Chapter 25
Carnage
My emotions are all over the place as we ride in Whisper’s van to the approximate location where Leon’s phone pinged.
Thank fuck Whisper is always thinking ahead and kept the location monitor on that phone number.
I really have to give credit to my brave man for making the call that finally brought Leon out of the shadows.
He obviously still wants Rue, or at least wants to profit off him, which worked to our advantage.
I don’t doubt that Leon would figure out a way to avoid being seen at the club directly, just in case, but he won’t see us coming tonight.
It takes us more than forty minutes to get across town to the part of Mistone where we think Leon is. It’s on the edge of town, bordering one of the metro area’s more dangerous neighborhoods, but from what I know, it’s pretty cheap to find housing in this part of the city.
Whisper turns down a darkened street flanked on either side by derelict looking apartment buildings, but as we drive farther in, three one-story houses come into view at the end of it.
One of the houses has dim light coming from the rear of it.
We park the van near the apartment building and Whisper gets to work tapping on his laptop screen.
After a minute, he confirms. “That’s the location. It’s the only one with any activity. I’m not sure anyone lives in the other houses.”
“I doubt he legit lives there,” Rue says. “He’s probably squatting.”
“I’m sure you can get away with it in this neighborhood.”
Stealth turns to face us from the front seat. “What’s the plan?”
“He’s unlikely to be alone, so if you and Whisper can focus on anyone else in the house, that would be good. I’ll find Leon.”
“We can handle that.” Stealth cracks his knuckles.
The four of us exit the van, but I grab Rue’s hand, pulling him close to me. As we approach the house, he taps my arm, pointing to the cracked driveway.
“That’s No Neck’s car. He’s like Leon’s bodyguard, kind of.”
“Does he carry weapons?” Whisper asks.
Rue shrugs. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen him with one. He just looks tough and runs interference.”
“Easy enough,” Whisper says.
“But anything could be different now if Leon is paranoid. He was starting to get that way when I was with him.”
“We can handle it,” I say. “The important thing is for you to stay out of the line of fire.”
“I will. Promise.” He rises on his toes and kisses my cheek. “You be careful too.”
“Promise.” I lean in, and this time I take his lips in a sweet kiss. “This ends tonight. No matter what.”
His bright, trusting smile makes my stomach flutter, and I know that there’s no way I’m ever getting over this guy. I’ll learn how to make him happy, because I can’t let him go now. He makes me feel things I didn’t know I could.
Rue’s eyes seem to say so much, and I desperately want to hear his sweet voice say those words, but now is not the time. I have an abusive predator to deal with.
We continue to approach the house in silence. My go-to is just to bust down the door and wreak havoc on everyone inside, but I’m with Stealth and Whisper right now, our silent but deadly assassins, and I gotta admit, I admire the way they work.
Whisper kneels in front of the door and expertly picks the lock. After the door creaks open, we step into a living room where there are several sleeping bodies on the floor. None of them react to our presence.
“Great security,” Stealth murmurs, drawing his gun from his chest holster. “We got this out here. You find Leon.”
With Rue clinging to me, I creep through the house, peeking into each bedroom as we pass. There are only two before we reach one at the end of the hall with the door shut. Light filters under the door and I nod at Rue. Bingo.
Pushing Rue behind me, I quietly twist the doorknob, catching soft voices from the other side.
Rue peers over my shoulder and nods. “That’s him,” he whispers.
Leon is sitting on the bed, oblivious to my presence. He’s talking to someone on the phone and as I listen, my blood boils.
“How should I fucking know, man? All I know is that he finally contacted me. I already called Trip and Max and told them to make the party happen. Trip said he knows some other buyers.” He’s quiet as he listens to the person on the phone.
“He said the dude hasn’t fucked him, but it’s not like there’s a way to check.
I can still claim he’s a virgin and get top dollar for that. ”
Fuck this guy.
I turn around to look at Rue, but his expression is calm, like he’s not affected by Leon’s disgusting words at all.
“Yeah, he said he still wanted me to be his first.” Leon chuckles darkly.
“I mean, I’d love to tap that ass of his, but he’s worth more to me on the market.
How many times do you think I can sell his virginity before it’s obvious?
I was thinking at least three times.” He nods.
“Five? You think? I can always try, especially if I drug him so he doesn’t talk.
Might as well get my money’s worth after all the trouble he’s caused me. ”
I can’t wait to make him bleed.
“Nah, I can tell when he’s lying. He’s desperate to get away from the unhinged dude and sees me as a hero.
Too bad he’ll be getting fucked by the grossest man I’ve ever seen the next night.
Yeah, rich fucker but he’s kind of fat and has oily skin.
That’s why he has to pay to have boys brought to him.
He’s disgusting.” He pauses. “Do I feel bad? For what? Making a living is hard on the streets. I’m lucky I’ve found a way to make it a little easier.
If this works out, I could get in with some of the bigger operations supplying people for rich men’s kinks. ”
He laughs again, and as he does, Rue’s hand tightens around mine. I turn to look at him, and his expression is hard now. “Make it hurt.”
“I absolutely will, precious.”
Leon ends the call seconds later and goes to put the phone on the nightstand, so that’s when I swing the door open, rushing across the small room toward him. He barely has time to react before I have my hand around his throat, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the wall behind him.
