I See You #2
He was too busy tugging at the straps of my shirt trying to assert dominance he couldn’t even physically provide given that removing a strap was too difficult for him.
Pathetic.
As annoyed as I was that somehow Ori knew that I was in danger, probably because he had some type of guard on my house, I was even more annoyed that Wilbur thought that this rudimentary act of breaking and entering would be enough to break someone like me.
Been through far worse than a few hair tugs asshole.
As loud as he usually was, he stepped silently into my view forcing my brain to momentarily shift to the issue at hand to subconsciously store his actions for later.
He’s loud on purpose.
It took a few seconds before Wilbur seemed to notice Ori but I could tell the moment he did because his grip went back to my hair.
I practically drank him in since I was never one to deny the fact that Ori was a brutally beautiful man.
Handsome was far too limiting for him especially given the qualities that his face seemed to possess.
It was a magnificent harshness from the silk thickness of his sharp black brows to the prominence of his brow ridge set over his almond-shaped eyes that were softened by lashes.
His hair was pulled back off his face and looking at him was like seeing the embodiment of fury.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing with your hands on her?”
Goosebumps skittered up my arms at the depth of his voice. It sounded strained and almost otherworldly. Like the earth had opened up and whatever creature normally trapped beneath the surface had awakened. And he was furious.
“How did you get in here?”
I couldn’t see his face but the tension that flowed off him was enough for me to know Wilbur was nervous.
His hand had slipped from my hair and was now resting on the back of my neck and I had to battle my natural reaction to sneer at his touch.
I thought it was ironic that he was asking the man who lived here why he was inside his own residence. White men really were entitled.
“That’s the question you want to ask?” Ori slowly unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt before rolling them up his forearms. I knew he’d had on a blazer at some point this morning but I wasn’t sure where along the way it had gotten ripped off.
Even I had to wonder what the fuck he was doing because there was no reason for him to be rolling up his sleeves.
“Are we keeping you from something?”
“No, Semira. I just don’t like anything to restrict my movements. Besides, Pappy gave me these cufflinks and I don’t want to lose them.” I watched as he placed the cufflinks in his pocket before he started to loosen his tie.
“Sentimentality? At a time like this. I guess you can afford to have it since I have this handled.” I was being sarcastic since he was posturing for this piece of shit.
Ori glanced behind me before focusing on my face again with his brows raised. “Do you?”
My eyes bulged hearing how he clearly doubted my ability. “Yes.”
“Prove it.”
He stopped his actions and stood silently as though he were waiting for me to prove to him that I would’ve been fine.
“You don’t think I do?”
“What I think doesn’t mean anything. If you want to prevent me from taking care of this then I need you to handle it. I don’t doubt that you can, Mira, but forgive me for requiring a demonstration.”
“You are the most arrogant—”
“Hey, why are you talking to him? I’m the one with the gun!
I’m the one who is in control of this situation!
” Wilbur gripped my neck tighter as though I’d forgotten that he was there.
It wasn’t that, although Ori had a way of giving me tunnel vision.
It was simply that he hadn’t been a factor before and he definitely wasn’t now.
I had only allowed him this much time in my presence so that I could plan on how to dispose of his body.
“Control? Those who own the room don’t have to announce that they do. It’s just known. You don’t have control over anything in this house, least of all her.” Ori had that odd smile on his face as he watched the man behind me.
“You’re doing a lot of talking for a man who thinks he has a right to be here.
But we both know for her safety you’re going to back out of here, let me have a little fun and then come and pick up the pieces.
” He toyed with his life again by pulling me closer to him and kissing the side of my neck as his hands traveled down the planes of my body.
Death.
“And you think that she’s going to let you do that? Just have your way?”
“She doesn’t have a choice.”
Tired of them speaking about me as though I wasn’t there I butt into their conversation. “I guess no one told you about how angry Black women get when you touch their hair without permission.”
I jerked my head back hitting him in the bridge of his nose, forcing him to loosen his grip on my neck.
My hand went to the gun that was now falling out of his grip as he tried to cup the blood that was now pouring down his face.
