Page 74 of Cruel Debts
LIAM
Slam!Slam! Slam slam!
Punch after punch rocked the bag hanging from the rafters, like a metronome upside down, or one of those pendulum watches the fucking head doctors used to hypnotize you into thinking you were safe, that you could talk to them.
People like that were why this place now housed the true crazies. The ones who should be fit for polite society, but had something broken in them that made them actually enjoy this work.
People like me. Like Asher and Hawke. People like Keehn.
Broken assholes who needed a home, somewhere to fit in where they wouldn't be judged for their particular flavor of justice and bloodthirst.
It was a community. A safe haven.
And now, Trinity fucking McCoy justhadto drag her ass into our peaceful haven and muck it all up with her stubborn, relentless, sexy little ass. She just absolutely needed to insert herself into our lives and be a pain in my ass.
And of course I had to feel things for her that weren't decent to be thinking about your best friend's sister in the context of. Too many things that fell in that category, actually.
So I'd just beat the shit out of this punching bag until I didn't want to go back up that set of stairs and throttle her while I fucked some sense into her. Until my rage was under control. Until I could reasonably be around her without wanting things I had no business wanting.
No business whatsoever.
Knuckles, though taped, still cracked each time they landed in the center of the stiff, sand-filled object. My shoulders were sore and tired. I'd been at it for going on an hour.
When would this head full of racing thoughts finally quiet?
When would I feel normal again?
When Trinity McCoy was gone from my life and no longer around as a reminder of all the ways I'd fucked up. Of all the promises I hadn't kept. Of all the people I'd abandoned and all the love I'd rejected from two loving souls who just wanted me to be a part of a family. Their family.
Trinity was too good for all this. She didn't deserve to suffer any more of this life. We had to double down and get this guy, and stop him from breathing any longer?—
—so she could go back to her perfect little life and stop being tainted by our dark ass life.
She didn't belong here. If there was one thing I could do for Keehn, after all this time, it would be to make sure his sister didn't live the kind of life the four of us were destined for from the start.
It would be to not let her fall by the wayside like us.
I—
Ring, ring, pick up, bitch!
I'd have to kill Hawke for the stupid ass ringtone later. I ignored it and kept punching. This wasn't the time or the mood for me to be chatting in. If he wanted to talk, he knew where to find me.
The second the phone stopped ringing, it started right back up again. My fists hit the leather bag harder, trying to drown it out, but all it did was make it worse.
On call number three, I picked up, if only just to shut him the fuck up.
"What the hell do you want, Hawke?" I growled into the receiver, wincing as the punching bag swung back and hit me in the shoulder. "I'm busy."
"Busy, huh? Are you too busy to listen to something?"
I quirked a brow, gripping the bag to stop the swing as I gave him my undivided attention. "Listen to what?"
The line went quiet for a second, and I heard shuffling around on his end. Then, out of nowhere, the quiet was replaced by?—
Moaning. The kind of moaning that could only mean one thing.
Sex.