“What the fuck!” Leon shouts. “No Neck!”
“He’s already dead,” I snarl, tightening my grip until he coughs. “You thought you could hide from me forever? You thought I’d let you get away with it?”
“With what? Who the fuck are you?”
“Oh, come on, Leon. You know me. I’m the guy you fucking lied to, twice. We had a deal.”
Fear floods his eyes as he struggles against me, but he’s not the strongest guy in the world. “No. How did you—fuck. Rue.”
“That’s right. Rue. Who you think is too naive to figure out what kind of loser you are. Well, you’re wrong. He knows and he’s also smart enough to play you like a preschool video game.”
Before Leon can say anything else, I slam my fist into his face. It’s like someone takes the lid off my can at that point, and I lose it, my eyes clouding over with rage. My body goes on autopilot as I pummel Leon.
He’s moaning and trying to protect himself, swinging wildly or clawing at my arms, but nothing he does can calm me down.
Then I feel Rue’s hand on my back, bringing me back to the present. When Leon sees him, eyes swollen and barely able to hold his head up, he scowls.
“Fuck you. You weren’t worth any of this trouble. You’re nothing but a piece of ass.”
I raise my fist to bash Leon’s teeth in, but Rue holds up a hand, signaling to me to wait. He opens my jacket and unsheathes my knife.
I don’t say a word as I watch Rue in awe.
“Your opinion of me is what’s worthless, Leon,” Rue says, his voice calm and measured.
“I’ve listened to you say horrible things about me, but even worse, I’ve heard your plan to have me raped for your profit.
There are few things worse than violating someone sexually.
I hope you know that to me, all of this was worth it.
Because of you being a vile human, I met Carnage, who’s everything, and yeah, I’ve willingly let him fuck me. ” He grins. “Lots of times.”
Leon groans and spits at Rue, but it’s all blood at this point. Rue chuckles.
“Gross. You didn’t let me finish. Meeting Carnage was wonderful for me personally, but in the bigger scheme of things, we got to rid this city of more trash. Guess what, Leon? You’re next.”
Rue plunges the knife straight into Leon’s chest. My jaw drops in surprise. I did not expect that. He twists the blade, smirking at a groaning Leon.
“It hurts, right? I bet it hurts being raped too. Or being sold by someone you thought cared about you.”
Rue pulls the blade out, then stabs Leon again, not shy about inflicting pain. He pulls the knife out a final time and hands it to me.
“Finish him. I want to watch him die. I want to know it’s over for good.”
“P-please, Rue,” Leon grunts. “I-I’m sorry.”
“You’re not though. Ten minutes ago you gleefully told someone on the phone that you couldn’t wait to sell me to the highest bidder. You only cared about ‘rescuing’ me so you could get back to your devious plans. Well, fuck you, Leon. I win.”
With that, I drag the knife slowly across Leon’s neck, making sure he feels his skin opening up, his veins and arteries being severed, warm blood gurgling from his wound.
He grabs his neck as I drop him to the floor, and Rue stands next to me as we watch him struggle. Desperate to live, Leon crawls towards the door, but even if he made it to the hallway, he wouldn’t make it much farther than that.
Rue leans against me, calmly watching his abuser give up the fight. Leon rolls onto his back, gasping for air as his breathing turns shallow and the color drains from his face.
Once it’s obvious he’s dead, I walk over to his body and nudge it with my foot to show Rue.
“It’s over now, precious.”
Rue exhales slowly, then launches himself into my arms. “Thank you. For everything, but especially for this. I needed to do this tonight. I needed to reclaim my power.”
“You slayed your own monster.”
He shakes his head. “We did it together, but I couldn’t have done it at all without you.”
I kiss his forehead, before saying, “Want to get out of here?”
“Yeah.”
Hand in hand, we walk out to the living room where Stealth and Whisper are quietly chatting. There are five bodies on the floor, all of them with a single bullet wound to the head.
Rue points at one of them, a beefy dude. “That’s No Neck. I always wondered if maybe he wasn’t as bad as Leon, but then I realized he never stopped him or tried to help. He did what he was told. That makes him just as bad.”
“If not worse,” Stealth says. “Did you have fun?”
I nod. “It was cathartic.”
“And you, Rue?” Whisper asks. “How do you feel?”
Rue seems to consider the question for a moment. “I should feel weird or maybe even wrong for what I did, but I don’t. Leon deserved what happened to him.”
“He did.” I rub Rue’s back. “He’ll never hurt you or anyone else again.”
Rue smiles. “So, to answer your question, Whisper, I feel… free.”
“Good,” Whisper says.
Stealth tilts his head toward the front door. “Let’s get out of here. It stinks.”
“Gonna stink a lot more before long.” Whisper laughs.
Just before we step outside, Rue looks back on the scene we just created, sets his shoulders, and exhales slowly. “I’m leaving this behind right now. It’s done.”
“It is.” Wrapping my arm around his shoulders, I kiss the top of his head. “I’m so proud of you. Proud and impressed.”
“I think I deserve a treat.”
“Anything you want.”
“Just you, naked, with your dick inside me.”
“That can be arranged.”