Chapter 24 #2
“I’ll have it next week!” the guy insisted, tightening his robe and telling me we’d probably woken him up so he’d thrown it on to answer the door.
“You said that last week. You’re already a month late.
Do you think we run a charity?” Marco drawled, clicking his fingers when the guy’s eyes kept flicking to me.
“Hey. Don’t fucking look at her. Look at me.
You think she’ll help you just because she’s a woman?
Maybe she’s softer than me? She’s more likely to kill you than me.
She just got out of prison for murder, you know? ”
He failed to mention I got out because the case had been dropped, but I wasn’t going to correct him and make the guy feel better.
Seeing the fear in the man’s eyes did something inside of me. It was like a growing sense of power, giving me something similar to an adrenaline rush. I hadn’t even done anything and the guy looked ready to piss his pants.
Having a grown man cowering to you was kind of nice.
“So, hand over the money or you lose fingers,” Marco continued, crossing his arms lazily, and I stepped a little closer to make it look like we were a unit. I didn’t want to look like a tag-along. More like a partner in crime to really scare the guy.
“I have six. I can get the rest—”
“You put all twelve in my hand before I walk out that door or you lose a finger for every grand I’m missing.
That’s six, in case you can’t count. You’ll have two thumbs and two fingers left,” he stated, pulling a butterfly knife out and flipping it around in his hand with ease. It was slightly impressive.
We watched the guy rushing around the house pulling drawers apart to find as much money as possible, which really didn’t make much of a difference. He still needed five grand by the time he’d torn the house apart.
“Look at that, you saved a whole finger,” I joked, not expecting Marco to bark out a laugh. He was laughing so hard he was bent over slightly.
Apparently, that was a good time to try and escape.
The man made a break for it, and I didn’t think twice before making chase.
I tackled him to the ground before he could reach the back door, and thankfully, he wasn’t a big guy or this wouldn’t have worked.
Once I was straddling his back, I smashed his face against the ground, leaning down to talk in his ear as he started crying.
“Now you’ve got a broken nose and you’ll still lose five fingers.”
My body was tingling, I felt like I’d been zapped with electricity or something as Marco appeared with a smirk.
“Nice catch, Princess. Climb off. I’ll hold him if you want to take one of his fingers.”
Did I want to do that?
“What does he owe you money from?” I asked. “What kind of person is he?”
“Not everyone is a bad person, they just make bad choices, so you won’t always be able to find a good reason to warrant the violence to make yourself feel better,” he chuckled, squatting beside me. “Brent is a bad guy though. Right, Brent? Tell her what you did to your wife.”
The guy, who’s name was apparently Brent, started thrashing, but I held on to make sure he didn’t get up. I fisted his hair and smacked his face against the ground again, making him cry out in pain.
“What did you do to her?” I spat, tightening my hold and feeling some of his hair pull from his scalp.
“I didn’t mean to!”
“How does one accidentally beat their wife?” Marco scoffed, holding the knife out for me.
“He was cheating on her and it made him paranoid that she was cheating on him too. He started hitting her. Ironically, the woman he was seeing found out about the wife and saw the bruises. I thought it was kind of sweet how they became best friends and took him for everything in the divorce. It’s why the pathetic prick started borrowing more money than he could pay back. ”
The guy’s hand was right there on the ground, so I slammed the tip of the blade straight down on one of his fingers.
He screamed, and Marco silently moved to hold him still as I stabbed at it again, the finger being held on by a tiny thread.
I reached out and yanked it, pulling it from the hand, and then I started with the next finger.
My blood was pumping as I worked, and it wasn’t until Marco chuckled and slid an arm around me to pull me away from the guy that I realized I’d zoned out.
Brent was passed out from the pain by this point, my breathing rapid as I tried to catch my breath.
“Damn, babe. That was hot,” Marco murmured, reaching out to wipe a speck of blood from my cheek. I was practically buzzing, his eyes darkening as he kept watching me. “Stop looking at me like that or I’ll fuck you right here on the floor.”
I almost wanted him to. This was a rush I hadn’t expected.
Was I turned on right now?
Marco took the knife from my hand and stood, pulling me up with him.
“Now what?” I asked, finding my voice.
“I’ll call Bobby in to deal with this,” he replied, making me wince.
“Did I kill him?”
