“Did I do that?”
The backs of Liam’s fingers stroke down my cheek.“You did that, kid.”He leans down, laughing quietly in my ear.“Awfully bloodthirsty for a vegan.”
Bloodthirsty.I’ve never thought of myself that way.I try to wipe the tears from my face.“I can’t stand it when people hurt someone who can’t fight back.”
The guy’s protesting, or he’s trying to.It’s impossible to understand him.
“I know, kid.”He picks up a knife from the table.One I’ve seen him use before, with a long, curved blade.“Your friend Simon was here recently.We’d picked up a member of that trafficking ring that he had some history with, and his boyfriend beat the shit out of him while he watched.It seemed like a good gift.Better than a gift certificate, maybe.”
Simon?I had no idea.
He slides a finger under my eye and wipes the rest of my tears away.“Always wondered when you’d finally let out some of that rage.”
My body is vibrating.I can’t believe this, but I think I liked it.
“It was a good present,” I whisper.
Liam’s right.Now my birthday will be a day when we stopped a bad guy from hurting others.That’s good.
I’m still shaking.I don’t realize how much until my legs give way under me.Luckily Liam is there to catch me before I fall.
He always catches me these days.
“You want me to finish this?”He uses the knife to gesture to the bad guy in the chair.
“I don’t want to punk out or anything, but I do feel like I should sit down.”
“This ain’t for the faint of heart, kid.I can finish.”He points to another metal chair over by the door.“You can wait over there if you want.I want you to see what I’m going to do to him for you, but you can wait outside if you’d rather.Brennan should be here soon.”
I perk up.“Brennan’s coming?”
“He’s coming to take care of the body.Said he has a place.”Liam rolls his head from side to side and jiggles his arms a little, almost as if he’s limbering up before a workout rather than torturing a bad guy to death.“The rest of my team is busy this week, and I figured it would be more romantic if it was only the two of us anyway.”
I find my footing, rising up on my toes to kiss him.“It’s romantic, Daddy.”
Maybe it shouldn’t be.It’s not as if either of us are into candles or flowers, though.And it means something, Liam sharing this with me.
The chair guy’s eyebrows shoot up.He coughs and sputters, managing to spit the rag out of his mouth.“You guys are fucking sick, you know that?You think I’m?—”
Liam shoves the rag back into his mouth.“Spit it out again and I’ll make it hurt more.”
I guess it makes sense that the worse guy doesn’t think this is romantic.He doesn’t know us.And he isn’t going to.
My friends would probably be shocked.I don’t like suffering, and that’s what Liam is inflicting.When it’s a worse guy though, so I understand.“When’s Brennan coming?”
“Soon,” Liam confirms.“Apparently he feels like he owes me for sparing that Jacob kid who was following you around.So I called in his favor.”
The chair guy’s gone even more pale.His eyes are so wide; if this were a cartoon, his eyeballs would have popped out.Good.Let him be scared.He deserves it after everything he’s done.
“Brennan’s not so bad, you know.I’m happy to hear the two of you are getting along.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he grumbles.Then he leans down to kiss me.“Go and rest.I’ll break some more of this guy’s bones for you.”
“Say please.”
“Please, brat.”
“I love you, Daddy.Can we go for burritos after this?”
