Page 28 of Sadist

“Object all you want,” I interrupted. “I want my own bed.” Giving him a nod, I pushed my way out of the small clinic The Triarchy maintained. I headed straight for the parking space in the underground lot that Erryn had messaged was to be my replacement car, and grimaced.

“Funny, Erryn,” I muttered as I looked at the powder blue Volkswagen Beetle with absolute disgust. Message received, loud and clear. I had talked to her like shit…and this was the consequence.

There was no way. Nooooo fucking way I was going to be caught dead with this in my garage. But my head hurt…hell, my wholebodyhurt…and I wanted my bed very badly.

Looking up at one of the many cameras down here, I flipped it off, knowing she’d be getting peak enjoyment out of this, then reluctantly slid into the car. I did the normal forty-minute drive to the industrial area where my building was located, in thirty, and the sun was already setting as I drove up to the nondescript garage door that led into the lower levels. I punched in the code, my eyelids feeling heavier by the second as I waited for the metal door to slowly rise.

Lights in my rearview were my only warning to brace before a vehicle slammed into the back of the Beetle, the small car being easily shunted through the opening garage, spinning slightly to block the ramp leading to the first level.

For the second time in one day, my world erupted in noise and pain as this time the vehicle plowed into my passenger side, pushing my car up the ramp and into the open space above in a screech of metal and tires.

I swore, kicking my door open as the car spun then threw myself out of it, the breath whooshing from my lungs as my already tortured body hit the ground rolling.

Doors slammed, footsteps echoing through the enclosed space, and I struggled to my feet in time to see Zichen rounding the back of the vehicle, his gun trained on me.

“You fucking bitch,” he hissed, and I lunged to the side as he fired, the bullet barely missing me as it hit the concrete behind.

Hogan—the large Irishman who’d had his arse handed to him by me more than once in combat training—came for mefrom the right, his preferred knife palmed in his hand as he tried to aim it for my neck.

I ducked under the swing, coming up under his arm and delivering a hard punch to his kidney that had him buckling, before disarming him and slicing his hamstring with his own blade in quick succession.

Fisting his hair as I turned, I used his body to shield me from Zichen’s second shot, his body shuddering with the impact as the bullet hit home. Drawing my gun, I dispatched Kier and Richmond—two more of Zichen’s usual crowd—efficiently, before scanning for more.

“You want to explain what the fuck you are doing Zichen?” I yelled, ducking behind the mangled remains of the Beetle. “Now I’m going to have to kill you, which honestly, is more effort than I can be bothered with right now.”

“Loxley terminated me.” His voice came from over the top of the car. “The fucking favoritism that cunt shows you is insanity. Maybe if she opened her legs for the rest of us, we’d get a red carpet through the ranks too.”

I ignored the flicker of anger his words ignited, leaning to look under the car for movement. His shadow moved forward behind the front tire, and I straightened, pressing my back to the car as I thought for a moment.

“If I’m on a pedestal, it’s not for my skills between a woman’s thighs,” I called, trying to keep him talking. “But I’d work on your aim before you attempt more complex arts like trying to find a clit. Your fine motor skills need improvement.” I glanced under the car again to see he had moved toward the back of the vehicle, though I still couldn’t get a clean shot of his legs.

“I’m going to fuck your carcass and leave it tied up with a pretty bow for Loxley as a severance present,” he yelled, and I smiled, checking the magazine of my gun. Two bullets left, and I couldn’t get to the bodies of the others without exposing myself.

“How are you still breathing if you were terminated?” I called.

He scoffed. “She sent Hogan to do it. Clearly the bitch underestimates loyalty.”

I hummed under my breath as I eyed the fallen men. One less job for me then, won’t have to track those fuckers down.

“Worked out well for them,” I taunted, leaning onto my side and extending my gun under the car. “Maybe if you had been a patient little princess and waited for me to show you how the adults organize hand-offs, this would have gone differently.” I closed one eye as my head spun, and took aim at the foot he left exposed.

His scream rang out the second after I fired as my bullet blew out his heel, and I was up, sprinting around the car before he could gather himself.

He was on his knee, blood pooling around his ruined foot, but he had the sense to keep hold of his gun, and he fired the second I rounded the nose of the vehicle.

The shot went wide, but I didn’t have time to think about how close that had been as I returned fire, the headshot I had intended only clipping his ear as he moved just in time. I lunged for him, closing the gap as he took aim again, but I caught his arm and pinned it to my side as my hand closed around his throat and squeezed, sliding through the blood running down the side of his neck.

He twisted, and I screamed as hot, deep pain shot through my leg, causing my grip to loosen enough for him to move and slam my head into the side of the vehicle. The world tilted for a moment, my already concussed brain struggling, and I looked down to see the blade he had plunged into my thigh. I spat in his eyes, reaching down to rip the blade out and thrust it up under his jaw with a satisfying crunch, his body convulsing once before going limp.

I slumped against the side of his vehicle, breathing heavily as my head slowly righted itself, breathing through the wave of nausea that came with it, before slowly hauling myself up. My leg flared as I put weight on it, cursing to myself as I hobbled to the wrecked Beetle and leaned through the shattered window to retrieve my phone—which now had a huge crack through the screen. Excellent. What else could go wrong today?

Erryn answered on the first ring.

“What’s wrong?”

God, she was really losing her bite at the moment.

“Next time you terminate, make sure you don’t send one of their bromances,” I said, groaning as I hobbled toward the row of cars at the back of my garage. I flipped open the pannier of my motorbike, pulling out a small can of spray paint.

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