“No, but I will. I only told you not to because I wanted the guy to suffer for a while first. You’ve got a temper on you, you know?
” he grinned, bending down to grab a fist-full of Brent’s hair and bringing the knife around to his throat to slit it with ease.
“Once Bobby gets here, we can head to the warehouse. Wash your hands and the jacket sleeves as best as you can. There’s a bathroom at the warehouse, so we’ll wash up properly there. ”
“Does the door lock? I don’t like the idea of being naked there,” I said dryly, coughing slightly as my throat burned.
“It does, but I’ll also guard it if it makes you feel better. Unless you’d prefer that I just join you? I can protect you and we’d be saving water,” he joked, putting his phone to his ear as he must have found Bobby’s contact. “Hey. Your click and collect order is ready.”
It shouldn’t have been funny, but a giggle escaped me, and Marco shot me a look of amusement. I never thought I’d be standing in a house murdering people with Marco and laughing at his jokes, but here we are.
He pointed to the sink as he finished his call, so I walked over to wash up, unsure how this was a good idea. I’d be touching the taps for starters.
“Hey. We’re torching the place,” Marco said to reassure me as he appeared beside me, noticing my hesitation.
“Because that worked out so well last time for me,” I grumbled as I reached out to turn on the tap, coughing as my throat finally got pissed off about all the talking I’d been doing. I really needed to ice it again.
“That was different. Stop talking,” he said dryly, and I didn’t argue because my throat was really starting to hurt.
By the time Bobby arrived, I felt tired, and Marco gave me a knowing look. “Bit of an adrenaline crash?”
“I think so,” I yawned, Bobby eyeing Brent’s body before looking over at me.
“You could’ve freaked her out by doing that in front of her,” he said to Marco, who smirked.
“I only slit his throat at the end, the rest was all her. I might buddy up with her more often, it was fun.”
Bobby frowned, flicking his gaze to me. “You did that?”
“Don’t let her talk. Hunt will kill me if her throat gets worse,” Marco said with amusement, swinging an arm around my shoulders. “Ready to hit the road?”
“Can we head to Hunter’s to clean up? I’d feel better in my own clothes,” I admitted between coughs, making him nod.
“Sure. We’ll do that then head to the warehouse. We can watch some of the fight training.”
I liked that idea, so we said goodbye to Bobby, who was still eyeing me like he didn’t believe I’d hacked up Brent’s hands, and headed outside to get on the bike.
The ride back to Mount Mercer was nice, the crisp air sending a chill through me and making me hold onto Marco a little tighter. It seemed like he wasn’t in a hurry, taking his time as he slowly wove back and forth along the road.
Despite the chill in the air, the sun was out, so I was glad to be able to relax and enjoy the ride.
It ended all too fast as we pulled up at Hunter’s and I climbed off to open the garage door for him to ride the bike inside, both of us stripping the riding gear off in the garage once the door was closed, before heading into the house.
“You take the first shower,” he offered, and I wasn’t going to argue since I was the one that had been covered in blood.
I grabbed fresh clothes from the bedroom before shutting myself in the bathroom, and I was only alone for a few minutes before Marco knocked on the door.
“Can I grab your clothes? I’ll have to burn them, just in case,” he said as he cracked the door open.
“I need to get some cheap clothes for these kinds of days. I keep losing all my good stuff,” I grumbled. “They’re on the floor near the sink.”
The glass was fogged enough that he couldn’t see me properly, but tingles still hit me when he paused to watch me for a second as I rinsed my hair.
“You sure you don’t want company?” he asked, making me snicker.
“Nice try.”
“Was worth a shot.”
He collected my clothes and left me alone again, and once I was done and my hair was dried, we switched so he could shower.
I couldn’t lie, I caught myself staring at his abs when he stepped out in a pair of boxers, not just inspecting his tattoos this time. He smirked, knowing what he was doing as he walked past to the closet where he kept a bag of clothes, bringing them over to the couch.
“You’re a perv, you know that?” he stated as he happily stood in front of me, making no move to actually get dressed.
“I just like your ink.”
“And my abs,” he teased, stepping closer. “Go on. Touch them.”
“Now who’s the perv?” I scoffed, reaching up to jab a finger into his side. “Get your naked chest out of my face.”
He only grinned, putting a knee on the couch between my legs and leaning down until I was pressed back into the couch and his face was in mine.
“Still you.”