Chapter 17 You Got a Death Wish, Cowboy?
You Got a Death Wish, Cowboy?
PREACHER
Iwatch as her breathing gets heavy, everything she’s been carrying weighing heavily on her shoulders. There’s still an obvious hesitation in her eyes, but there’s no hiding around here, not from me.
“Tell me.”
She and I are cut from the same bloodstained cloth.
“The night before I did it, he beat me,” she mutters.
It’s half-hearted, like she’s grudgingly going along with my request, but I want more.
“Let me guess, you said something he didn’t agree with?”
“I was always saying stuff that pissed him off.” She studies the knife in her hand, her eyes tracing the blade all the way to the tip. “Or I didn’t have dinner on the table when he came home from fucking another woman, or I looked at him the wrong way.”
Ripley clenches her jaw tight, tipping the knife to the side as it glimmers like a star calling a lost traveler home. She’s clearly spent years bottling up these feelings, so it’s only fair that someone teaches her how to let them out.
“Tell me what you did, step by step.”
She sighs, still playing with the blade absentmindedly as she recounts the events.
“I had it all planned out: I’d wait for him to shower, grab the knife I’d hidden under the mattress, and wait quietly behind the door.
It felt like forever. I was covered in sweat, and my heart was beating so fast I was terrified he’d hear it somehow.
” She squeezes her eyes shut. “I heard the tap squeak and for a second and everything went quiet; the wait was so painful I almost didn’t go through with it, but then this bird– I think it was a robin?
It landed right on a tree outside the bedroom window. ”
I stay quiet, silently watching as I leave her space to get her bearings. It’s an old police interrogation technique I picked up early on, and it’s surprisingly effective. Eventually, the truth always comes out.
“I remember thinking I wanted to be as free as that bird. That I had to be.”
I want to reach out and touch her, but I stop myself short. Judging by the way her voice is shaking, this is still raw for her, so I’ve gotta be gentle here for once in my life.
“And then?”
“Then the bathroom door opened. I jumped on his back, and started stabbing.” She breathes in deep, like she’s centering herself or some shit. “He threw me off of him, but I managed to get back up before he could grab me… that’s when I stabbed him in the gut the first time.”
“Show me.” I lift up my shirt. “Here.”
Ripley’s mouth curls into a salacious little grin as she focuses on the patch of bare skin I’ve revealed to her.
“You got a death wish, cowboy?”
I can’t tell if she wants to hit me or fuck me, but I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t seen the furtive glances, or the way she gawked at me from the window this morning.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Your skill.”
Ripley takes a step forward, pushing the blade up against my belly, and I can feel the tip begin to dig into my skin as she puts on the pressure.
“We started fighting for the knife,” she purrs. “I think we were up against the wall? Some of it’s a blur, but he wasn’t as strong as I thought he’d be. That’s when I…”
With a flick of her wrist, she twists the blade, nicking me in the same place that I got her the night she took her bath.
“Keep talking,” I growl, my cock starting to stir, slowly thickening in my jeans.
I watch that darkness take over, those pretty blue eyes turning a violent and stormy shade of grey as she continues her story with a newfound glee.
“He screamed like a fucking pig. Before I knew it I had him on the floor, and I just kept stabbing him, over and over in the chest.”
She begins to slowly drag the knife up my body.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.” Her low, smoky laugh sends shivers across my body. “There was so much blood, the bedroom floor looked like a disaster…”
I can see her changing right in front of me, her spine straighter, her head held a little higher. It’s a kind of confidence I doubt even she’s ever seen in herself before.
I want to bring it all out of her, mold her into the perfect predator— an equal. All those nights I wished for someone to share this with… it could be her.
Maybe God does answer the Devil’s prayers.
After all, even the Devil was an angel once upon a time.
“I want to show you a better way, a more efficient way. All that stabbing you did? All the fighting? It takes energy. You must have been exhausted by the end.”
I pry the weapon away and slip behind her, gently placing one hand on her waist. She’s so warm, yet I can still feel her shiver beneath my touch.
“This is a tool, and you need to learn how to use it properly.”
I hold it to her throat, letting my free hand slide around her stomach, fingers gently teasing the waistband of her leggings. I fan my breath against her ear and Ripley lets out a sinister chuckle.
“Are you gonna show me, or are you gonna dry hump me like a fucking frat boy?”
Ripley’s no wilting flower, she’s as sharp and as ready as the blade in my hand. All she needs is a little nudge in the right direction. She plays the fearless femme fatale pretty well, but I think she’s getting off on this as much as I am.
