Chapter 7
STONE
Well, I can’t say this is how I thought today was going to go down, but it’s been fun. Men come at me one after another, and it’s more than clear that this is no longer about getting their hands on the girl. This is about taking out their biggest threat.
Me.
Some of them come alone, trying to be the big man on campus, while others come in coordinated attacks.
Try all they like, they won’t touch me. But I get it.
Taking me out would reap a god-like status among the other prisoners.
It’s a coveted position to have, but after seven long years of remaining in-fucking-vincible, they should know better than to try.
But hell, I’m doing the government a favor by weeding out the weak. Aren’t they always complaining about prisons being overpopulated? I should be rewarded for my efforts. Look how much space I’m making within these walls. Not to mention, all the real justice that’s being served.
The bodies at my feet continue to grow, and I’ve hardly broken a sweat. They’re making it too fucking easy. It’s almost embarrassing, but if you’re dumb enough to come at me in a cramped room while I’m holding a shiv, then you deserve a shameful death.
I hear Aria panting behind me, gripping that gun as though it’s somehow going to get her out of here, but she’s a fool if she thinks she can survive this. It’ll be hours before the guards are able to get this shitstorm under control, and any bullets left in that gun will be long gone before then.
The fear in her eyes is pissing me off.
The girl I know doesn’t fear anything, so watching her cower and hide while pretending to be some helpless damsel makes me want to strangle her even more.
Although it’s becoming abundantly clear that if I am going to kill this woman for the shit she put me through and enjoy it, then it can’t happen here.
I go to reach for her just as Mercer strides into the small conference room, two of his little attack dogs flanking him on either side. I knew it was coming. He’s been sitting back and watching the show since the moment the inmates got through the door.
“Look at the bloodlust in his eyes,” he chides to one of his sidekicks as he steps over a body. “It’s like a rabid animal letting loose for the first time.”
His friends laugh, but his stare remains locked on me, knowing I’m the only real threat in the room, but he’s a bigger idiot than I thought if he thinks he stands a chance. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough fun, Blackthorne? Leave some for the rest of us.”
“You’re making a mistake, Mercer.”
“On the contrary. This is about to be the best fun I’ve ever had. Dinner,” he rumbles, his gaze then shifting to Aria behind me as he licks his lips. “Then dessert.”
I hear Aria scoff, disgusted by the men in this very room, and so she should be.
The men who make up the majority of C-block are some of the most ruthless and vile men in the country, and the crimes they have committed were done with pleasure.
Serial killers. Rapists. Child molesters.
They’ve done it all, and they relive their crimes every day, bragging about the people they’ve hurt and the families they’ve destroyed.
They’re the fucking animals. Sure, so am I. But I live by a moral compass. I don’t hurt innocents, and I sure as fuck don’t hurt children. As for Aria, she’s no longer either of those. But in order to get to her, first I must take out the trash.
Keeping my attention on Mercer, I open my arms wide like an invitation. “You want her, Mercer? Come take her.” He hesitates for just a moment, as though having expected me to shy away from the three of them. “What’s the hold up? You’re not scared, are you?”
Mercer laughs. “I ain’t scared of you.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Look at her. So goddamn beautiful. That long auburn hair. The lips. Waist. And that ass. She’s fucking delicious. I bet she would go off, too. A fiery woman like this? Fuck. Any man would crumble inside of her.”
“The fuck are you doing?” Aria seethes beside me, her body shaking so violently with fear.
“You hear that attitude?” I smirk, watching Mercer easily get distracted by the bait. “Somebody needs to teach her a lesson. That could be you. All you gotta do is take her from me, and she’s all yours to do with as you please.”
Mercer grunts, the corner of his lips twisting into a vile smirk. “Hold him down,” he mutters to his sidekicks, and as one, all three of the men move toward me, stepping over fallen bodies as they move around the discarded metal table in the center of the room.
Excitement brims in my chest as I flip the shiv in my hand, getting a better grip. I’ve been waiting for this fucking day, and I won’t lie, if the prison gains control of this shitshow before I tear Mercer’s throat out, I’ll be pissed.
His guard dogs come at me from either side, and I put up a small fight before letting them get a hold on me, giving them a false sense of security. Mercer grins like a Cheshire cat, thinking all his fucking dreams are coming true.
