complaining.
“Get what you need to get done, Pet, before I change my mind,” Iron said in a really deep and low tone.
I practically saw the flames in her irises as she glared at him.
I wondered if he’d done that on purpose.
“Wake him up,” she said and Iron moved to slap Keften on the face until he got a response out of him.
“Do you know who I am?” she asked, staring down the bridge of her nose at him.
“Da, ljubljen,” Keften said with a small chuckle that turned into a wet cough.
And eerie smile crept across Petra’s face.
“I’m sure you won’t be calling me sweetheart by the time I walk out of this room.”
She took a step back as she pulled a small blade from out of fucking nowhere.
“You are the reason my business is shut down.”
As she used her thumb to circle the blade out, I realized it wasn’t a knife. No, Petra was packing a straight razor. And I would fuckin’ bet that it was sharp and ready to go.<
br />
Keften’s eyes coolly shifted from the razor in her hand up to her eyes.
“Would it make you feel better if I said it wasn’t personal?” He smirked like he knew it would only piss her off further.
If I’d said she would have used the straight razor first, I would have been dead wrong.
Pretty sure none of us would have seen it coming.
With the quickness of a cheetah, she raised her leg and smashed her heel onto Keften’s foot.
I looked down as I tried to keep my mouth from falling open.
Holy shit!
No, not onto his foot, into. As in, half of her heel was now embedded into the top of his foot and blood began to pool around it.
Keften let out a wail like I’d never heard before.
“Fucking kuja,” he spat out.
Petra said nothing, she didn’t even move for a long moment. I got the sense like she was trying her hardest to remain calm.
She dragged the blade down his chest slowly, leaving a thin cut from his heart to his navel. She did this again and again, one right next to the other until it was hard to tell if there was any flesh between the cuts.
He looked like someone had ripped off a huge chunk of his skin.
Or like he had a million and one long papercuts.
Blood soaked his pants and began to drip down to the floor.
And when he stopped screaming long enough, you could hear each drop hit the pool of blood that had collected on the ground.
I was starting to feel a little woozy. I could admit that. This wasn’t my scene. But I shook it off and pushed it down. I stayed strong for Iron. For my brothers. For Petra. And for Claire. I watched every second of it knowing this man deserved every inch of flesh she carved away. And so fucking much more.
“Who’s the bitch now?” Petra was way too calm for the situation. I wasn’t sure if I should run from her or bow my head with respect.
She had added herself to the Nadya list. Top ten women that scared the fuck out of me. Currently, it only held two names. I really didn’t want to add any more in my lifetime but I was starting to think that the Steel Paragon men somehow managed to find themselves surrounded by strong women. Sometimes maybe a little too strong.
Like Petra here, who looked like she hadn’t even broken a sweat and I would have bet she wasn’t anywhere close to being done with him.
“Boot,” she said and I had no fucking clue what she was talking about.
But Iron clearly did, because he strode over and placed his boot and full weight on Keften’s toes, causing him to cry out again. With one quick jerk, Petra set her heel free.
I cringed internally. Big fucking time.
I looked, because I just couldn’t not, you know. And sure enough, there was a heel sized hole right there in the middle of his foot that was now leaking blood like a motherfucker.
“That all you got?” Keften had the nerve to taunt her.
Maybe the pain was making him delusional.
Or maybe he just knew there was no way out of this. A man like him wouldn’t go without trying to get in the last word.
“One of my girls is dead because of you,” Petra said as she held out the straight razor in Iron’s direction like he was her servant. I tried not to roll my eyes as he dutifully took the damn thing. “An eye for an eye, then.”
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…
I watched with wide eyes. I watched unblinking and unbelieving that I was really seeing what was in front of me.
But I sure as fuck was.
In a flash, she gripped the back of his hair with one hand. Her palm cradled his cheek while her thumb pushed into his eye socket. The squishing sound rang out even over his screams. Maybe that was in my head, but I heard it clear as day. I couldn’t even describe it, like a combination between a wet sponge being thrown at a brick wall and someone using one of those spit suckers at the dentist.
She didn’t stop until her entire thumb disappeared into his eye socket.
Then she stood tall, her hand slipping away from his face. Looking down at Keften’s slumped over body, she reached her bloody hand out in the direction of Iron. I didn’t look at his face, I couldn’t seem to move my eyes away from the pulverized mass that was now Keften. But I could see in my peripheral as he didn’t hesitate to whip the rolled-up bandanna off his head and handed it over to her.
She wiped her fingers as though she’d just gotten done eating a fancy dinner.