“What’s the matter?” I roll my hips, nipping at her ear just to make her jump. “You don’t like foreplay?”
“Just show me,” she chokes out. “How you would have done it.”
I know this knife as well as I know myself by this point, including exactly how much pressure I’d need to slice right through her neck, but I leave my hand where it is, the blade still tucked against her skin just firmly enough not to leave a mark.
“Once you’re behind him like this, all you need to do is sever his vocal cords; cut right through his windpipe… if you use enough force, you might even be able to decapitate someone.”
I can see the goosebumps prickling on her neck, heat radiating off of her.
“Does that turn you on, rabbit?” I slide my hand a little deeper into her leggings, only to find she’s not wearing panties. “Tell me to stop.”
She moans as I play with her soft little hairs.
“Don’t you dare.”
It would be so easy to just pull these leggings down and take what I need, but I’m gonna wait until she’s good and ready for my cock. I want to hunt her like a fucking animal and rip her to pieces, to rebuild her into someone who will never let anyone hurt her again.
Except for me.
She unzips her hoodie, letting it fall open to reveal her soft, perky tits and bruised skin, moaning as I put careful pressure on her clit.
She’s so close to perfect.
All she needs is someone to show her how to take her power back.
I pick up the speed of my finger, playing her sweet little cunt like an instrument.
“You’re twisted, aren’t you, little rabbit?” She’s getting wetter, her breathing more erratic. “How long’s it been since you’ve been touched like this?”
I let the knife loose from her neck, dragging it down her bare torso before lightly grazing her nipple.
“I don’t remember.”
I can tell she’s getting close, and the anticipation of her juices soaking my fingers is almost too much for me to bear.
“That’s a damn shame.”
She’s just like me, reveling in that space where pain and pleasure meet. The rush you get, the power you feel when agony turns over into bliss… It's like nothing else.
She grinds her ass against my cock, her breath ragged and heavy as her voice begins to break.
“Fuck, baby! More!”
Baby.
I’m harder than goddamn granite right now.
“Tease your nipples for me.”
She does as she’s told, twisting and tugging on them, moaning louder as I continue to guide her toward the cliff’s edge. The pain seems to be turning her on, mixed up in the danger of it all; her body is so hot it feels like she’s running on pure electricity.
And then a loud horn blares outside, making us both freeze.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
“Is that—”
I slide my hand out of her pants and stuff my fingers between her lips.
“Suck on these, and shut the fuck up,” I hiss.
It could be a fucking cop. I don’t know if someone followed her. Maybe someone saw her car and reported it before we got there.
“Preacher! Where the fuck are you?!”
Or maybe it’s my loudmouth fucking brother.
What the hell is he doing here anyway? He usually calls first, and… That’s when I remember I left my phone in the goddamn bedroom.
“Son of a bitch.” I pull my fingers out of her mouth, setting the knife down carefully on the table. “Fun’s over, sweet thing.”
But before I make it more than two steps away I feel her yank hard on my shirt, pulling me right back into a sharp and painful slap across my face that nearly knocks my damn hat off my head.
“What the fuck—”
She’s fuming, staring at me like a woman possessed, and for a split second I think she might pick up that knife back up and put it right through my heart.
“I was this close, asshole!”
Hell hath no fury, I guess.
“You wanna go back down to the cellar? Keep up the attitude.”
“It would have taken you two more seconds.”
She’s seething, rasping through clenched teeth like an animal. I can’t help but think she probably fucks like one, too.
“Then do it yourself,” I growl. “Stick your hand down your pants and come on your own greedy fucking fingers.”
“I hate you.”
I know my shit-eating grin is only making her angrier. She’s cute when she’s mad.
“We’ll have to work on your lying, too. Come out when you’re ready, you can meet my partner.”
“Preacher!” Raph barks from outside. “I can hear you in there, stop wasting my damn time!”
I turn on the ball of my foot, leaving her desperate as I head out the barn doors, straight into my brother’s scowling face.
“The fuck’s the matter with you?” He slips his sunglasses into his shirt, shifting irritably on the spot. “I called you a thousand goddamn times.”
“Good morning to you too, Princess.”
He opens his mouth to say something snarky, but stops when he notices Ripley walking up behind me.
“Jesus, lady, you look like shit.” His eyes bounce back to me. “So, is this your new little pet?”
“Raph, this is Ripley,” I grin, putting my hand on her shoulder as I watch the anger flare in her eyes again. “Ripley, say hello to my shithead brother.”