“What the hell are you doing?” Aria snaps at my back. “Fight them off!”
I pretend, pulling against their tight grips as they laugh like this is going to be the easiest takedown they’ve ever experienced.
Mercer strides forward, his hand sinking into his pocket and pulling out a shiv of his own. It’s better than mine. There’s no doubt. But the effectiveness of a weapon comes from the hand that uses it, and Mercer? He couldn’t handle a blade if his life depended on it.
“Oh, this really is going to be a treat.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask, keeping my eyes trained on him as he slowly makes his way toward me, then just as he gets past the table, I kick this party up a notch, gripping the assholes on either side of me and pulling them in so hard together that they knock each other out cold, one of them smashing his nose directly against the other’s skull.
They crumble to the ground without a single word, and Mercer’s face falls, realizing he’s drastically underestimated me. “How about now? Still feel like this is going to be a treat? It sure as fuck does for me.”
He scrambles back, but I’ve waited too fucking long for this. He’s not getting away from me that easily.
I slam my foot against the edge of the table, letting it fly across the room. The metal corner impales itself right into the center of Mercer’s back. “AHHHHHHH,” he screams, pinned up against the wall with nowhere to run or hide.
He drops his blade as I amble toward him, every step like a fucking gift from the gods.
“No,” Mercer panics. “I swear, I was only fucking around. I wasn’t really going to do nothin’ to you.”
I grin. “You’re a real piece of shit, Mercer. I’m thoroughly going to enjoy this.”
“No. NO!”
I turn back to look at Aria. “You. Hold his head.”
Her eyes practically fall onto the floor. “WHAT?”
“Now.”
My tone is final, and I watch as a shiver trails across her skin. After visibly swallowing hard, she hastily makes her way across the blood-soaked conference room. “Hold his head back, Menace,” I tell her again.
Aria awkwardly steps in behind the guy, looking as though she hasn’t got a clue what to do while bracing her knee against the table that’s jammed in his back to give her just a little more height.
And while this would be a shitload easier if she’d put the gun down, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” Mercer spits.
“You had your chance, asshole.”
Aria snakes her arm around his forehead and yanks back, exposing his throat just perfectly as he frantically tries to fight her off, but with the table impaled in his spine, there’s nowhere for him to go.
A satisfied grin rips across my face, and without even a moment of hesitation, I let the asshole have it.
My hand shoots out, the shiv slicing deeply down the left of his Adam’s apple before slashing out again, this time taking the right.
He wails in agony, blood spurting from his throat, but I’m not done yet.
Tossing the bloodied shiv onto the table, I force my fingers deep inside the gaping wounds I’d made. “Hold him fucking tight,” I tell Aria as Mercer roars in agony.
She does as I’ve asked, her eyes full of terror, and before she gets a chance to pull away, I sink my fingers around his trachea and tear it right out of his throat.
Mercer immediately collapses, the aggravating sound of his relentless screaming finally put to rest as Aria scrambles away, her eyes wider than ever before.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she gasps, staring at me as though I’m a monster.
Although, I suppose that’s exactly what I am.
This isn’t new information to her, especially considering the pages of notes currently scattered across the blood-soaked floor.
“Would you have preferred I left you to deal with them instead?”
She shakes her head, still in shock, and I wonder if she can even comprehend my question, but it turns out, I don’t really care. “Come on,” I spit, reaching for her wrist. “Time to go.”
“Oh, hell no,” she sputters, backing up until she’s flat against the concrete wall. It takes her a minute to remember there’s a gun in her hand, but when she does, her arm snaps back up, immediately aiming it directly at my chest. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
There’s a recklessness to her tone, and a haunted fear in her eyes, but I don’t doubt that she’ll pull that trigger if she feels the need to. I step closer, and her hands begin to shake again.
“DON’T. Don’t come any closer.”
I grin. “Or what?”
BANG!
A bullet whizzes past my face, and I pause for just a moment as she gapes at me in horror. “I . . . I . . . I didn’t mean to. It just happened. I . . . please. I swear. I—”
I snap toward her like lightning, snatching the trembling gun from her fingers. “Let me make this very clear,” I growl. “It’s time to go. So you have two options. You either come with me now, or I leave you here to fend for yourself.”