I kept the gun trained on him before I reached for a knife that was hidden on a closet shelf.
I shoved it into his stomach smiling at the feel of the blade piercing the first layer of fat before the vibrations against my palm changed signaling that I had hit muscle.
I twisted the knife further, the torque and depth ensuring that his intestines were now leaking into his body. I refused to remove the knife and mess up my floors so instead I took a step back as he started to flail, grasping at his wound until he fell back against a slipper chair.
Well, fuck. Now I have to get rid of that.
“That was fairly decent.”
I turned around angrily attempting to figure out what fault he could’ve found in my actions. “Decent? What would you have done differently?”
“Several things. Care for a demonstration?”
“A demonstration? I’ve done the hard work for you!” I motioned toward the body that was screeching like an injured fool.
“Doesn’t look like the job is finished if he’s making that kind of noise.” Ori shook his head with a tisking sound, disappointed in me.
“Forgive me for thinking that you weren’t the type of man to beat a dead horse.”
Ori scratched the side of his face casually. “The definition of dead must have changed lately. He’s still breathing, so he isn’t, in fact dead.”
“He’s at least incapacitated!”
He glanced back over my shoulder, and I turned, watching Wilbur trying to get up from the chair. “That’s debatable.”
“You think that I didn’t hit my shot?”
“Oh, I’m sure you did. But men who know they’re on the cusp of death will always rally.”
“Experience in the field I’m assuming?”
“Of course. Can I demonstrate?”
I took a step back ceding the floor to him with a gesture of my hand. “Be my guest.”
“Not in here, I don’t want to ruin your clothes.”
Ori walked toward the man who was now fading but he had no regard for human life. At least not this human. He lifted him off his feet with ease and drug him to a back bedroom that had nothing in it. Ori tossed Wilbur into the room and he immediately started to beg.
“Please, you’ve got to help me.”
Ori was shaking his head as he cracked his neck like he was about to put in work.
“You’ll beg me to help you but not her? That’s an insult to my fiancée. You see what underestimating her once got you: a fucking leaking gut.”
“I’m sorry just call someone.”
“Nah. I’d rather show her how good a team we are when we work together.
” Ori gave me a wink before turning and swinging his fist as hard as he could into Wilbur’s face.
The crack was instant, his knees buckling beneath him as he swung around from the blow.
Ori didn’t let up pouncing on the man with a fury that was the opposite of the well composed almost flat affect man that I’d observed the last nine months.
I’d seen it peek out once when he’d gotten Anderson together but this was a berserker off leash.
His fists moved in tandem each landing a blow against his face that further dented the bone structure beneath.
When he had done too much damage for the hits to be satisfying enough to his face he began to stomp the knife further into his stomach grunting with each hit that he landed.
He still looked unsatisfied and what he did shocked me to my core.
He removed the knife out of Wilbur’s stomach, which took some effort since it seemed lodged in his spine and then began to cut at his hands.
I was mesmerized at the efficient way he moved, almost emotionless, his brain shut off and he was simply going about his task.
When he had both hands cut free from his body, he stabbed them until they were little more than minced meat.
Wilbur was on the floor a bloody mess, and I couldn’t help but feel relieved.
“I’ll get this cleaned up.”
I’d been looking at the body and hadn’t noticed that he’d been watching me.
He looked entirely too calm when he was pulling his shirt off his body before but now he was using it to wipe his face free of blood.
His face had gone back to the normal passive way he looked, ignoring that we had a dead body at our feet.
“Of course you will. I most certainly won’t.”
It was all I could do to maintain my composure and being rude to Ori was the best way to feel normal. The corner of his lip quirked and I marveled at how much better he’d been at his attempts to smile.
“A thank you would’ve been better.”
“Thank you? Whatever you did was the reason he came after me. You all had words but you didn’t feel the need to tell me about it?”
“So I did this?” Ori pointed down to the body angrily.
“You know what I mean. He did this because he’s fucked in the head. But you don’t have to overreach with whatever machismo you displayed just because you woke up alone!”
“You think my ego had something to do with this? That I saw that someone else desired you and I was losing my shit?”
“Isn’t that what it was?”