AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Spare me the fucking tears, Vickie.”
“I’m sorry!”
I squat next to her face. “You know, Ethan is probably dismembering your little boyfriend one limb at a time right now. Knowing him, he’s doing it with a butter knife to make it more painful. When he gets to the tendons…” I hiss. “Man, I wouldn’t want to be him. You’re lucky you’re with me.” I snatch the knife in her thigh and wipe it on her jeans as she thrashes around like a lizard that just got decapitated.
“Elliot.” Jade’s head falls onto her knees. She takes a deep breath before looking up again. “I can’t hear her cries anymore. Please, I’m exhausted.”
I straighten up, nodding at her. “Okay, my love. We’ll get you to bed.”
I think Jade believes she’s sparing Vickie by saying that. I don’t doubt she wants to sleep. Her face is swollen, her eyes bloodshot red. She just wants this to end and for Vickie to leave.
“She learned her lesson, let her go. Lea too.”
Vickie cries with relief this time. “Thank you. Thank you, Jade. I’m sorry. So sorry.”
“You must be tired too, Vickie,” I say.
She nods, eyes full of tears.
I smile at her. “Yeah, you get some rest.”
Her body jerks one last time when my bullet hits her between the eyes.
“Elliot!” Jade is up, her head clearly spinning, since she has to put a flat hand on the window to balance herself. “You fucking killed her.”
“That I did, yes. Why do you think I put a plastic sheet on the floor?”
“For the torturing… The—” She waves a hand toward Vickie’s now dead body. “The whatever you were doing there.”
“Ah, right.” I grab the cloth I’d put on the sofa and wipe my gun before putting it at the back of my jeans. I squat next to Vickie, observing her dead body. This feels very good. “No, it’s because I was going to kill her the whole time.”
Jade watches with an open mouth as I casually roll the plastic and wrap it around her body.
“I know we have a deal, but I don’t need you to fucking kill people for me!”
My shoulders are the first to tighten, muscles freezing. Then comes my jaw. I should have told her to keep quiet. Not to piss me off more than I already am.
“This has nothing to do with our deal. This has to do with the fact that anyone who hurts you gets a bullet to the head. Period.”
I slowly stand up, taking my time to breathe.
“She just beat me up. It’s the North Shore, Elliot. That’s how we live.”
Be patient. She’s in pain.
I swallow thickly as I turn around and try to force a smile, but there’s nothing to do.
“Justbeat you up? Just…” Two strides, and I’m on her, my hands on her hips because I know those aren’t bruised, or only from Ethan yesterday, and push her against the window.
“Just beat you up?” I repeat, hissing in her face. “Jade, do you haveany ideawhat it’s like for me to see you in pain?”
She huffs, attempting to push me back. “You’re possessive, we get it—”
“I’m possessive, yes, but that has nothing to do with it. This is me, hurting, because I know you’re unwell. Because I see you wince when you breathe, and your left eye has so many busted vessels, it looks like you’re crying blood.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve gotten beaten up,” she fights back weakly. Her hands grip my wrists to ease the tension on her body. “I’ll get better.”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is how I feel right now, seeing the woman I’ve loved for as long as I can rememberin. Fucking. Pain.”
