Page 93 of Sweet Temptation (Men of Honor 2)
He glares at me, staying silent while cradling his hand to his chest. “Jesus, Earl, just give him what he wants,” Candy sobs fearfully.
“I told you to shut the fuck up!” he screams at her.
“Fine.” I grab his other hand… .
“No wait! I’ll get it for you.”
Standing up, I drag him to his feet by the collar of his dirty white shirt. I shove him in front of me while keeping the gun against the back of his head. “One wrong move and I will blow your fucking head off without a second thought.”
As he leads me into the kitchen he begins to visibly shake as he approaches one of the cupboards. I shove the gun in the back of his head. “That’s far enough. Is that where it is?” When he doesn’t answer I kick him in the back of the knee, hard enough that a loud crack fills the air.
“FUCK!” He drops onto the ground, wailing in pain.
“You better start answering my fucking questions faster, asshole.”
“Yes! It’s on the top shelf!”
I look over at Jaxson. Walking over, he reaches up to the top shelf and moves shit around until he locates it at the back. “Yeah, it’s here,” he says before pulling down a cream marble urn. One that has gold letters scripted across it:
Hope Morgan 1973- 2011
Seeing the urn and name of Grace’s mother shifts something inside of me. Whenever it came to hearing about this woman I felt bad for Grace, because she hurt, but now I look at this and feel fucking sad that I didn’t get to meet the woman who raised the most amazing girl… my girl. A woman who was ripped from the world unfairly and who died way too young.
“And look what else I found up there,” Jaxson says, pulling me from my thoughts, before bringing down a gun.
My rage coming back, I grab a handful of the asshole’s hair before slamming his head into the counter. Another agonized scream fills the air. I see Jaxson lift his shirt to tuck the gun into the back of his waistband.
“I’ve decided I am going to be nice and leave you alive. But I’m warning you right fucking now, if you ever come near her again, or so much as even breathe her fucking name, I will come back here and fucking kill you. I know exactly what to do with your body so you are never found. Do you understand?”
“Yes! I fucking understand!” he breathes out painfully through clenched teeth, his face soaked with blood.
“Good!”
Pushing away from him, his head slams back into the counter again before he curls into a ball on the ground, his knee busted and his broken hand cradled into his chest. And I still don’t feel he got what he deserves.
“Let’s go!” Jaxson claps me on the back, handing me the urn.
Taking it, I reluctantly turn away and head to the front door. Cade follows suit, leaving a fearful, shaking Candy. “I didn’t know,” she cries as my hand reaches for the door handle, “I swear I didn’t know he did that to her.”
I turn around to see her eyes filled with shame and regret. “If I knew I would have tried to help her.”
I stare at her for a moment, not really caring either way because the damage has been done. “It doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is it will never happen to her again by anyone, or I will kill them. Remind your boyfriend that.”
Turning back around, I head out the door and look at the truck in the driveway. One more thing to take care of before I go.
I grab Cade’s arm, telling him to hold up. “Trade me for a minute,” I say, handing him the urn in exchange for the bat.
I start walking over to the truck. “Evans. What are you doing man? Let’s not draw more attention to ourselves then we already have.”
I look over at Jaxson. “He stole every fucking penny that was left to her and bought this truck. He’s not keeping it.” Turning back around, I hop up on the hood before starting in on the windshield. After I’m done I move to the side windows. I catch Cade’s shrug at Jaxson as he hands him the urn. Picking up a crow bar that sat on the driveway he follows my lead.
We finish quickly and by the time we’re done it’s fucking demolished and completely un-drivable. And for the first time since coming here, I feel a small measure of satisfaction.
Getting in the truck we start the six hour drive home. Besides the occasional comments from Jaxson and Cade, on what the fucker did to Grace, the drive is mostly silent. Once we’re far enough away, and things have been silent for a while, I start mauling over what just went down in my head, when something hits me, a recollection of what that he said. “Hey, what the hell do you think he meant, when he said he told the last guy who went there he didn’t know where Grace was?”
“I assumed he was talking about Miguel. It would make sense. He found out she lived there and checked there first, out of all places,” Jaxson replies.
“Yeah, maybe…”
“What, you don’t think so?” Cade asks.
I shrug, “I don’t know, I guess.”
“Maybe it’s something we should bring up to Coop anyways, just to be on the safe side,” he adds.
When I stay silent Jaxson speaks up, “Don’t worry, she’s good, man. I just got a text from Jules, they’re having a blast dress shopping.”
Letting out a breath, I nod, “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure it’s fine.”
Then why the fuck can’t I get this sick feeling out of my gut?
“I love the dress. You girls are going to look so beautiful!” Kayla gushes before pouring more wine for her and me.
After a long day of bridesmaid dress shopping we decided to stop and have supper at Giovanni’s, a quaint little Italian restaurant located dead center of Sunset Bay. I just finished the best Italian meal I’ve ever had.
