Page 37 of Deadlier Obsessions

“Old friend? Don’t you think we were more than that, Luce?”

Luce? The fuck is that about? He has a fucking pet name for her?

I lean down to whisper in her ear. “Explain why the hell I shouldn’t remove his damn head from his shoulders, baby. Don’t use too many words, because I’m right out of fucks.” Her eyes widen, and her breathing picks up as she registers just how close I am to killing this fucker.

“He… he’s the…” Suddenly things become really fucking clear to me, and when I look from her wide panicked eyes to that smug bastard in front of me, I realize exactly how the rest of this night will play out.

First we’ll drag him outside, bundle him into the car, and find some remote place somewhere near this heavily fucking populated city, and then we’ll spend the rest of the night systematically breaking every single bone in his body, while he screams into the night, begging for mercy. He can beg all he wants, but he won’t get any, because he’s the guy who fucking decimated our girl’s confidence all those years ago, and the penalty for that is a bloody death at our hands.

“Mav, please. This doesn’t have to be a big thing, okay? We can just go home, we’ll go back to the house, and we’ll do loads of bizarre sex stuff until you calm down,” Lucy hisses frantically at me, pulling at my rigid arm around her as she tries to bargain with me. Bargaining with me forhissafety? His life? Is she fucking serious right now?

“He matters to you, baby? He’s the reason I had to fucking deflower you, remember?”

Not that I regret a fucking second of that, but he did her so much damage, and he should pay for that.

“I’m glad it was you, Mav! It will always be you!”

“Say, Scott, why don’t you hang out with us outside, I’ve got something to show you,” Gage suddenly says from behind us, and I realize he’s out of time, just as he figures out the same thing. His face suddenly drops as he takes in the threat in our postures and understands what’s about to happen.

“Uh… that’s very generous of you, but I have to be somewhere.”

Yeah, you do. Somewhere that’ll be the last place you ever fucking see. Gage’s knife suddenly appears in his hand, and he advances on Scott, the future recipient of its blade.

GAGE

The second I found out that this asshole is not only the man that dared to touch our women, but the piece of shit that broke Lucy's heart, I knew his time on this earth was about to be cut short.

“Two choices, Scotty,” I say as I press the tip of my knife into his neck, hard enough that he can feel it but not so much that I’ll cut his skin, because I don’t really want to do this here.

“You come outside with us and maybe have a chance, or I’ll slice you from ear to fucking ear right here.”

His eyes widen almost comically. “No harm was intended, man. I just wanted to say hi to Luce, I haven’t seen her in so long.”

I arch an eyebrow at him and push the knife harder against his skin. “What’s your choice? Here or outside?”

“Ou-ou-outside,” he stammers pitifully, causing Mav to break out in laughter. Then he does the most adorable thing, he turns to walk toward the front door.

I grab the back of his shirt and pull him to me. “Back door, asshole. You think I’m an idiot, and don’t know that if we go out the front, you’ll try to get some help? Trust me, that’s not happening.”

Pressing the knife into his back, I growl. “Now fucking move before I snap.”

Will I kill this fucker right here in this bar? If I have to, I will, but I certainly would prefer not to. As we go to the back door, Lucy stares at me with watery eyes. “Gage. You don’t have to do this.”

I glance at Mav. “Tie him up and put him in the back.” Thank fuck we hired a car for the rest of our trip, and don’t have to rely on cabs right now.

He nods and gets to work, while I pocket my knife and take Lucy’s face in my hands. “My sweet girl, he is going to pay for not only touching you but breaking you. Nobody gets to break you but us. I’m not the man who lets scum get away with hurting what’s mine, so don’t ask me to, because I won’t.”

Her bottom lip quivers as she stares at me. “If you kill him, it’ll be my fault.”

I shake my head at her before I lean down and kiss her gently. “No, baby. It’s his fault, only his. He broke your heart, and then saw you again tonight and thought it was acceptable to put his hands on you. Aren’t you tired of people treating you like shit?”

Her eyes water, but her sadness is quickly replaced with something I’ve never witnessed with Lucy. “So, fucking tired of it.”

“Then be a good girl and stop fighting the inevitable.”

MAV

Lucy is driving because she’s the only one of us really comfortable driving on the wrong side of the damn road, and of course we don’t want to draw unwanted attention with a tied-up body on the floor, under three people’s feet. I sit in the front with my baby mama. I snicker to myself, because I think I’m a comedian, but everybody knows she’s far more than that.

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