AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If you make the first move you better hope I go down fast, because once I start I won’t stop until I smell blood.
With every inhale, the scent of his pain feeds my thirst to see him dead and in a grave for costing me my best enforcer. More so, for causing an innocent woman unbearable pain.
I stop only when his knees hit the rough cement and he holds his hands in front of his face.
“Stand up. You want to go against me, let’s finish this.”
Abel sways, but manages to drag his weight onto two shaky legs. “Wait until Darrion hears about this. Go ahead and kill me. Dump my body wherever you want. He’ll take you down for this as soon as I don’t show up tonight.” He comes off as exhausted and ready to give in physically, but his mouth has no problem shooting off.
My mind flashes back to the time when my brother let his greed ruin our family. It was the night of our father’s funeral. Darrion demanded I step down and hand him the De La Rosa fortune and throne. I don’t do well with threats. When Darrion couldn’t take the throne by force, my sister and mother fell victim to his psychotic violence. I learned not to trust anyone that night. I never forgave him for his betrayal. It’s a pet peeve of mine now. But this man doesn’t deserve my wrath for what my brother did.
“Don’t worry, Abel. You’ll show up. But get crawling sooner rather than later because it’s going to take you a while.” I pull my gun and bury bullets in either of his knees caps. Piercing screams echo off the bare cement walls. “Tell your boss I’m ready for a fight anytime he wants to bring it anytime he feels he can take me on.”
I turn to Raven who looks ready to end some lives and get on with his night. “Take him to Darrion’s lines and dump him in a back alley. Let him crawl back to his boss.”
“Why don’t we keep him? Your brother is up to something and I have a few fresh ideas on how to get this fucker talking.”
“This bottom feeder is right. Whatever Darrion is up to he is keeping close to his chest. This one can’t give us anything and I’m not patient enough to deal with him. Return to sender. Darrion will get the message.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I take it out to see Bella’s peaceful face fill the screen. I snapped a picture of her sleeping the night I left the burner cell phone on her night table.
I go to tap the answer button when I pause. Blood covers the backs of my scarred knuckles.
She’s too beautiful for a monster like me. Too pure. I know I should let her go, but I can’t find it in me to say the words or do what is necessary to see her returned to her father. How twisted and fucked up is that?
When I don’t answer the call, a text message comes through.
Dinner sounds nice. Thank you. We should talk. What should I wear?
Thank you.
Out of everything she said those two words strike my heart with a fierceness that has my blood turning cold. She is thanking me for being a decent human being to her. Barbed wire wraps around my heart. I tap out a quick reply.
Change of plans. Maybe some other time.
I shoot off the message before my demons convince me I’m too far gone to care about sullying an innocent woman’s soul with my filth. I can’t have her while I’m like this. She deserves better.
Abel spits blood on the cement, drawing my eyes back to him. He leans his weight on his heels and lets out a choked laugh. With the few broken ribs he earned I imagine the pain jacking through his system right now makes him want to pass out. His breathing is labored and he winces through every deep chuckle.
“It’s only a matter of time before her father comes after you. I’ll laugh myself into a grave when it’s a lowlife like me who ends you.”
Abel’s slurred words hold some truth to them.
Raven loads the crying enforcer into the body bag and Crawl drags him to the door they brought him through.
“After you two dump him in Darrion’s territory, find Kincaid.”
Raven’s face turns into a pucker of confusion.“Mind me asking why?”
“He’ll come for her and he’ll use whatever means he has available. Mainly my brother. We either wait for whatever he’s planning or we take him out first.”
“What about the girl?”
“Bella must never find out.”
No one can have Bella. No one but me. But before that can happen I have to rid the world of everyone who could take her from me. Then I have to wash the blood from my hands and learn to be the man she needs in her life. Not the beast she sees now.
CHAPTER 6
