Chapter Twelve Pax
Chapter Twelve
Pax
Fuck.
I felt like an utter prick leaving Aria that way. Just turning my back and walking out. It was the only thing I could do, since there wasn’t a chance I could remain there and deny that she was speaking the truth. Her point was more than valid, but how could I drag her here?
To the seediest part of the city, where I knew I would find what I was looking for.
Some sick, deranged bastard getting rich off the weak.
Night had just fallen, and the dense clouds that hung over the city created a canopy. A darkened shell that felt as if it enclosed the wickedness, held it in captivity while letting it run unchecked.
The whole vibe made it feel later than it was, though the streets were crammed with cars that made their way through rush hour in an endless string of taillights.
A siren wailed from somewhere in the distance, and the cold, corrupt air was intermittently filled with the blare of a car horn and the revving of engines.
People bustled along the sidewalks, ducking into stores and restaurants and apartment buildings.
I wondered how many of them noticed the aura in the atmosphere. If they could scent it the way I did.
Nah.
Not possible.
They had to be wholly immune, or there was no chance they’d be dashing around as if all things were right. Not a care in the world when I felt the weight of that world’s sin crushing down on my shoulders.
It was so heavy I could hardly breathe.
I followed it, winding through the city, taking back alleys and narrow streets, tracking my way into the places where the disparaged lived. The places only the depraved would seek.
It was then that I found what I was looking for.
Women.
So fuckin’ young that bile burned in the back of my throat.
There were only two of them, loitering at the end of a street.
One had dark-brown curly hair, and the other was a bleached blonde.
They were dressed in next to nothing, their legs bare in the middle of the frigid winter. Each of them wore a cropped fake-animal-fur jacket, like that would be enough to keep them warm.
Both were clearly strung out.
Eyes devoid of emotion.
Detached.
No question, it was the only way they could stomach living this life, which they were likely forced into.
But they weren’t really who I was looking for. They were just a sign. A beacon for the perverted.
The brown-haired girl didn’t even look at me when she stepped forward in an attempt to get my attention. “You looking for someone to keep you company tonight?”
The younger one beside her looked up. The second she did, a bolt of disquiet moved through her when she caught sight of me.
Shaken from her stupor.
It was like my appearance was enough to drag her back down into a beat of reality. Green eyes widening with shock and a surprised sound spilling from her lips.
She stumbled back a step, trying to disappear into the shadows of the dingy building that stood high behind her.
Her fear was distinct.
Palpable as it radiated from her skin.
I ground my teeth, hating that she was afraid of me.
“Nah,” I said. “But maybe you should go home. Get out of here.”
The one with the curly brown hair laughed a hollow sound. “Oh, honey, this is home.”
I angled around them, turning left at the corner they were standing at, and I stuffed my frozen hands into my jacket pockets and let loose a chill that tumbled down my spine.
Doubted it was the weather that had conjured the cold. It was just the sickness that roiled in the confines of the squalid street.
Knowing I was close to what I came for, I itched, nervous that I didn’t have my gun. I was armed only with a knife, but there was no chance I was going to leave Aria at that motel without a way to protect herself.
Fucking hated that I’d had to do it in the first place.
“You sure?” the only one who’d spoken called behind me. “You look awful lonely.”
“Yup,” I said without looking back. Covertly, I let my attention swivel from left to right, searching the foulness that wormed through the night.
Vapor puffed from my mouth, and adrenaline thrummed through my veins.
This bastard couldn’t be far.
I was halfway down the block when I spotted him. He was on the opposite side of the street outside a small restaurant. He leaned against the dingy brick wall like it was his post, flanked on either side by two other men.
He was probably in his late twenties and had dark, slicked-back hair. Wearing slacks and a striped button-down shirt.
I felt it swarm.
A cloud of lechery and self-indulgence all mixed in a vat of cruelty.
He was the one.
Didn’t miss that his eyes moved to the girls at the end of the street—checking his property—before he slanted them back to me.
I could feel it burn into my side, and the raucous conversation the other two guys were having clanked off when they noticed where their boss had set his attention.
I kept facing forward, acting like I hadn’t noticed them lurking across the street.
Minding my own business.
Oblivious.
Which wasn’t the smartest game plan, either, considering the fuckers were likely to jump me, though I guessed there was something about me that kept them rooted.
Or maybe some lone bastard wasn’t worthy of their time. They had more important crimes to keep them busy, like coercing vulnerable runaways into chains.
Violence pulled through my consciousness, and I had the urge to turn, rush across the street, and take all three of them out.
But I couldn’t attack without a plan. I had to play this smart. Couldn’t act so recklessly, the way I used to do. Running into situations with guns blazing, not really caring if I came out whole on the other side.
Nothing to lose.
Now I had Aria. Now I had this completeness that throbbed inside me.
Her face passed behind my eyes, and my stomach churned in disquiet.
The last thing I wanted was for her to feel like I’d disrespected her.
Belittled her.
That hadn’t been my intention, even though I’d seen the offense and worry playing through those gorgeous eyes.
But it felt like my responsibility to keep her from this.
I couldn’t imagine her walking down this street with me. Putting her in even more danger than she was already in.
It seemed risky and imprudent.
Unnecessary when keeping her safe was the only thing that mattered.
I had to do this on my own, and I had to get this piece of shit by himself.
Wait it out or come up with a way to lure him out.
Needed this fast and clean so I could get back to Aria.
So I kept moving, making a right at the intersecting road, walking all the way down the block before I made another right, winding around so I would come back toward the girls in the opposite direction from where I’d begun.
The whole time, I calculated.
Figured he’d either come to the girls at some point, or I could follow them back to whatever slum he was keeping them in. So I was going to need a place to hide out until the time was right.
Conceal myself in the shadows and watch.
I made it to the street I’d first come down, and I leaned against the wall and peered around the corner.
This end of the building was cast in a cloak of gloom, the single streetlamp on the other side of the road flickering the barest flashes of light.
The stench of corruption filled the air. As thick here as it had been when I passed by the monsters on the other street.
Blood drummed through my veins. Frustration and determination.
I slipped around the corner and started to slink up through the shadows, and I edged up to a large dumpster that kept me hidden but obstructed my view. I attempted to peer out through the back side of the dumpster near the wall, but it was too narrow, and I couldn’t get tabs on the girls.
I had to get closer, or I was going to lose them at some point.
Only the second I started to edge around the dumpster, I felt a shift in the atmosphere.
Coming at me from both the front and the back.
A torrent of wickedness and a slosh of greed.
I glanced over my shoulder. My chest tightened when I saw the same two guys who’d flanked the man come rounding up the corner of the building.
But it was the fiend standing five feet in front of me who sent a stone sinking to the pit of my stomach.
They had stalked me.
Surrounded me.
The bastard in the front cocked his head.
Pure evil oozed from his pores as he flashed a knife and said, “No one plays with my girls unless they pay for it.”