“Come on, man,” I mock. “You wanna grab someone, wrestle them into submission? Come do it. Come fuck me up. Insteadof picking on a defenseless woman, why don’t you fight with a man? Someone your size. Hell, you probably have twenty pounds on me. You might even win.”
My words make him straighten a bit. Like he thinks he might have a chance.
“In fact, I already hit you when you weren’t expecting it, so I’ll give you one shot. Tell you what. Why don’t we handle this the old-fashioned way? With our fists. If I win, I kill you with my gun.” I shrug like we’re making a deal on what to have for lunch. “But if you win… I’ll let you go home to your family. But you’ll never set foot in this city again. Deal?”
Hope blooms in his eyes as he processes what I just said. He thinks he might have a way out. I wasn’t lying when I said he’s bigger than me. He is. But what he doesn’t understand is that I’m stronger, more determined, and have literally killed men with my bare hands. And that was when I just did it because I could. This time, it will be for a good reason.
Myreason.
“Deal?” I ask again.
Something crosses over his face before he nods, and then, when I don’t move, he strikes. His fist connects with my jaw, and my head hardly snaps back before I look at him and chuckle, low and dangerous.
“Anything you want to say to your wife before I end you?” I ask, pointing to Beckett, who is holding Maxwell’s phone, recording. “Maybe apologize to her for cheating on her. The person you promised to love and respect forever. The mother of your children. The woman you put your hands on? Anything to say?”
Maxwell glances at the camera and swallows, then glares at me. “You said it would be a fair fight, and if I win, I can go.”
After bringing the back of my hand up to my mouth, I lick a trail of my dripping blood and smirk. “That’s right. And I meant it. If you win, we’ll let you go.”
His shoulders drop with slight relief, but as I take a step toward him, he straightens again.
“The only problem with that, you scum-fucker, is that you’re not going to beat a Savage.” Then I pull back my fist and slam it into his face, sending him toppling like a line of dominoes. One step, two steps, and then he falls. Hard. Completely unconscious as he lands on the concrete ground with athud.
“I win.”
Cash laughs and comes to my side, throwing his arm around my neck. “Fucker really thought we were going to let him go. You should have let him hit you a few more times. Give him the idea he actually had a chance.”
We all chuckle because every single one of us knew he never had one. Even if he knew how to fight, I would have gone to my death to win just so he wouldn’t. Just to know my brothers would kill him for me, even if Maxwell had beaten me to a pulp. I wouldn’t have stopped until I kept my promise to Quinn that he was going to die.
My brothers help me lift his unconscious form into the chair. We use duct tape to secure his wrists, hands flat against the wood armrest, then his ankles to the legs. By the time we’re just finishing up, he starts to regain consciousness, and he looks around at the four of us, crowding him. When his memory catches up with him, he tries to move his hands, but he can’t, and that’s when the true panic hits.
“Please,” he gasps. “I was just messing around.”
I stare down at him, my stomach burning like it’s filled with pure acid. “You touched her. You put your lips on her. Shoved your tongue down her throat. And then you started unbuckling your belt. So what was your plan?”
He shakes his head, eyes wide as I walk toward him with a meat cleaver.
Holding it up, I stare at the freshly sharpened blade. “I’m going to tell you what my plan is. I want you to be fully aware of what I’m going to do so you can either consent or not consent to it. Either way, it’s happening. Isn’t that fun?”
I grin at the ugly motherfucker as he opens and closes his mouth several times, saliva dripping from it as he tries to pull free from the restraints.
“Anything of yours that touched my girl is getting cut off. First, I’m going to start with your fingers.” I shrug. “Then I’ll move on to your mouth and tongue. After that, we’ll see how merciful I’m feeling. Might just kill you then or sit and watch you suffer in pain for a while.”
As I slowly walk toward him with the meat cleaver in hand, he starts screaming, but that only makes me laugh. No one will hear him out here. And no one will ever find him.
“After I’m done with you, I’ll be sure to send your wife the recording of you attempting to rape another woman.”
Putting one hand on his wrist to hold him still, I raise the blade and bring it down sharply.
“Havesomeone deliver the video to his wife along with a million dollars in cash. Give her one of our ghost phone numbers, and tell her if she ever needs anything, to call. Make sure she understands that if she ever speaks about any of this, we will come for her kids.”
Caleb nods. “Yes, sir.”
I roll my eyes as I continue to wipe blood from my skin. “Stop fucking calling me sir. You’re an equal partner now.”
He chuckles and strides toward the open warehouse door where the cleaners are coming and going, making sure not to miss a single speck of blood. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Hey,” I call out before he steps outside.
