Chapter 26 #2
“My bad, I forgot she left you and ran straight to me,” I say, smiling, which visibly irritates him.
The muscle in his jaw flickers as he stares at me.
“This is my house and I’m here for my fucking things, now if you’ll excuse me, Mr Faris—”
“I won’t excuse you,” I say in a low voice, reaching for the leather gloves in my pocket, and he watches me with his brows pulled together.
“I’ve been too busy with my fist buried deep inside her sweet pussy to even remember you existed…
but it looks like you picked the wrong place and the wrong time to show up.
” I pull my gloves on, his gaze following every one of my movements.
“Fate has a twisted sense of humour, doesn’t it, Adrian? ”
He huffs a laugh, dismissing me. “What are you going to do, kill me in my own home?”
I shake my head. “That’s too cliché for me, but I want you to promise me something before we start.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
I reach into the breast pocket of my leather jacket, drawing out my knife, unsheathing it as his eyes widen.
“I am. I’m completely out of my mind for her. Tell me, Adrian, how does it feel knowing she left you, only to run straight to me, craving something you could never give her?”
His lip curves into a snarl. “Fuck you.”
“It burns, right? Knowing my cock was inside her…knowing she came all over my fingers—the same ones I’ll have around your trachea.”
He steps back, tripping over his own feet as he reaches for the knife block on the kitchen bench.
“I don’t mind a fair fight, but first, I’ll give you a moment for anything you’d like to get off your chest. It’s the last bit of mercy you’ll see from me before I show you what happens to those who lay hands on what’s mine.”
“You won’t kill me,” he says, gripping the end of the knife all wrong. It’s too tight. The sweat trickles down his temple as he waits for me to make a move first.
“Have you ever killed anyone before?” I ask, watching him round the kitchen counter.
His breaths become heavy, adrenaline likely buzzing through his body.
I wish I still had that before I was about to watch a soul leave a body. I wish it mattered to me still.
“Do you know what prison is like, Adrian? Do you think you could survive it?”
He circles me, and I flip the knife in my hand, pointing it down, parallel to my elbow.
“Shut up!” he yells, the metal glinting as it shakes in his hold.
He lunges at me, and I step back, dodging it.
“Come on, Adrian, like you mean it next time,” I taunt, and his face reddens, the sweat now forming on his bare top lip.
He lunges again, and I grasp his arm, pulling him into me and driving my knee up to his wrist. His knife clatters to the tiled floors as he struggles in my hold. My arm curls around his neck as he pushes us backward, my back hitting the wall.
“You’re strong.” I force a chuckle, bending his arm backward in an awkward position, the pressure now on his shoulder. “But my rage is stronger.”
I swipe the knife across his back, pushing him off, slicing through material and skin as his screams fill the open room. Blood coats the metal, the drips audible in the silent space between us. Bracing himself on the wall, he rises to his feet slowly.
He laughs as he turns to face me. “Do you honestly believe you belong together?”
I smile. “I’ll kill whoever doesn’t.”
“You both fucking deserve each other,” he spits, running a hand through his messy hair. “Only a slu—”
His guttural groans are like a Sunday morning breakfast—warm, pleasant and satisfying as my knife protrudes from his shoulder.
He falls to his knees, bracing himself, focused on his breathing as I walk around, inspecting my handiwork.
The knife is large, the pointy end sticking out of the back of his joint, the hilt lodged right up against his white shirt, now tainted red with his blood.
I don’t spare him another moment and yank it out. He screams, spit and saliva spraying from his mouth as he curses, but it doesn’t faze me. I wipe the blade on a clean part of his shirt, getting rid of the excess.
“That’s definitely going to scar,” I say, stepping behind him as I hold the blade to his neck.
He pants, still bracing his shoulder. “No, no, wait,” he pleads.
I release a breath, now bored with the entire thing.
“Don’t tell me you have parting words.”
“I know who has her.” His words come out in a rush, taking all the enjoyment out of this moment.
My foot slams into his back hard, vaulting his body to the ground. I plant one knee on his back, pinning him down as I force his arm to extend out, splaying his fingers. I give him no warning as I ram the knife into his thumb, severing it from his hand.
He wails, his entire body shaking beneath me.
“Where is she!?”
He whimpers, leaving me no choice but to encourage him further.
HACK!
“Fuuucckkk, stop…I’ll tell you.”
The sound of my phone ringing cuts through his ragged breaths, and for one fucking moment, I let myself believe it might be her. But when I pull it out to stare at Ezra’s name, I’m disappointed. I place it on the floor and hit answer.
“Why haven’t you answered my calls?” he asks, like I haven’t thought about it the entire time I’ve been looking for Isla.
“I’ve been busy.”
“I’m your employer. When I call, you answer and do as I say.”
Adrian chuckles through his snot and spit. “Just a dog on a leash, aren’t you?”
“What the fuck are you doing?” Ezra asks.
“Pruning.”
HACK!
“Aghhhh,” Adrian wails.
“Sounds fun. Be at the Veridis in ten minutes, or I’ll permanently delete the footage.”
I know I said I missed the adrenaline, but now that it’s back, I don’t remember it being his explosive. It creeps in slowly, like a shiver that rolls through my back, then like a storm, it hits all at once, seeping its tendrils over my veins and wrapping itself over them.
“Give me twenty minutes, and send a clean-up crew to Isla’s house.”
He sighs. “Why, who have you taken your frustration out on today?”
I smack Adrian on the cheek, jolting him. “Tell him your name.”
“A-adrian,” he stutters.
“He says he knows where Isla is.”
There’s a pause, and when he speaks next, I know he’s not telling me something.
“Don’t kill him. We might need him.”
I hang up, then stand, forcing my boot onto his face as he sucks in deep breaths through his squashed cheeks. “Guess all you’ll be losing today is a few digits. Maybe we should pick up a lottery ticket on our way to the hotel, considering you lucked out with a fucking phone call.”