Chapter 19
I checked my phone,staring at the video on my screen. Ash was still fast asleep, curled up into a little ball. His light brown hair fanned over his face covering the beautiful freckles that decorated his face. I’d laid another blanket on top of him to keep him warm and left a note on his bedside table. We’d been hanging out pretty heavily the past few days, but I needed to take care of this.
We also haven’t had sex. I feel like I’m going fucking crazy.
We had been using my bed for its actual purpose. Goddamn sleeping. I mean, I wasn’t mad about it. Ash clung to me like a second skin in the middle of the night. There wasn’t even a need for a blanket with him around. And he was so small I didn’t overheat.
I was ready to climb the walls, but at the same time, I was the one making us take it slow. Me. This is who he’s turning me into. Some kind of goddamn saint. I groaned. As much as I loved Ash sliding into my hole, he’d been struggling after the whole Keith thing.
Can I go back to being a whore and doing what I want? That was so much easier.
A muffled noise caught my ear. I put my phone down, drawing myself out of thoughts of Ash as I focused on the chair in the middle of the room. Keith glared at me, but I could see the fear in his eyes. The gag stuffed in his mouth kept him quiet for the most part, except for grunts and muffled nonsense.
I stared at the phone one last time before I forced myself to leave it alone. Ash had my number. I’d bought him a phone the other day, so if he really wanted to contact me, he could.
Reaching out, I tugged the gag from Keith’s mouth. He coughed, his eyes trained on me as he stared up.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“I want to know if you ever touched Ash.”
He stiffened. “No.”
“You wanted to, though.”
Keith blinked at me. When he didn’t say anything, my fist slammed into his chest. He choked, all the wind knocked out of him as he sputtered and stared at me with huge eyes. The fear took over. I grinned. Man, I love it when they look like that.
“I have to be careful about the hand,” I said, showing it off and shaking it. “Normally, I wouldn’t give a fuck, but if I come back with split knuckles again, Ash will worry about me. And when he worries, it’s annoying as fuck.”
Not to mention it bugs the fuck out of me. When he gets all fussy, I get so antsy I just want to drag him into the room and let him fuck the life out of my holes. What’s wrong with me?
I wouldn’t admit it to Keith, but seeing Ash worry hurt. He fell to pieces when I was wounded, always trying to go above and beyond as if it was somehow his fault. Every time I came back from work, if he saw any injuries, he was all over them. It was both maddening and oddly adorable.
Did I just think the word adorable about him? Seriously?
“I’ve never touched him,” Keith wheezed out.
”But you wanted to,” I reiterated. “Right?” When he opened his mouth, I tapped the side of his head. ”Now, think very carefully. I already know the answer, so if you lie, you’ll just piss me off. Did you want to touch him?”
Keith’s tongue darted across his lips. “Yes.”
My fist slammed into his stomach. He groaned, doubling over in the chair as shudders racked over his body. When he sat up straight, I hit him again just to dispel the irritation growing in my chest. He finally sat up again, panting this time.
“Come on,” he groaned. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Buying kids isn’t wrong?” I asked. “What you did to them isn’t wrong?”
Keith swallowed hard. “You’re in this world,” he muttered. “You know what this is like. What’s going on. Don’t act like you’re better than me—”
I grabbed a handful of his hair, my nails digging into his scalp. “You must have me confused with some kind of fucking pedophile. My family doesn’t do that shit. Even we have our limits. Apparently, you and Roger don’t. Where is Roger now?”
Keith struggled in his restraints. “I don’t know.”
I clicked my tongue. “I told you not to fucking lie.”
I grabbed my phone and turned on my music. “Without Me” by Eminem blasted through the speakers as I picked up my Silvy. Turning it in my hand, I danced back over to Keith. He shouted something. I gestured to my ears, showing him I couldn’t hear a damn thing before I grinned. The look of panic on his face was good enough to eat.
Silvy vibrated as the silver head cracked against his right knee. Keith’s shouts almost rivaled the sound of Eminem rapping at warp speed. Can’t have that. I tugged the cloth back up, jamming it into Keith’s mouth while he tried to plead with me.
“Can’t hear you!” I shouted over the music. “Pedophiles make my ears clog up real bad.”
I swung again. The hammer slammed into his left knee this time, the loud crunch perfectly in time with a moment of quietness in the song. I grinned as I stepped back and admired my work. Tying him up was useless now. That asshole wouldn’t be able to walk anywhere anytime soon.
The moment they’d let Keith out of the hospital, I’d been on his ass, watching his every move. Not too surprisingly, it wasn’t hard to kidnap the dumbass. He looked over his shoulder alright, but he was far too preoccupied with his next jonesing of underage tail that it wasn’t hard to set something up and nab him. A little money in the right hands always went a long way. The song ended. I pressed pause and pulled the gag from his mouth.
“Want to try again?”
Keith panted, his eyes unfocused as he looked up at me. I could tell he was on the verge of passing out. That wasn”t going to happen. I twirled Silvy in my hand. His eyes flitted to the side, staring at her before they darted back to me.
