Page 50 of Dead Man's Wish
Come back to me, dammit.
Kel resumed his compressions. They felt endless as I watched and waited for any sign. Jeffrey had stopped screaming so I slammed his face into the floor again.
“You touched her.” I slammed his face down. Blood spattered onto the hand propping me up. His limbs gave up on trying to get me off him, and the cries were garbled from the blood pouring out. “You bruised and bloodied her. Do you know what I’m going to do to you?” My tone was lethal. He probably couldn’t see anymore, and his brain was scrambled, but he could damn sure hear. “I’m sure she warned you.”
Jeffrey Peters didn’t respond as his body went into shock beneath me. He shook, but I only felt my body tremble with unbridled rage as I reared his head back again to slam it down. After his wail, I heard water spurt onto the ground. I looked up at them.
Bex choked on water as Kel rolled her to the side. Her eyes were unfocused as Mari stroked her hair. Mari looked at me and nodded once.She’ll be okay, finish it.Kel stripped off his jacket and Mari followed suit as they covered her shivering body.
“Did you try to drown her?” Venom laced every word. “Looks like she kicked your ass pretty well, you pathetic bitch.”
Wordless whimpers and groans left his busted and broken mouth. Another slam of his face into the floor caused a resounding crack to echo through the room. Satisfied that his facial bones were thoroughly broken, I sat back on his body, pulling his neck up to watch her fight to stay with us. His skin was sticky from the drying blood. The puddle beneath us grew rapidly.
“Watch her live, Jeffrey.” Bexley’s gaze drifted to mine, and my chest bloomed with hope. She was going to be okay. I gripped his skinny neck harder and tightened the tension as it stretched and arched. His vertebrae grated on each other until he locked in place. “Watch my baby live while you die.”
He gargled on blood and air. I pushed his head to the side and yanked back until the loudest crack caught everyone’s attention. His body lay lifeless beneath me as more gargles escaped. The pool of blood filled with bubbles as he struggled to no avail. He was probably overwhelmed with fear, wondering why he couldn’t move, but he was only speeding up the process. I left him there and moved to Bexley’s side.
“I texted Bishop our location and to have paramedics on the way, but there’s spotty service,” Kel informed me.
My bloody hands framed Bex’s face. I traced fingers through her soaked hair as her eyes focused on me. Kel brought Mari into a hug as she cried on his shoulder. I leaned in close enough to brush her nose with mine.
“Fight, baby.” I looked her over. There were no gaping wounds or broken bones outside of her cracked ribs. The dry drowning was my biggest concern. Her neck was ringed with fresh bruises, and the blood vessels around her beautiful blue eyes were popped. She watched me, but I wondered how much of me she could actually see.
Bex started shaking and shivering beneath me, but she was breathing. Everything else could be fixed later. Tears stung my eyes, and as they fell, blood washed away in their path.
“You did so good, sweet girl.” More tears fell as I faced the reality of what could have happened—what we could’ve walked in on. “I’m so proud of you.” I leaned down, kissing her forehead and nose.
I kept watching her as she came to little by little. Her mouth opened lazily, but words didn’t follow.
“Where you go, I go, even if it’s to the other side. Do you understand? I need you to fight and stay conscious for me.” I stroked her cheek, and she struggled to open her mouth again. The damage to her vocal cords and windpipe could be extensive given the severity of her bruising.
“S-she . . . dead.” She choked the words out, and they were raspy with little enunciation.
“He’s going to be when he suffocates in his own blood.” I didn’t chance a look back at Jeffery Peters’s broken body. Bexley’s head jerked.
“No . . .” Her whisper was stronger, harsher, and grittier as she forced it out. “She.” Bexley’s eyes widened as she stressed the word.
Only, I didn’t have a fucking clue whoshemeant. I looked at Kel and Mari, who shook their heads in confusion as well.
“Who is she, baby?” Her hands gripped my wrist with a strength I didn’t think she retained.
“V-ver . . . nic . . . a.” She gasped the syllables, struggling like hell to get me to understand. “Wrong . . . ,” she breathed. “N-nicky . . . she.” Her nails dug into my skin. I looked up at them again and back to her.
“Nicky is a woman?” She nodded frantically in response, and I shushed her jerky movements to mitigate any damage we couldn’t see. I rolled the choppy syllables through my mind to piece them together. “Veronica?” I guessed, and she nodded again.
“That would be me!” a screeching voice called from the doorway. She cackled as she stumbled in. She was beaten up and drenched, but there was a vague familiarity as I tried to place her.
“You were at the precinct.” The memory played with ease. She was the woman who stopped Bexley that day and responded weirdly to my presence.
“Such an observant guard dog.” She looked around the room. Kel and Mari shifted around beside me. Veronica’s curious glance landed on Peters’s mostly dead body. “You just can’t keep from taking away my things, can you?”
The arm behind her back moved, and she produced a large kitchen knife. The ache in my muscles and joints subsided as I readied myself to keep the three of them safe.
“If you come near them, you can join Brent and Jeffrey.” My threat had no impact. She still looked at me with the intent to kill. Mari’s hands slid over mine as she took over holding Bexley.
I used that opportunity to stand, moving between her crazy ass and them. I squeezed Kel’s shoulder before I walked toward her with my palms up. Veronica inched back on my approach.
“Are you supposed to scare me?” She spat it out with faux aggression. Her brow was pinched in fear and her hands trembled. She was a chihuahua barking at a mastiff.
