“Only Alex gets to call me a whore.” Jade straightened, wiping his saliva off her chest.
“Your father’s going to f-fucking kill you!” Xavier sobbed, bloodied and breathless.
But instead of yelling again, Jade did something I’d never forget. She threw her head back andcackled, the sound filled with agony and sweet, sweet relief. "No, motherfucker.” She tossed her bloodied heel to the side. “He's going down right after you."
Jade turned back to me then, her eyes filled with absolutely uncontrollable rage. “I want you to carve the wordrapiston his chest.Carve it deep!"
I caught the sparkle in her eye just as I gripped the cold steel of Xavier’s switchblade, which rested in my pocket. “Anything you say, my love.”
And as if this was the sweetest dream, Jade trotted toward me and lifted up on her tippy toes, gifting me a delicate kiss. Fuck, I missed her. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her in, drowning in—
“Ahem!”
Roman’s loud cough cut in—reminding me that I wanted to rip Xavier to shreds just a few seconds ago. Before I fulfilled Jade’s request, though, I had a promise to keep.
“Should I cut your balls off now or after?” I asked Xavier. “I warned you I’d cut your balls off if you touched her again. You didn’t listen.” His head twisted to me, his one eye looking me over in a frenzied effort to recognize who I was.
And he did. I saw it in his one eye. The realization dawned on him after a few seconds, and his jaw dropped in unison with his shoulders.
“M-Martinov?” he whispered, afraid to believe it. “Alex, listen.” He nodded, ready to assure me. “Alex, it's not what youthink, man! Moretti ordered it, but I didn’t take it all the way, man, come on!”
Xavier blabbered something on, but the blade was already pressed against his pathetic manhood, ready to live out its destiny.
“I-I made sure they didn’t go all the way, Alex, but I had to, man—I had to do it! You know him! No, no, wait—Jade! Wait, Alex!”
“Wait.” Jade repeated his word, and I turned to her, half a second away from plunging the blade into his balls. “He might pass out if you do that first. Carve the word and then cut off his balls.”
Always the mastermind. I smiled, my heart bursting from how close we were standing. “As you wish,Preziosa.”
“J-Jade, stop, come on! You’re not gonna do this! You’re better than this!”
With a mysterious smile and a rough tug, Jade pulled on Xavier’s shirt, exposing his bloodied body. “Here!” She shoved her delicate finger right into the middle of his chest. "Carve it here!"
“No, no, no, wait! Jade! Wai—”
The blade pierced his skin and he jerked violently, but Roman was already behind him, pushing down onto his shoulders and holding him down.
Xavier pleaded, shouting with all his leftover strength, but I burrowed the knife in his flesh, carving the letters large enough to make Jade proud.
“Watch,”Jade ordered, shoving his chin into his chest. “Watch what happens when you hurt me, Xavier!”
With a front-row seat to the vengeful journey of his own blade, Xavier pleaded, “Stop! Ja—”
“Watch!” Jade screamed over him. "Watch what happens when you try to kill my boyfriend, Xavier! Watch what happens when you rip my life apart!”
I looked up at Jade at that moment, noticing how the tears in her eyes reflected the dim lighting of the body shop. She’d been broken. Shattered into a million pieces. Forced to live with a man who caused her indescribable pain, shestillheld light in her soul.
Right as I was getting to the bottom of the letter T, Jade wrapped her fingers around my hand that held the switchblade and pulled the knife out of my grasp. Before I could ask, she got right into Xavier’s face, his panting and crying having no effect on her.
“J-Jade,” he pleaded, “I'm s-sorry! Please d-don't, baby! I loved you! I always l-loved you so mu—"
"When a man is in love—” she lowered the knife to his crotch, ignoring his words, “—he loves. He doesn’t make me suicidal. He doesn’t trap me. He doesn’t try to rape me. He doesn’t…break me.”
Real tears of sadness and regret slid down Xavier’s cheeks, his one good eye looking up at Jade with so much sorrow. For a moment, I really thought she was going to change her mind after seeing that.
But she didn't.
Instead, she lifted up her arms and swung down, plunging the blade into his balls. Fast, harsh, and so unexpected that Roman gasped in what I could only call admiration.