Was it over?
Did she have more planned for him?
I didn’t think I could handle any more.
This was some fucked up shit.
But, hey, not only did the fucker bring it on himself, he deserved it all, too.
Reap what you sow and all that shit.
“You’ll kill him?” she asked but didn’t look away from Keften.
“Yes,” Iron answered in a low and calm tone.
“Then I am done here.”
She reached her hand out again and Iron set the now closed straight razor onto her palm. She transferred it to her other hand, wrapping it up in the bandanna before turning away from Keften’s body and walking away like it was any other night.
Iron let her go and I was a little surprised at that.
“Holy fuck,” I breathed out once she was long gone.
I stared at him with wide eyes and even I could tell he was a little unsure of what to do with what had just happened.
“That sounds about right,” he said with a bobbing nod. “Alright, let’s end this.”
Iron called Bocca in. He’d already gotten a few shots off before Petra showed up but I knew where Iron was going with this. I thought it was fair as well.
“Damn,” he said in shock as he looked over Keften’s bloody body. “Do I want to know how she did the eye thing?”
“Nope,” Iron and I both said at the same time.
“Okay,” he said with a nod and left it at that. “Wake up you piece of shit.”
Keften groaned and attempted to lift his head.
“Shouldn’t have taken the girls. Shouldn’t have fucked with us.”
Bocca got in the final words.
Keften didn’t even have a chance to say anything back, not that I thought he could have.
The bang of his gun rang out so fucking loud in that confined, metal box, but I was glad I’d been right there to see it.
We all took a long moment to just stand there.
Keften was dead.
This whole thing was over.
Well, mostly.
But Keften was dead.
And that was the thing we all were going to celebrate.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cable
“Where are the girls that he sold?” I asked Andrew.
This was normally B-ry’s job but I told him that I’d handle it.
I was sure that if he knew anything he’d break right away.
Then again, I thought Steve would have cracked too.
“You’re going to kill me aren’t you?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Sketch answered from the corner.
“Then what would I get for telling you? Huh? You’ve given me no reason to give you anything.”
Well, he certainly had a fucking point there.
“How about a clear conscience?” I tried to play to some part of his soul.
“Please,” he said with a sad laugh. “I got so caught up in this that the Devil is waiting right outside that door to take me, clear conscience or not.”
“Do you know how bad you fucked up?” I asked him, getting right up in his face but I managed to keep my cool.
“Yeah, I’m starting to see that.”
“Do something right before you go. Maybe we won’t make it hurt as bad,” I suggested with a shrug.
He raised his head to look at me. Drool rolled out of his mouth and down his chin. It looked like it took all the strength he had left to give me that fuck you face. Which wasn’t really that
intimidating.
“Tell me how Claire is doing,” he said with a raised brow.
“Shut your fuckin—” Sketch said but I didn’t hear the rest of it because the sound of my fist meeting his face filled my ears.
“She was mine. I had her. Just for one night, she was mine.”
“She was never fuckin’ yours,” I growled.
Before I could even think about what I was doing, I pulled his chains free. Not even three minutes later, I had him strapped down to the table just a few feet away. Sketch knew better than to get in my way right now and thank fuck for that.
“Do you know what was done to her?!” I yelled.
When he didn’t answer, I reached for the blowtorch.
“He branded her,” I said as I fired it up. I let the flame hang so close to his skin that he started to squirm like he was getting uncomfortable. “Do you know how much that hurts? Have you ever smelled burning flesh?”
I pulled out my knife and held it up to the flame. I waited until it was nice and bright red. Then I pushed the blade against his skin in the same place that I’d seen the mark on Claire’s hip.
“He did this to her. To all of them. And who brought them to him? You. So I only see it fitting that you go through every single fucking thing they went through as well.”
He screamed and howled like a bitch as his body twitched to get away.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea because all I could think of was that this was probably the same thing that Claire did. I could almost hear her screams in my head. Almost see her body writhing and jerking as it tried to get away from the pain.
The red was rising, clouding my vision now.
I wiggled the blade a little before I pulled it away from his skin.
“She had a word carved into her side,” Sketch said from behind me.
I hadn’t seen that. The fact that he knew made me think that he’d gone to the hospital to see her. I wanted to know. I wanted to ask how she was doing. But I knew now was not the time.
“Go ahead, brother,” I said as I stepped to the side.
He didn’t hesitate, pulling out his own knife and flicking it open.
He took his time, hunched over Andrew’s body like he was working on a client at the tattoo shop. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
