Chapter Forty-Nine
Dafuq? He had followed her to this lingerie shop at the edge of town, and couldn’t believe his luck when she was dropped off, all by herself. It was too good to be true. Rey was still thrilled with how the tides had turned for him at last, even as he had crept up alongside the building to case it carefully, trying to see in. But the windows were covered up with some velvet shit.
At least he could hear fine. The bitch was speaking in a low voice, but the other woman was loud enough that he could pick out some crap about this being a private shopping trip. Probably paid for by one of the men the bitch was spreading her legs for. Or by selling TheRagethat she had stolen.
Fucking, thieving whore.
He’d be taking care of that real soon, wouldn’t he. It was just two women to deal with right now. Piece of fucking cake. He had duct tape, rope, the whole nine yards in the backpack he carried. Not to mention good ol’ friends Glock and Sig Sauer, one on each side. Just in case. And then he was going to take her to get acquainted with his other shiny, sharp-edged friends.
Although the back of the store was a different story. There was one other person that he could see—a man, from the window that wasn’t draped like the ones in front, thank Sweet Baby Jesus, so Rey got an eyeful as to what he was doing. Got to check out if this was yet another one of that bitch’s lovers.
But no, the man appeared to be doing some weird, interpretive dance thing with his fingers and arms at first, and then making even weirder noises, as if speaking a foreign language made up of guttural sounds.
It dawned on Rey where he had seen something like this before. It was similar to what he had observed atEl Monstruo’sfrom time to time, once he had been allowed more access to the inner workings. He had known enough to keep his questions to himself, though.
Rey was fully aware of how to be a good soldier for someone likeEl Monstruo, to know when to pretend not to see or hear, and to always, without fail, keep his mouth clamped shut. You had to unsee the kind of stuff that led to rumors like the one aboutEl Monstruowearing human bones around his neck. Or doing worse things than justwearingbody parts. Dark, bad stuff that made even Rey shudder. Better to just stay the fuck away from that kind of shit as much as possible.
But physically? Hey, nowthatRey could do. It would be easy to take this guy on. Maybe this guy had some moves —he was in pretty good shape for an old dude — but he wasn’t a roid junkie or a muscle head or military like the other guys he had seen so far with the bitch.
So when the man left the back area and moved into the front of the store, so did Rey. Just in time to hear the man tell the bitch that he was looking forward to having fun with her.
‘Cause it sure wasn’t going be with the other woman — that bitch flew out of the store like a bat out of hell.
And that’s when Rey knew it was time to make his move. It was the break he’d been waiting for. Slamming the door onto the dude was just too easy, and then seeing the kinky shit that bitch was up to, all tied up like that? Wish he had known back in the apartment.
Maybe he would’ve fucked her more. And tied her up so she couldn’t leave.
* * *
She was speechless. But no, it really was Rey right there, glowering right at her, looking exactly the way he did just before he would beat the tar out of her. Except you know what? That was the past. Ancient history. That was a full three hours of high-tailing it away from a drug dealer lifetime ago. That was before the many wonderful things that had happened since she landed in Gardendale ago.
And that was before the miracle that was Col.
But most importantly, that was before she had discovered who she was, and what she was capable of. And she was capable of so much more than taking Rey’s bullshit. Or psycho dude’s—
Who had just thrown himself on Rey from behind. Rey crashed into the counter, and Lily threw herself away from the glass that shattered. She concentrated on rolling into a position against one of the walls of a parlor, while the two men battled it out in the area by the counter. Lily was oblivious to the strain on her muscles, as she used the structure to brace herself, leverage to get onto her feet at last. Finally. Her arms were still tied behind her, but her legs were free. She’d be able to run.
The older man moved like a martial artist, but she knew Rey had training as well. The two seemed intent on killing one another, which suited her just fine. She had to get out. She didn’t know if there was an exit anywhere except the door in the front, and she wasn’t going to take the chance there was one in the back. Especially when the one in the front was still open, the older man obviously no longer intent on completing his task of closing it.
But it was also the door on the other side of the two battling men.
Hell.
She had to figure out how to get around them. Rey had the brute strength and possibly speed to finish up this fight in a New York minute, but the other guy was doing some damage as well, with well placed jabs to Rey’s stomach that had her ex grunting in pain. But then Rey quickly recovered enough to spin around with a powerful sweep of his leg. The other guy tried to sidestep the kick, but huffed out loud as it still caught him, and he went crashing into the wall separating one parlor from another. Lily winced. That had to hurt, but she inched her way towards the counter.
Before she ducked behind the side that didn’t have shattered glass, she noted that Rey had a bandage around one hand. It was getting redder by the second, probably because whatever happened wasn’t supposed to be used for punching. Whatever. The only thing she was going to focus on was that sliver of freedom, now only a few feet ahead. So close.
Lily didn’t have much time to act before one or both of them would be able to return their attention to her. She ducked down as Rey went after the other guy, who was scrambling to get up. She would have to time this just right. She listened intently for the sounds of their fighting moving farther away from the door, just to give her a better shot when she ran for it.
Her calves and thighs were burning from the strain of her crouch, but there wasn’t much she could do with her hands still tied behind her back, her body tilted forward like a runner getting ready to do a gold-medal Olympic sprint.
All of a sudden, there was only silence, except for the thud-thud-thuding of her heart.
Shit. Was the fight over? Did she lose her chance?
She tried to peek up, but then she heard Rey’s voice, and she crouched back down.
“That’s right. Slick moves you got there, but it would be stupid of you to try them against these hollow points.”
