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“Miss me already, Max? That’s my secret plan you know. I figure if I get you addicted to me, you won’t be able to let me go.
“Don’t worry puta, I don’t plan on letting you go until I get my fill.”
I freeze as I hear that voice behind me. I know that voice. It appears at least one of the Hernandez brothers has found us. I can’t make myself turn around to see which one. All I can do is pray that Max hurries back and saves the day.
I have no idea what I’m going to do with Tess. Each minute that I spend in her company only serves to make me fall a little further under her spell. Somehow she even makes trekking through the swamplands of Florida enjoyable. I find a small stream and fill up our canteens.
I’ve got everything we need in my backpack. I’m not about to let Tess carry anything. If this situation were different, if I could make her mine, I’d spoil her. I’d make sure every need she ever had was fulfilled. Tess needs to be spoiled.
I replay her story in my mind. Ward of the state. She glossed over it but having been one of those myself, I know the hell she faced. Or, I imagine she did. She’s a beautiful person, so maybe she got lucky and found one of those rare foster homes that actually care about the child. Somehow, I think if that were true she wouldn’t be crumbling under student loans and other debts. I need to talk to Marcum about that. Marcum runs the Steel Vipers and is a scary looking man, but a good one. His name actually is Marc, but goes by Marcum, pronounced like Mark’em, because if you crossed him the wrong way he’d mark you somehow, to make sure you never forgot it.
I’m almost back to the place where I left Tess when I hear her cry. My first instinct is to charge forward; I’m afraid she’s found one of Florida’s deadly creatures while I’ve been gone. We’ve been really lucky, so far, to avoid most of those. I stop when I hear voices. Hernandez and Dweeb, his flunky. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that asshole would show up. I should have guarded Tess better.
Hernandez has his hands on Tess—touching her. Touching what is mine. I may not be in any shape to claim her, but it doesn’t change the facts. He’s got his hand on her face, holding her tightly, and if he bruises her, I will cut off his hands.
“It appears Maxwell used you and decided to leave you afterwards. Decided to scrape you off after you let him between your legs, did he? Tell me, did you like having prison dick in your uptight little snatch?”
Hernandez questions her, his face right up against Tess’s. Maybe before I die, I’ll take him into hell with me. What’s one more black spot on my soul?
Then what does my girl do?
“Fuck you!” she says, spitting in his face. Is it possible to be proud of someone and want to spank their ass for putting themselves in danger at the same time? I am definitely there.
Hernandez backhands her hard across the face. Tess’s head jerks back. From where I’m standing, I have a good view of her. When she recovers, I can see the skin on her cheek is red from his hand. Dweeb, I have no idea of his real name, is standing to the side of them. So he’ll be target number one. I have the Glock I took earlier at the prison, wedged between my back and my belt, on my pants. It was wet from Tess’s little swimming adventure, but I dried it out, and the ammo was fine, so it should still work.
Thing is, as much as I’d like to kill Hernandez, being with Tess is starting to show me things I never considered before. It’s too late for me to have a life, and I’ll never be able to claim her, but if I survive this, maybe eventually when I get out, I could at least check on her and make sure life is good for her. Make sure no asshole has hurt her…Fuck, that doesn’t sound unhinged at all.
Whatever I do, I need to fucking do it fast. I can’t let her get hurt. That is not acceptable. I watch as the bastard takes his knife, cuts her shirt down the middle and exposes her breasts, putting his filthy hands on them and laughing. Tears fall from Tess’s eyes as she tries to pull away from him, but he doesn’t let her. Fuck it. I shake myself out of my dream world. It’s too late for me. Tess is all that matters.
I grasp the gun and step out into the open.
“I thought I told you, Hernandez, to never touch what’s mine.”
Hernandez looks shocked for a second and then the bastard gives that slimy smile I’d like to beat off his face. I just might before I leave here. In the corner of my eye, I can see Dweeb pulling for a gun, so I quickly shoot him in the arm. Dweeb cries out in pain and the gun drops. Hernandez cusses and takes Tess roughly, holding her in front of him like a shield and putting his knife against her throat.
I advance towards Dweeb and kick the dropped gun hard in the other direction. “Shut up your whining or I’ll shoot you again,” I growl.
“I don’t think you should be ordering anyone around, Gringo. That is, if you want your woman back in one piece,” Hernandez interjects.
“I thought I already warned you to stay away from my property, Hernandez.”
“What is it they say? Possession is nine-tenths of the law? Since I have possession, it would appear, that the puta is mine.”
“Thinking never was your strong point. Now you have about two minutes to give me my woman, and let us be on our way, or the only pussy you’ll ever get again will be in hell. Your choice.”
“Does your woman mean so little to you that you’d let me kill her, just so you can end me, Max?”
“I’ll put a bullet in you so fast it will make your motherfucking head spin.” I see him looking at me, measuring out my words, and I make sure my face stays impassive, giving nothing away.
“I just let go of your woman, and we call it even?”
“That’s the deal, but it’s getting ready to leave the table in another minute.”
“Except, how can we be even when you have wounded my friend there? Dweeb will just slow me down now and make me vulnerable. It seems I should be compensated somehow.”
“Fine,” I tell him and turn around and put a bullet between Dweeb’s eyes. Tess screams and jumps and the knife Hernandez is holding cuts just enough that a deep drop of red seeps and drips down her neck. It looks obscene against the milky white of her skin. “There, problem solved,” I tell him easily, doing my best to tune out Tess’s crying. Hernandez holds his hands up and backs away from Tess.
“Okay, gringo, I see you are serious about this one and…” I shoot him in the knee and give him a
sick smile as he falls to the ground. Tess screams again.
“Get behind me, Tess.” She looks at me, her face stark white and tracked with tears and there’s fear, real fear, staring back at me. My gut clenches. With everything that we’ve been through, I’ve never seen this look on her face. She’s afraid of me. Living in a fantasy has been nice, but it’s obvious that is over now. Still, she does as I order, giving me a wide berth, so she doesn’t get close to me.
“Fuck you, Maxwell! You said we were even!”
I shoot his other knee and walk towards him. “I lied. I warned you, Hernandez. No one touches what’s mine. You really should have listened.”
“I didn’t…”
He never gets the chance to finish his sentence because I shoot him again, making sure to end it quickly. Tess cries out again and as I’m turning around to face her she doubles over and retches, emptying the contents of her stomach. I go over to her and gather her in my arms as she heaves, holding her hair away from her face. When she’s done, she remains bent over and stiff in my arms, but she doesn’t pull away, so I guess that’s something.
I take the backpack off my shoulder and search in it to find a wash cloth and hand it to her. She stares at my hand for a minute and then takes it. Next, I hand her the canteen, and she rinses her mouth out and hands it back to me. All this happens without a word passing between us.
“Tess…”
“You shouldn’t have killed them,” she counters before I can say anything else.
“He shouldn’t have touched you!” I growl taking another cloth from the backpack and putting it on the still bleeding mark on her neck. She jerks away like I’m going to fucking hurt her, and that pisses me off.
“You can’t just kill people, Max. That’s not the way the world works!” She yells, holding the cloth to her neck.
“It’s the way my world works!” I counter, not exactly telling the truth, but she’s got me so pissed off I might as well let her have it all. I turn away from her and start dragging Hernandez’s body away.
