Page 73 of Dangerous Command
With one gun already secured in my holster and a knife in one of my pockets, I grabbed the other gun from my dashboard and another from under my seat. I went through the trees along the back. Then, when I got to the main wall, I listened carefully.
No sounds of a child. No sounds of any life.
Then I heard a low voice: “You would think you would be used to this by now. Shouldn’t you have a callus on your cheek?”
Then the hard crash of metal flying into skin.
Maddie.
I hopped the wall, grabbing two guns as I landed on the rubble. Muro laughed, throwing his gun into Maddie’s swollen face again, his long black hair whipping behind his back. I shot at Muro, but he dodged the bullet, using Maddie as a shield for himself. Then he let her drop to the concrete, her hands cuffed in front of her. He clapped his hands.
“So youdowant the child dead,” Muro said to Maddie. “Get the child out of the way. Is that it, Maddie? You want your single life back so you can screw mobsters like Adler, here?”
A sliver of light caught Muro’s face. New cratered scars dipped across his cheeks, but the lightning bolt tattoo on his temple was as bold as ever, a thin raised line in the middle. A scar.
The tattoo must have covered the scar from the cut Maddie had given him years ago. Evidence of her past had always been there. But now, I could see it for what it was.
I steadied my gun on Muro, aiming for his heart.
Muro pulled back his jacket. “You see, Derek?”
A bomb was strapped to his torso, full of wires and crude explosives, a red button blinking like a siren.
“All it takes is one push, and this one and the one with the boy go ‘boom!’” he cackled. “Little boys like explosives, don’t they, Maddie?”
My heart thumped all over my body.
“Let them go, Muro,” I ordered.
“Oh, why should I?” he croaked, his teeth white like a full moon. “We were just beginning to have fun.”
Maddie whimpered at those words, and Muro steadied his gun at the back of her head once again, the barrel spotted with her blood, digging into her skull. I clenched my grip around the guns tighter.
“You fight women like this?” I jerked my head to the side. “That doesn’t make you a man.”
“Fighting implies an opponent. Does this look like she’s actually fighting me?” he laughed. “Come on, Derek. You know better. I saw what you did to her tits. Her neck. Biting her like a pit bull.” He sneered. “I’m sure you’ve beaten her ass too.”
My jaw clenched, my ears throbbing with blood. My face burning hot. Punishing her like that was different.
Wasn’t it?
Maddie wouldn’t reach my eyes. Were my punishments any different? Or was I as bad as Muro?
None of that mattered right then.
“Let them go,” I ordered again. “Fight me like a man.”
“How about,” Muro dug his gun into the back of Maddie’s skull, “I kill her, then I kill you? How does that work for you?” I grit my teeth and pulled back the hammer. He smirked. “Oh, Derek. You can’t rush something like this. We must take our time, even if there are bombs involved! Enjoy the splendid death of it all.”
“Mack,” Maddie whispered. Muro turned rapidly toward her and kicked her in the back. She fell forward, catching herself on her palms, her wrists still cuffed.
“That’s right. I’m still undecided aboutMack, honestly,” Muro said. “Could be useful one day. If I trained him right.”
Maddie started shaking then, as if she was about to hyperventilate and pass out.
“You said if I—”
“You sound like your mother.” Muro shook his head. “I say a lot of things. When will you learn? I don’t care about honoring a promise I made to a dumb whore.” He stifled a cold laugh. “And if I remember correctly, I told you to bring Derek’s head to me. And look where it is. On his body, Maddie. Not decapitated from his corpse.”