”What? You scared of Silvy?” I smirked. “She’s really nice as long as you tell me the truth, Keith. Where the hell is Roger these days? I’ve been looking for him, but it’s like the worm dropped off the face of the Earth. He must be hiding somewhere.”
Keith shook his head. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked in a while.”
“What”s a while?”
“B-before the brothel,” he muttered. “Ah, I, um. I can’t remember when exactly.”
My hammer connected with his wrist. The scream he let out echoed in my ears, only stroking my need to hurt him more. When he quieted, I pressed the broken bones in his wrist. His head slumped to his chest, his breathing heavy as he fainted.
“It’s crazy how you perverts are always so heartless to your victims, but the minute you get a little attention, you can’t handle it.” I shook my head. “Pathetic.”
I walked away to check on my phone again. Ash wasn’t in bed. My heart raced, switching through the cameras I’d installed until I found him sleepily walking down the hallway to the kitchen. He flipped the light on, glanced around and frowned. I watched as he grabbed his phone off the charger. My phone rang.
“Hey, pup.”
“I’m not a puppy,” Ash laughed before it turned into a yawn. “Where are you?”
“Did you read my note?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “But that still doesn’t answer where you are.”
I clicked my tongue. “Clingy.”
“Giancarlo,” he groaned.
“Okay, okay, I’m at work. Don’t worry about where I am, but I’m not far,” I said. “Does that help?”
“A little.”
He went quiet. I could imagine him fiddling with his fingers.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Spit it out, kid.”
“I’m hungry, and there”s nothing to eat in the house.”
“There’s a ton to eat at the house,” I pointed out as I heard a groan. I turned to see Keith starting to wake up.
“Nothing that’s cooked,” he said. “It’s okay. I’ll make something.”
“Do you want me to pick something up?” I asked. “I can stop by the diner and grab you breakfast.”
Silence.
“You’re not bugging me!” I said, realizing what was going through his insane little brain. “I’m almost done here. I’ll grab your food on the way home.”
“Thank you.” There was a sound of relief in his voice. “Can you get me the stack of pancakes—”
“With blueberries and bananas. Bacon, extra crispy. Eggs over easy. And you want orange juice.”
He laughed. “Am I that predictable?”
Well, yes, but I liked the predictability. It was almost like Ash and I were a normal couple. Even though we were far from that. We weren’t a couple. We were simply living together until things changed, and we parted ways. My stomach tightened.
Don’t like the sound of that.
“Giancarlo?”
His soft voice broke up my thoughts. “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
Keith groaned, shaking his head as he moved the only wrist that still functioned properly. He lifted his head, his eyes glassy as he stared at me. I closed the space between us as he opened his mouth and yelled.
“Help! Help me! Please, somebody fucking—”
Silvy slammed into the side of his head. Blood shot out, splattering my face and clothes. Keith looked dazed. Anger swelled in my chest as I raised the hammer and smashed it into his head again. This time he slumped, but there was silence. No breathing. I panted, rage still coursing through my veins as I stared at the ugly, dead motherfucker.
Why did he have to scream?
I realized the phone had been silent for way too long. Ash.
“Ash? You there?”
Silence.
I tapped out of the call and pulled up the camera. There he stood, stone still, his eyes straight ahead with the phone pressed to his ear. My heart flip-flopped as bile rose in the back of my throat. I quickly put the phone on speaker.
“Ash.”
He pulled the phone away and jammed his finger against the screen. The call dropped. I watched as he continued to stare straight ahead, shock on his face. My hand clenched the phone harder and harder.
“You goddamn cocksucker. Just couldn’t shut the hell up, could you!”
I struck Keith until his head no longer looked human. If he were ever found, he would be unrecognizable. Dropping Silvy, I flopped to the ground as sweat rolled down my back, and the smell of blood clung to my nostrils. I wiped a hand down my face, smearing more onto my face, but I didn’t care. The look that had passed Ash’s face made my stomach turn.
Horror. That was the only way I could describe his expression. I dragged my phone over to me and stared at the screen. There he was, pacing back and forth harder than I’d ever seen him pace before. He muttered under his breath. I turned on the sound, tuning the volume as high as it could go.
“What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck?” he whispered the words like a mantra. “I need to get away from these people. Who was that? What was that?”
Ash had wrapped his arms around his torso as if he could protect himself from the world. One little scream and his views had been altered. I wanted to run home, grab him, and ask what the hell was going through his brain, but the other part of me said I shouldn’t. If he saw me and that same horrified expression was on his face, would I be able to handle that?
I shot up. No, I need a detour first. I knew exactly where I needed to go. Only one of us had a stable relationship right. Enzo.
My phone buzzed in my hand. Glancing down, I saw the text from Ash. My breathing caught in my chest as I stared at the few words he’d sent me.
Ash: Going to get breakfast. Be back later.
Me: I can pick it up.
Ash: No, I got it. Thanks anyway.
I blew out a heavy breath. If that wasn’t a don’t come fucking near me type of text, I didn’t know what was. Shit! I slammed my hand against a wall and immediately regretted it as pain followed. Cursing, I called my brother as I shook out my fist. No one did a good clean-up like him.