Page 8 of Midnight Torment

“You shouldn’t let such a lovely flower out of your sight,” he jeered. “Anyone could just pick her and then she would wilt and die.”

I rolled my eyes at his nonsense. He tried to stab me with his pathetic excuse for a knife, and my hand circled his wrist until I had the perfect hold to snap it. The blade clattered to the floor.

“I won’t ask a third time. Who sent you?”

His undamaged hand went to the back of his jeans, and if I was to guess, he had a gun there. Since he had marked Megan’s neck, it only seemed fair to return the gesture. I grabbed his scrawny neck and forged forward until his back hit the wall.

“I can count on one hand the number of people in this world that I care about,” I informed him. “That woman you touched tonight is the only one that gets you a one-way ticket to Purgatory.”

“You don’t stand a chance against him,” he croaked out.

“Who?” I demanded. When he tried to smile, I kicked the front of his knee hard. The crack and the way he slumped into the wall told me his kneecap was broken. “Is he worth protecting?”

His mouth opened and closed.

“Don’t worry,” I reassured him. “I already know that Dante has his eye on Megan. He’ll soon receive a visit from me and I’ll remove that eye from his head and shove it up his ass.”

I kicked his other knee since I had arrived here without a gun. I would just have to inflict the same lethal damage with my body.

“He’ll kill you for this…”

A sadistic grin formed on my lips. “Scarier men than him have tried to kill me, none of them have succeeded so far.” I leaned forward so my lips were close to his ear. “I’m going to let you into a secret. Dante doesn’t scare me. He’s an asshole who deals in human misery and pain. He’s on my radar, and he should be the one who’s scared.”

I moved back and stared at the pathetic excuse for a human being. “Give my regards to Silas,” I said.

His brow furrowed. “Who’s—”

“Exactly,” I replied as my hands moved rapidly to snap his neck.

I dropped him onto the floor to lie among the other waste products. I had expected better from Dante. This man was a useless asshole who hadn’t even made me break a sweat. I crouched down to search his pockets. His phone was in his right coat pocket, and I lifted his hand to use his fingers until the left index finger opened his phone. I idly searched through the contacts until I found the one I was looking for and hit the speed dial.

“Is it done?” a male voice asked from the other side of the call. “Do you have the girl?”

“That would be a no,” I replied. “Although I will send you a photograph of your associate to prove what a worthless piece of shit he was.”

“Jordan.” A sigh followed my name. “You were meant to be in Cuba.”

“Indeed. I encountered some of your goons there. One of them kindly informed me that you were watching Megan while I hacked his limbs off.” I took a step back and snapped a photo of the dead man before sending it to the number I was currently talking to. “Was it necessary to target Grampa?”

Loaded silence stretched for several seconds. “Horatio Berkeley is an evil man who has outlived his usefulness.”

“He is an old man who spends his days trying to find wives for me so he can fuss over great grandchildren.”

A harsh laugh echoed down the phone. “No, he wants more minions to control. You were his greatest wish, a boy to carve into his image.”

I was done with this discussion. No one would ever know the man who sat beside me on the bed while I fell asleep and read to me when I had nightmares. He ensured I felt safe when my world fell apart.

“I’ll only say this once, Dante. Stay away from Megan. You do not want to make an enemy of me, because I will hound you until I find the rock you’re hiding under.”

“That is the difference between you and me, Jordan,” he said as if we were having a normal conversation. “I have nothing left to protect, no one in this world that I care about. You, on the other hand, have friends who are closer than brothers, a woman you have been desperately trying to hide, and a grandfather who is now lying in a hospital bed after an unfortunate accident.”

He tutted for several seconds. “That’s very sloppy for someone in your business.”

I wanted to crawl down the phone connection and tear his throat out. The murderous rage in me demanded that I find him and destroy him piece at a time until there was nothing to find and his existence was eradicated from history.

“That depends,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “Xavier and Ash are brutal and deadly when provoked. Grampa has the backing of the Council. And Megan will always have my protection.”

“And yet, she was vulnerable tonight,” he taunted.

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