Page 107 of Passion and Payback

“That’s what I was going to say to you,” I said, leaning against the wall and realizing that my gasps sounded a lot more like sobs. “Fuck, I thought you were?—”

“Same,” he said in that same rough voice.

I looked at the two bodies, one half hanging out of the living room and the other sprawled before it. Blood was smeared everywhere, and it was obvious the fight, brief as it had been, had been hard and messy. “I see you got the knife.”

“And I see you remembered the gun,” he said. “Callum?”

“Shot.”

“Dead?”

“Probably not.”

“Let’s go.”

I didn’t need to be told twice, and despite wanting to go to him, I was suddenly aware I’d turned my back on Callum when he could still be a threat. I might have shot him twicein the chest, but one thing I’d been taught in my self-defense classes was that handguns were not always strong enough to stop someone determined enough. I had taken his friends from him, and now I had taken his chance for revenge, along with potentially his life. If there was ever motivation to ignore two gunshot wounds, now was the time.

Yet when I cautiously stepped into the room, I quickly realized there was no point in worrying. Callum hadn’t moved, giving ragged gasps as he held onto the wounds in his chest. The front of his shirt was completely soaked, and absurdly, I was glad I didn’t have carpeting.

“Hello, Callum,” I said as I turned the bedroom light on and entered the room.

His eyes tracked me as he opened his mouth, only for a bubble to form and then pop, leaving a faint smear of blood on his cheeks and nose. Kai walked in after me, still on guard, but he peered down at Callum. He walked over, no longer caring about forensic evidence, and yanked Callum’s hand from his chest. When the man tried to fight, Kai dropped the knife and grabbed him by the throat before pulling his arm away for real.

“Nice shots,” Kai said softly, letting him go before grabbing the knife and getting to his feet.

“How slow and painful are we talking?” I asked because while the idea had been appealing before, I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to watch the man die for hours. That didn’t even cover how the hell we were going to explain this to everyone, particularly the cops. I might have wiggled out of trouble before, but I wasn’t confident I would do it again.

“One lung’s gone and definitely bloody,” Kai said. He’s got maybe half an hour to think about his life’s choices—probably ten minutes, though.”

“Ten is good,” I said, glancing at Kai. “You’re going to need to get looked at.”

“No,” he grunted. “I’ll get the first aid kit, and we can patch me up.”

I didn’t see the point, but I figured he’d tell me if any of his injuries needed immediate treatment. Which meant I could wait for the last death of the night before I tried pushing for the ER. “Are you okay to get it?”

He glanced at me and nodded. “Yeah. Don’t be afraid to shoot him again if he tries anything.”

“I won’t,” I said, waiting until Kai left to approach Callum and kneel beside him. “How’re you feeling?”

“Should...” he began with a wet wheeze, his hand pressing harder against his wounds, “have killed you...two years...ago.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, reaching into his pants and finding his phone to toss across the room out of his reach. It looked like he hadn’t even thought about using it, either too stunned or he didn’t believe he would get help before it was too late. “Think of that as another lesson you guys taught me by accident. I made sure every single one of your friends was dead before I left, and I’m going to make sure you die before I do anything other than treat Kai’s wounds.”

“Good luck...po...lice...”

“That’s a problem for later. I promised you slow and painful, and I try to be a man of my word.”

His eyes burned with hatred as he reached for me. “Bitch.”

For the first time since I met him, I finally understood the sheer ugliness of the power I had over him and his friends. He was still trying to be spiteful and vicious as if he was capable of anything. He was completely and utterly helpless. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do to save himself, let alone hurt me. I didn’t like that I understood the pleasure that went beyond savage and found its way into inhuman territory, but it was there.

“No,” I said, taking his hand in mine and squeezing it tightly, knowing the pain was nothing compared to his sucking lung wounds but enjoying myself all the same. “You don’t get to be the big bad scary man anymore. You’re no longer going to haunt my dreams or life. And even if I end up going to prison, I’m going to go knowing I took three rich prick assholes down with me, and you will never hurt another person. And I’ll go knowing I got to watch you take your last breaths, fighting every step of the way to live, and knowing you failed where I survived.”

It wasn’t fear in his eyes, but the desperate fury was close enough when I finally let him go and got to my feet. Then, Kai came in, and all the cold hate and satisfaction drained away when I looked at him. He was covered in bruises and cuts, one eye swollen shut, his lip gashed top and bottom, with a streak of red across his forehead, and yet when he looked at me, I saw the tension in his face disappear.

“C’mere,” I said, grabbing the wooden chair from the corner and dropping it in front of the bed. “Sit.”

“You get the bed, huh?” he asked, holding out the bag and taking his seat as instructed.

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