AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I could feel the blood in my veins, pumping almost languidly, enough to feed my muscles. But not my brain.
Where’s the high? The instant buzz?
The guy looked up at me with cold, bleary eyes.
I felt it pump a little faster, a little harder. I grabbed something from the table and tossed it at him.
“You want me dead? Here’s your chance.”
The Bowie knife landed neatly on his lap.
He reached for the knife but grabbed the wrong end. He cursed before readjusting his grip.
It was only now that he’d fully roused. Wide awake, his dark-eyed gaze took in the room, his head swinging back and forth between me and Gabe.
“I wouldn’t worry about him.” I nodded at Gabe without taking my eyes off the thug in the chair. “My brother knows I don’t like it when other people play with my food,” I said with a grin.
His eyes widened.
“Fuck you,” he said with more bravado than brawn. And then he spat, catching the bottom of my pant leg and my shoe.
I cringed inside but kept my features smooth.
I could accept a man hitting me, stabbing me, shooting me. But a man spitting at me told me all I needed to know about where his dignity was.
On the bottom of my pant leg and my shoe.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he started throwing feces at me like a donkey.
“I’m good, thanks. Too bad I can’t say the same for you,” I said, not wanting to waste any more time than I already had. “I’m only going to ask nicely once. Who sent you?”
He pressed his lips shut and stared me down.
I struck out with one quick swipe of my knife, severing the tendons in the wrist of his free hand.
He screamed and surged to his feet, stumbling back, making the chair scrape loudly across the stone floor.
“Who sent you?” I asked again.
It was a simple question that only required a first name and a last name for an answer. I only wanted two words from him and he would be free to go.
But they were all the same. They never gave in quickly.
They needed the gashes, and the pain, and the blood to see the truth.
And the truth was, I always got what I wanted.
“Nobody had to send me,” he spat, pressing his bleeding wrist against his torso while he gripped the knife in his good hand and prepared to attack.
He surged forward, but I stepped aside, sinking my knife into his side, not deep, just enough to let him feel it.
He let out another roar and stumbled back, looking up at Gabe almost pleadingly.
I stepped back, waiting for him to recover. “Answers,amico. You give me what I need, and this is done.”
I was even tempted to let him walk away if he gave me what I wanted. I just wanted the guy to talk so I could get out of here. The walls of the room seemed to be closing in on me. The ceiling hung lower. This place where I’d felt most alive before was threatening to crush me.
He lunged, and the dance continued like a never-ending salsa.
